22102014 - Aretha Franklin "Sings the Great Diva Classics"

Did you see that clip where Aretha performed "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele on Letterman, and stomped all over the original? Now I'm thinking that Adele must be soiling herself because a) she could never overdo that - Aretha just took her song and made it her own! And also because b) the fugging Queen of Soul did one of her freaking songs! With that in mind, having Aretha do an album's worth of showing who's the boss sounds like a brilliant idea. It's just that when the originals are ladies like Etta James, Gladys Knight, Dinah Washington and Diana Ross, even 'Reefa is unable to outsing the originals. Sure, she does great versions of most of the songs here, but she doesn't claim any of the tunes, apart from "Rolling in the Deep", and her versions of "No One" (Alicia Keys) and "Nothing Compares 2 U" (originally The Family, but we get it - the classic "diva version" is by Sinéad O'Connor) are pretty redundant, especially the cocktail jazz version of the latter. All in all, a good idea done bland. Next time, give the producer reins to Rick Rubin or even Jack White, and have Aretha do songs by Janis Joplin, Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse and Rihanna, and we're talking! And by the way, if you want a cover version of a Sinéad O'Connor song to give you goosebumps, there's another queen, and her name is Bettye LaVette! That's real while this just screams "product"!