Imagine you're a Negro living in Detroit in the Fifties. Life is not easy and your religion is a source of deep comfort. You go to church every Sunday where the well-respected reverend delivers his sermons about suffering and redemption. Afterwards he brings out his daughter, a shy pretty teenaged girl, to sing a few spirituals - the kind of songs that your grandmother, perhaps old enough to have been born a slave, used to hum to herself in the kitchen when she made Thanksgiving dinner. The reverend's daughter, not knowing she will someday become a musical legend, steps up to the microphone and communes with the Spirit as the organ and the choir murmur quietly in the background. Then she opens her mouth and a sound more thrilling than anything you have ever heard in your life fills the consecrated space around you to bursting. She sings, "Precious Lord... " - the last syllable extended, throbbing with emotion, majestic and beautiful, and the people around you shout and cry from sheer catharsis. God, the True Musician, has spoken to you through one of his most splendid instruments - Miss Aretha Franklin, the soon-to-be-crowned Queen of Soul.

Give me a little respect, indeed.

When I read some of the bad reviews for this CD I was skeptical about purchasing it, but I went ahead on and bought it anyway. And, boy was I happy that I did. The songs on this CD are very moving and stirring gospel sounds. The kind that you rarely hear today. I have no problems with the sound or the quality of my CD. All of the songs sound great, and they play all the way through. Maybe I just happened to get one from a good batch. I have been looking for the Reverend C.L. Franklin's stirring rendention of Your Mother Loves Her Children, and I finally got a chance to listen to it again.
The young Aretha is wonderful on her infamous Precious Lord rendention. I love the whole CD.

Now first, you must understand these were recorded 'Live' (A few probley in the same church without the audience) in the 50's, so DO NOT expect to hear ANYTHING sounding like the "Amazing Grace" album (Quality-Wise). But to hear where she (Aretha) started from is worth the price of this Disc. Add this to your collection for 'Historical Purpose'. Although these recordings has always been available on Vinyl, Cassette & now Compact Disc! As a Bonus this Reissue includes her Father, Reverend C.L. Franklin's All-Time Classic "Your Mother Loves her Children".

Being an Aretha fan I have heard just about all of her recordings, but her at 16 is something rare to hear so I jumped to buy this cd. It literally took me about 45 minutes to get past the first two tracks of Precious Lord! I just kept playing it over and over! While sitting there in complete amazement I kept trying to grasp the fact that this was the voice of a 16 year old! She doesn't sing, Aretha "sangs!" This is how Gospel was meant to sound. Words can't explain this wonderful God given talent. All I will say is amazing, pure, raw, powerful...simply put "ARETHA".

I wish that I had read some the review below before I had bought this CD. Aretha Franklin is my all-time favourite singer and to hear her at 16 years of age is an experience that astonishes. Unfortunately, the tracks on this CD are very poorly mastered and the editing stinks. Songs chop off at the end and no song finishes completely. Let me state again that Aretha, even at 16, is phenomenal. This CD though, is not.