Aretha Franklin’s Aretha: With The Ray Bryant Combo is Aretha Franklin’s second studio album. Aretha was produced by Luther Dixon and featured a jazzier rhythm and blues sound. Aretha was a more diverse recording that did not feature the piano as prominently, instead exploring the bass more. Aretha also covered two pop songs which were “Do Right Woman-Do Right Man” and “You Are My Sunshine”. Aretha also included a demo recording Aretha did for Columbia Records in 1960, entitled “Today I Sing The Blues”. Aretha Franklin’s Aretha: With The Ray Bryant Combo was released on June 14th, 1961.
The title track to Aretha Franklin’s Aretha: With The Ray Bryant Combo (and also Aretha’s first charting single) was Aretha’s cover of “Precious Lord”, a song she had heard her father sing. Aretha recorded the gospel standard at United Sound Studios with several musicians accompanying Aretha on piano, organ, guitar and drums. Aretha told Blues & Soul magazine in 1986 that Aretha Franklin’s Aretha: With The Ray Bryant Combo was “my own album. I did the whole thing – the arrangements, the producing and everything” Aretha also told Blues & Soul magazine that Aretha’s favorite song of the album was Aretha’s cover of “Today I Sing The Blues”.
