Aretha, favorite recordings?

Eric,
I take it back. Your thread caused me to listen to my copy of an Atlantic reissue of "Amazing Grace". It is not audiophile quality, but it is quite musically satisfying. They certainly were able to spread out the choir across the soundstage, there is a solid and clean bass, and the roughness (distortion) on her voice as it existed on the original LP is gone. This CD can really put you back in church if you haven't been there for a while. Thanks Eric for causing me to visit my own archives!

"From Jazz to Soul" is a 2 CD compilation with fairly consistent results. No audiophile recordings here, but world class music.

Great responses, thanks guys and gals. Keep them coming if there are more out there.

I remember seeing the Blues Brothers movie back when it first came out in the seventies and Aretha played a waitress in a luncheonette. I had no idea who she was. She ripped into "Think", and when it was done (I admit I had never heard the song before!) I said "Oh lord, who was that!?". The credits enlightened me. Been listening ever since.

Thanks again...

- Eric

As my system improved I hoped  to hear a better Aretha. Not to diminish her power or her talent, the recordings seemed harsh and brittle. Speaking to an audio guru about this topic, he claimed that the mikes at the time couldn’t handle the power of her voice. I still get a thrill out of I Say A Little Prayer and Ain’t No Way. I hope there is a way to remaster so that her higher ends don’t seem as harsh. 

I just picked up the mobile fidelity version of aretha’s gold.  I usually shy away from greatest hits albums,  but I made an exception for this one. Excellent track list.  I didn’t listen super critically, but my take away was that the vinyl  and remastering are of good quality, perhaps the actual recordings are more about average.