55 Years of Aretha Franklin's 'Soul '69'

One of the most underrated Aretha LPs from her golden era.

Within 2 years of signing her career-altering second record deal at Atlantic Records, Aretha Franklin had recorded 5 albums and released 4 (plus a live album that warrants little conversation). Three of the four are considered classics. The fifth, Soul ‘69, is often omitted from conversations about this transformative, fertile, and genre-defining time in Aretha’s career; the golden reign as it was coined per a 2007 compilation of rare and unreleased material spanning the era. 

Yet that fifth album, Soul ‘69, is crucial. It is perhaps the most cohesive of them all, and despite having a misnomer title, a different sound, and no original material, it is an essential piece of Aretha Franklin’s catalog. 

Aretha’s producer and record executive Jerry Wexler didn’t want the title to be Soul ‘69, because it wasn’t informative of the material. He wanted to call it ‘Aretha’s Jazz.’ But jazz was the arena of his partner at Atlantic, Neshui Ertegun. A vote was taken on the matter, and Jerry got outvoted. So Soul ‘69 received its misleading title. And sure, it’s not inherently a soul record, but Aretha is soulful as ever from beginning to end. 

From the onset of the album’s sessions, there was something of a new Aretha in their presence, albeit a freer one. Her tumultuous marriage to Ted White was broken up and headed towards divorce. White’s notoriously overbearing hand was nowhere near the recording studio as Aretha worked on the album, and it made a difference. “Thank you, Jesus,” Jerry Wexler told David Ritz in ‘Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin’ in regards to Ted’s departure. “His absence gave her a freedom to take more charge.” 

She was also jazzed up about the big band (see what I did there?), according to Wexler. The first two songs recorded for the album, “Today I Sing The Blues” and “Tracks of My Tears,” were cut in April 1968 during sessions for 1968’s Aretha Now. The latter was a hit for The Miracles, written by their lead singer and Aretha’s childhood friend, Smokey Robinson. Smokey and his Miracles bopped along with a classic Motown groove, but as always, Aretha gave it a grand makeover. 

“Today I Sing The Blues” is a true gem of this album. It’s also a crucial piece of Aretha’s catalog. It was a 1960 demo of “Today” that made John Hammond sign Aretha to her first recording contract at Columbia Records back in 1960. It was also the first song she recorded for the label after her signing that same year. Hearing this 1968 version showcases 28 year-old Aretha’s growth as both an artist and a singer. It also highlights the development of her soulfulness. The pains of the last 8 years shine through clearly on this vocal. She’s also accompanying herself on the piano this time (which she didn’t in 1960), a key elevator of many of her recordings, especially during this era.

The little melisma she adds to “blues” in the song’s opening line is chill-inducing. Her “I didn’t know why” groans with misery. The raw vocal power that cemented her as the Queen of Soul is on full display without any restrictions or hesitations. Her marriage to Ted may not have been over just yet, but it was crumbling, and it echoes through the walls of the studio in this performance. “It just goes to show you, no matter how you love, everybody’s got to lose,” she wails. This is a wig-snatching performance. Literally. If you’ve ever seen the gif of Aretha snatching her own wig, that’s Aretha reaching the song’s climactic refrain during the below 2003 performance. 

Aretha is a focal point on the album in a way she hadn’t been on previous Atlantic works. She’s joined by background singers on just three of the album’s 10 songs, leaving the rest to a single vocal track that highlights this wondrous era for her vocally and stylistically. Her work arranging background vocals (and often serving as her own on many other albums) is crucial to any vocalist looking to see how backgrounds can transform a record. But here, the emphasis is on how Aretha’s voice commands your attention on its own.

Though “Today I Sing The Blues” has some similarities to Aretha’s 1960 recording, most of these records don’t even resemble their source material. The arrangements by Arif Mardin, and often aided by Aretha (despite not receiving credit), are transformative at the very least. Her take on Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home To Me,” for example, sounds nothing like what Sam did with this song that he wrote. 

The same goes for Bob Lind’s “Elusive Butterfly,” which closes the album. I wrote about “Elusive Butterfly” at length and even spoke with Bob Lind to celebrate the album’s anniversary this year. Bob reveres Aretha, but isn’t the biggest fan of her version. You can read that in full right here.

“Elusive” and “Gentle On My Mind,” which was a hit for Glenn Campbell the year before, were two songs that Aretha brought to the September 1968 sessions to record. Jerry Wexler resisted, but Aretha insisted, to the point where Jerry was taken aback. As Jerry explained in Mark Bego’s book ‘The Queen of Soul,’ “Her taste could sometimes be very mainstream. That’s part of her genius too. When it went off a bit, it went off in its own way.”

While Jerry has maintained that those two perhaps didn’t belong on the album, he did concede that “Gentle” was a solid cover. So good in fact, that it was released as a single. Aretha gave an incredible performance of “Gentle” alongside Andy Williams in 1969, highlighting the contrast in their arrangements. 

Other highlights include “Crazy He Calls Me,” when she follows up the line “I’ll go through fire” with a half-spoken, “yes, and I will kill fire.” The devotion her delivery conveys is spine-tingling. The opening cut “Ramblin’” also sets the album up perfectly, highlighting the departure this is going to be from her previous four soul-forging LPs. 

She’s joined by a who’s who of jazz musicians that helped her effortlessly capture a jazz sound, including Ron Carter on the bass, Joe Zawinul and Junior Mance on keys, Fathead Newman on tenor saxophone and flute, and Ernie Royal, Snooky Young, and Bernie Glow on trumpet. 

In addition, Spooner Oldham, Jimmy Johnson, Tommy Cogbill, and Roger Hawkins of the Muscle Shoals rhythm section are on-hand to keep things soulful, as well as saxophonist King Curtis. It’s also important to note that Tom Dowd, who initially served as an engineer for Aretha, was elevated to co-producer with Jerry Wexler by this time. 

A Rolling Stone review of Soul ‘69 dated from March 1, 1969 called it “quite possibly the best record to appear in the last five years.” The closing paragraph made a chillingly accurate assumption about the album’s overall reception: 

This album could have a tremendous effect on contemporary popular music, but it probably won’t. The devices on an album like the Beatles’ Sergeant (sp.) Pepper are easily imitated, but musicianship that has paid its dues for decades cannot be. The electric-haired heads of today’s rock musicians will have turned white before they make an album like this one.

Though the album didn’t receive the commercial success to match that praise, it did reach number 15 on the pop chart and number 1 on the R&B chart, higher peaks than either of her next two LPs which are considered classic: This Girl’s In Love With You and Spirit In The Dark. The only songs issued as singles were the aforementioned “Gentle On My Mind” and “Tracks Of My Tears.” Both were issued as b-sides to songs from other albums. Both songs failed to crack the top 70 on the pop charts or the top 20 on the R&B chart. It yielded no Grammy nominations or wins.

55 years later though, it’s more than time to give Soul ‘69 its propers. Aretha executed a stunning jazz LP in the middle of a run where she helped define what soul music is. While it may not have certified hits, it is a certifiably glorious album from beginning to end.

And despite all the kerfuffle in 1968, Soul ‘69 eventually did become Aretha’s Jazz- sort of. A 1984 compilation titled Aretha’s Jazz brought 5 cuts from the album together with 3 selections from Aretha’s 1973 union with Quincy Jones, Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of The Sky). You can see the track listing for Aretha’s Jazz here.

Listen to Aretha flex her jazz chops on Soul ‘69: