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Today, March 25, is Aretha Franklin’s birthday, and she’s celebrating in high style. After being treated in November for an undisclosed ailment, the newly-trim Queen of Soul has announced a May 19 return to performing at the Chicago Theatre. This announcement came on the heels of Tuesday’s release of Legacy’s lavish 12-disc box set, Take a Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia, collecting all of her pre-Atlantic recordings for the storied label.

We couldn’t allow Franklin’s birthday to go unnoticed here at Second Disc HQ. Watch this space for three upcoming posts. First up, we’ll have a review of Take a Look. We’ll follow that with a special Reissue Theory we’d like to call Aretha at Atlantic: The Lost Years. This post will explore the five titles with which Aretha closed her electrifying tenure at Atlantic, none of which has ever been issued on CD. Why? It’s a mystery. These albums – With Everything I Feel in Me (1974), You (1975), Sweet Passion (1977), Almighty Fire (1978) and La Diva (1979) – feature songs and productions by some rather famous names. Try these on: Lamont Dozier, Jerry Wexler, Curtis Mayfield, Barry Mann, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Van McCoy, Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager, and Aretha’s sister Carolyn Franklin. While none of these five LPs were pop smashes, all were successful on the R&B charts (the first three going Top Ten) and needless to say, have something to offer.

Finally, Mike’s going to take us on another Reissue Theory journey inspired by Aretha’s comeback in the ’80s. After leaving Atlantic for Clive Davis’ Arista, the Queen slowly rebuilt her reputation on record that culminated in a wave of success during the MTV era with tracks like “Freeway of Love,” “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves” with the Eurythmics and “I Knew You Were Waiting (for Me)” with George Michael. Mike’s post will imagine if Legacy did a sequel to Take a Look by anthologizing the Arista-era material they have the rights to in a similar manner.

Let’s all take this opportunity to wish Aretha Franklin health and happiness on her 69th birthday, and we’ll be back next week to continue the celebration with these posts!