The Queen in Waiting: The Columbia Years 1960-1965

Disc 1
1	Preludium / Joey Heatherton 2:20
2	The Sound of Music / Mary Martin 2:43
3	Maria / Elizabeth Howell 3:24
4	My Favorite Things / Patricia Neway 2:50
5	Do-Re-Mi / Mary Martin 5:56
6	Sixteen Going on Seventeen / Lauri Peters 3:52
7	The Lonely Goatherd / Mary Martin 3:23
8	How Can Love Survive? / Kurt Kasznar 3:05
9	The Sound of Music (Reprise) / Mary Martin 3:15
10	Laendler / The Orchestra 2:26
11	So Long, Farewell / Chilldren 2:53
12	Climb Ev'ry Mountain / Patricia Neway 3:33
13	No Way to Stop It / Kurt Kasznar 3:07
14	An Ordinary Couple / Mary Martin 3:37
15	Processional 3:52
16	Sixteen Going on Seventeen (Reprise) / Lauri Peters 2:19
17	Edelweiss / Mary Martin 2:08
18	Climb Ev'ry Mountain (Reprise) / Company 1:40
19	The Sound of Music / Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Bonus Track 16:41
20	Do-Re-Mi / Mitch Miller Bonus Track 2:07
Disc 2
1	Overture / The Orchestra 3:21
2	Maybe / Orphans 2:37
3	It's the Hard-Knock Life / Orphans 2:20
4	Tomorrow / Andrea McArdle 2:07
5	We'd Like to Thank You Herbert Hoover / Hooverville-ites 2:26
6	Little Girls / Dorothy Loudon 2:43
7	I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here / Andrea McArdle 2:23
8	N.Y.C. / Reid Shelton 4:51
9	Easy Street / Robert Fitch 3:22
10	You Won't Be an Orphan for Long / Sandy Faison 1:44
11	You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile / Orphans 3:06
12	Tomorrow (Reprise) / The Cabinet 2:23
13	Something Was Missing / Reid Shelton 3:42
14	I Don't Need Anything But You / Reid Shelton 2:30
15	Annie / Sandy Faison 1:35
16	A New Deal for Christmas / Orphans 2:22
17	Introductory Remarks Bonus Track 1:56
18	Apples Bonus Track 1:59
19	Lead-In and Song: We Got Annie Bonus Track 2:14
20	Lead-In Bonus Track 0:38
21	Just Wait Bonus Track 1:06
22	Lead-In Bonus Track 0:30
23	That's the Way It Goes Bonus Track 1:30
24	Lead-In Bonus Track 1:01
25	Parents Bonus Track 2:12
26	Lead-In and Song: I've Never Been So Happy Bonus Track 1:19
27	Tomorrow Bonus Track 2:26
Disc 3
1	Opening: New York, New York/Dance: Miss Turnstiles / Chorus 11:27
2	Come Up to My Place / Nancy Walker 2:46
3	Carried Away / Adolph Green 3:00
4	Lonely Town/Dance: Lonely Town / John Reardon 6:44
5	Carnegie Hall (Do-Do-Re-Do) / Chorus 2:36
6	I Can Hook, Too / Nancy Walker 2:30
7	Lucky to Be Me / Chorus 2:55
8	Dance: Times Square / The Orchestra 4:03
9	Nightclub Sequence: So Long Baby/I'm Blue/Ya Got Me / Chorus 4:50
10	I Understand / George Gaynes 2:11
11	Ballet: The Imaginary Coney Island/Subway Ride/Dance of the Great ... / The Orchestra 7:49
12	Some Other Time / Chris Alexander 4:21
13	Dance: The Real Coney Island/Finale / The Orchestra 5:36
14	Oveture/Three Dances Episodes From / The Orchestra Bonus Track 4:13
15	I. The Great Lover Bonus Track 1:44
16	II. Lonely Town: Pas de Deux Bonus Track 3:23
17	III. Times Square: 1944 Bonus Track 4:38

Barnes & Noble

Aretha Franklin may have made her name as the Queen of Soul during her time with Atlantic Records in the late '60s and early '70s, but her ascent to the throne began earlier, shortly after she turned 18. The two-CD Queen in Waiting chronicles the five years during which this former gospel prodigy recorded for Columbia Records under the tutelage of legendary producer John Hammond, who recruited a studio full of seasoned players to work with Franklin on memorable versions of Rev. James Cleveland's "Nobody like You" and a previously unreleased version of Ray Charles' "Hard Times (No One Knows Better than I)." Franklin's church roots are never far from the fore, as evident on cuts such as "Lee Cross" and "Today I Sing the Blues," in which Lady Soul's subtle testifying blurs the line between the sacred and secular. With stellar readings of "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" and "This Bitter Earth" (originally recorded for Unforgettable: A Tribute to Dinah Washington), the Detroit native also showcases her ease with formidable jazz-flavored sessions. Drawing from an overlooked segment of Franklin's musical career, the stellar 40-song collection of jazz, blues, and pop makes for a royal package. Dave Gil de Rubio

All Music Guide

Franklin's Columbia years are hard to summarize in compilations, even fairly extensive ones such as this two-CD set, which includes six previously unreleased tracks and one previously unavailable alternate take among its 40 songs. In part that's because she explored several different styles during this era without really finding a home in any of them, in part that's because the quality of the recordings themselves were so erratic, and in part it's because Sony keeps putting out compilations that duplicate each other to a fair extent. About half the songs on this anthology, for instance, also appear on the most comprehensive previous Franklin/Columbia retrospective, Jazz to Soul. On its own merits, this is a fair summation of some of her more notable Columbia recordings, slightly more pop-oriented in its track selection than Jazz to Soul, and at least including something new in the handful of unissued numbers. David Ritz's informative liner notes make a case for viewing the Columbia years as ones with numerous artistic successes. But the fact remains that the mixture of lush pop, Billie Holiday-style jazz-blues, Dinah Washington/Nancy Wilson-style jazz-pop crossover, early Dionne Warwick-style light soul-pop ("Cry Like a Baby" is actually a quite good cut of that sort), and hints of gospel is unfocused, if often promising. And it's not nearly as good or expressive as the soul she'd delve into at Atlantic after leaving Columbia. Her accompanists sometimes deserve their share of blame as well; the drums of "Nobody Knows the Way I Feel This Morning" almost totally lose the rhythm at one point, and the harmonica player on "Evil Gal Blues" sounds like she or he had just been dragged in off the street. There's not much soul music here, in the accepted stylistic sense, other than the two best tracks, "Soulville" and "Lee Cross," which are the ones that point most convincingly to her future triumph as the Queen of Soul. The previously unreleased items (all on disc one) are as variable as the rest of the set, ranging from the satisfyingly bluesy cover of Ray Charles' "Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I)" (with some fine Franklin piano) and the respectable jazz/R&B/gospel of "Please Answer Me" to trifling Bobby Scott-produced orchestrated pop ballads and an unremarkable alternate take of "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home." Richie Unterberger