From SuperDeluxeEdition.com-
Aretha Franklin’s first five studio albums of the 1970s are collected in a new box set called A Portrait of the Queen 1970-1974.
The albums in question are This Girl’s In Love With You, Spirit in the Dark, Young Gifted and Black, Hey Now Hey [The Other Side of the Sky] and Let Me In Your Life. They have all been remastered from the analog master tapes by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering.
These were all were produced by Tom Dowd, Arif Mardin and Jerry Wexler, except for Hey Now Hey [The Other Side of the Sky] which saw Aretha work with Quincy Jones. This Girl’s in Love With You saw the first commercial release of The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’, which is remarkable [Paul McCartney apparently sent her a demo and Franklin’s album was issued on 15 January 1970, almost two months before The Beatles’ version].
A Portrait of the Queen is available as a 6LP set or a 5CD box. The vinyl version has a bonus disc of “session alternates, outtakes & demos” not included in the CD box which is a low blow. Both come with booklets featuring sleeve notes by Gail Mitchell and David Nathan
A Portrait of the Queen 1970-1974 will be released on 1 December 2023, via BMG.
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