30 Greatest Hits

Product Description:

Personnel includes: Aretha Franklin (vocals, piano); Chips Moman, Jimmy Johnson, Eddie Hinton, Jerry Weaver, Charlie Freeman, Hugh McCracken, Cornell Dupree, Don Arnone, David Spinozza (guitar); Joe Farrell (flute, tenor saxophone); Hubert Laws (flute); The Memphis Horns (horns); Spooner Oldham (electric piano, organ); Richard Tee, Ken Lupper (organ); Barry Beckett, Jim Dickinson, Mike Utley, Donny Hathaway (keyboards); Kenneth Bichel (synthesizer); Tommy Cogbill, David Hood, Tommy McClure, Eric Gale, Chuck Rainey (bass), Roger Hawkins, Sammy Creason, Al Jackson, Ray Lucas, Bernard Purdie, Rick Marotta (drums); Pancho Morales (congas); Robert Popwell, Doctor John, Ralph MacDonald (percussion); Erma Franklin, Carolyn Franklin, The Sweet Inspirations, The Sweethearts Of Soul, The Southern California Community Choir (background vocals); Joe South.

Producers: Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd, Arif Mardin, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones.

Compilation producer: Kim Cooke.

Recording information: 1967 - 1974.

The title may not be 100-percent accurate, since the songs here are culled from Franklin's soul years, roughly between 1967 and 1974, and she's had lots more hits since then. That nit picked, however, this is a genuine embarrassment of riches, with Aretha's soaring voice and under-appreciated piano decorating one wonderful genre-defining song ("Respect," "Chain of Fools," "Natural Woman," "Since You've Been Gone") after another. The most revelatory cut is probably "I Say a Little Prayer," in which Franklin imbues the song with a spine-tingling gospel flavor without ever losing the pop delicacy of the original Dionne Warwick version. But just about everything else here is essential listening.