10. Aretha FranklinAretha Now

I found Aretha a bit later in life, during my 20s, after listening to her records at a friend’s house one evening. They gave me a lesson on Aretha, and I became a lifelong fan from there. I knew of her through watching The Blues Brothers film, and loved her song ‘Think’, but hadn’t really taken much notice of her albums. No one feels the emotion in music as Aretha does. She is the greatest soul singer of our time. One of my favourite TV appearances of hers was her performance at the 2015 Kennedy Centre Honours, singing ‘Natural Woman’. It’s epic, and the way she throws her fur coat off to finish the song is sensational. 

This is one of her shortest, under 30 minutes, yet most expressive and soulful albums I have listened to. I love this album as her voice soars so unreservedly, and the instrumentation supports this freedom. The backing vocals by the Sweet Inspirations are perfectly aligned with Aretha’s voice, as are the organ sounds and the horn section. Of course, there’s the classic ‘I Say A Little Prayer’ and ‘Think’, but ‘See Saw’ and ‘You Send Me’ are also wonderful. Her voice is so far away from mine, and what I do artistically is in complete contrast. I can only sit back and admire her vocal prowess.