Aretha Franklin: Greatest Hits – on Atlantic and Columbia

ON ATLANTIC: Greatest Hits illustrates the power that fourteen condensed, concise, definitive musical statements can exert – particularly in the soul/R&B field, totally geared until very recently to singles and AM radio play. To heat all these tracks together for the first time would be something incredible, as all Aretha's hits have had – to me at least – immediate impact, rather than insidious 'grow-on-you' quality.