Music Review: I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You

Are you ready for your marching orders? Good. You need to get your hands on Aretha Franklin's mega-landmark 1967 album, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You. Did I say marching orders? That's right. Take this as a mandate from the Bigot. This is the real deal, the defining disc from the Queen of Soul, where she belts out songs from Otis Redding, Ted White and Sam Cooke, courtesy of Jerry Wexler's (bless his soul!) myth-making production. Yes, this is where you get Franklin's Respect, a force of nature that topped the charts. But that only skims the surface of these magnificent tracks, including Save Me, Do Right Woman Do Right Man and the title track. This is real soul. Authentic R&B. This is just so beautiful, so righteous, so good. I'll be inspecting your MP3 player tomorrow to make sure you've loaded this album. Trust me on this one.