Aretha Franklin is an alien. There’s not one single human being on planet earth who can sing like her, not one. Actually, let’s take that one step further: there’s not one single human being—or alien—in the history of popular music who has come before or after Aretha Franklin who can sing as well, as powerfully or as soulfully as she can. The Queen of Soul is irrefutably in a class of her own. The impact and influence of her work seems to extend forever. All female pop singers take cues from Aretha Franklin: she’s the foundation. For pop singers, not studying Aretha Franklin would be as irresponsible and criminally insane as a pianist not studying Beethoven.

Used as the delivery method for four mega-hit singles (“Chain of Fools”, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, “Since You’ve Been Gone (Sweet Sweet Baby)”, “Ain’t No Way”) Lady Soul is about as soulful a soul record as they come, sort of a textbook example. Released in late January of 1968, Lady Soul was Aretha’s third album for Atlantic Records, the first being her earth-shattering I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Loved You) and the second, less commercially successful, Aretha Arrives. All three of these Atlantic releases were produced by one the architects of sixties soul, Jerry Wexler. Lady Soul boasts an impressive personnel listing including songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carol King, who co-wrote “(You Make Me Feel) Like A Natural Woman,” famed session guitarist Bobby Womack, and even a 23 year-old Eric Clapton! Also, it’s interesting to note, Aretha accompanies herself on piano for most of the album.

Like many other soul records, Lady Soul is an exploration of love, heartbreak and God. There’s nothing extraordinary here with regard to lyrical content, such is the case with many soul records (excluding the obviously genius lyrical hooks contained in all the singles). Unlike the Bob Dylans and the Leonard Cohens of popular music, the lyrics written for soul records are secondary to musicianship—the words don’t matter as much as the vocal delivery does. But, make no mistake: the lyrics aren’t bad, they’re just not as dense and complex as some of the sixties soul singer’s popular music contemporaries. This is a good thing. Soul music relies on a simplistic lyrical structure and this maximizes the content’s appeal. Also, a simpler lyric leaves more room for the vocal to expand, particularly important when considering Aretha’s song treatments.  

The trouble with listening to full-length studio records like Lady Soul as opposed to a greatest hits compilation is that the singles, particularly when they’re written as well as they were in those days, overshadow the other tracks. The non-single tracks require more dedication from the listener; this is bound to happen anytime you have a song on an album that the untouchable Carole King had anything to do with (see Carole King’s Tapestry). The album’s non-charting tracks -- with the exception of Aretha’s stunning version of “Groovin’,” which should have been a single -- are best enjoyed on their own, as isolated songs, so they don’t have to compete with the brain-scramblingly good singles. As a single unit, Lady Soul isn’t pieced together quite as well as, say, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. But it didn’t need to be, the strength of the album’s singles was enough to convince people to buy and listen over and over again.

Lady Soul is held in such high regard for two primary reasons. One, it contains some of the most adored and popular songs of the last fifty years and two, more importantly, Lady Soul captures Aretha Franklin—one of the most gifted, passionate and all around phenomenal talents in pop music history—at her absolute best. David Nathan (a.k.a. “British Ambassador of Soul”) puts it best in his extended sleeve notes for the reissue when he says, “Lady Soul is a landmark album. Not just because of the four mega-hit singles on it, or even the contributions of Eric Clapton, Bobby Womack and King Curtis, but because in ten songs, Aretha proved the title wasn’t just obvious, it was redundant.”

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