PRE-ORDER FROM VINYL ME PLEASE
Record club Vinyl Me Please has announced their latest Record of the Month: Aretha Franklin's 1968 landmark, Aretha Now. The album will be pressed on 180-gram black vinyl and uses the classic mono mix, remastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed at QRP. Prior to this VMP edition, the mono mix of Aretha Now was only available on highly sought-after U.S. promos, or on rare U.K. or Brazilian original pressings. Now, Aretha's classic - featuring "I Say A Little Prayer," "Think," and so many more - returns in a stunning presentation. The LP pressing promises superior sound, the artwork comes on heavyweight stock, and the album is bundled with an exclusive liner notes booklet.
If you needed any more reason to pre-order this exclusive edition (if you're already a member) or join the club, here's an excerpt of the newly penned notes that come with the album -- not that Aretha Now needs any introduction!
Aretha Now does in ten songs what Aretha had spent the first six years of her secular career trying to do: it demonstrates her ability to sing anything and everything. While many of her earlier, pre-Atlantic albums ping-ponged from jazz to Broadway standards to novelty songs--like a person trying a series of keys in a door in an attempt to determine which one will unlock it--Aretha Now is an evolved and effortless-sounding showcase of her range and versatility; her talent for not only elevating any song she sang, but to make it completely hers in such a way that it's impossible to imagine anyone else singing it."
This mono edition of Aretha Now is available to subscribers exclusively from Vinyl Me, Please. You can also join the club and secure Aretha Now as your first VMP title. See the track listing below!
Aretha Franklin, Aretha Now [mono mix] (originally Atlantic promotional LP 8186, 1968 -- reissued 2020)
Side 1:
- Think
- I Say a Little Prayer
- See Saw
- Night Time is the Right Time
- You Send Me
Side 2:
- You're a Sweet Sweet Man
- I Take What I Want
- Hello Sunshine
- A Change
- I Can't See Myself Leaving You
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Mmmm I may be wrong, but I think that Sundazed issued it in mono long ago.
According to Sundaze’s catalog, the only Aretha title they’ve covered is Aretha Arrives in stereo.