Aretha Franklin

I Can't Wait Until I See My Baby's Face

Aretha Franklin - Runnin' Out Of Fools - Columbia CL 2281 (1965)

Side a - Mockingbird; Walk On By; Every Little Hurts; The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss); You'll Lose A Good Thing

Side b - I Can't Wait Until I See My Baby's Face; It's Just A Matter Of Time; Running Out Of Fools; My Guy; Two Side Of Love; One Room Paradise

Produced by: Clyde Otis
Nobody yet has surpassed Aretha's stature as a soul singer, I've read all the bickering about Mary J. Blige's talent and I just laugh to myself, Aretha's is just magnificent. People talk about her Columbia days as her pre-soul era, but this album proves that she could do fine covers of the soul classics of the day. I Can't Wait Until I See My Baby's Face has been covered by 'every man and his dog' or woman that is and everybody has their favorite version, well this is mine!

It crosses over from 2Step to Modern in one go. This is why more and more Northern fans are now picking-up on Steppers. I picked up about five of Aretha's Columbia albums from Ray Purslow who used to run a nice little Jazz shop in Birmingham (he is also runs the Frank Sinatra fan club UK) in the late 70's and although they were nice in there way I couldn't find any stand out tracks. I was an Aretha fan from day one and remember buying tickets for the Royal Albert Hall, late '69 and she cancelled the tour due to her fear of flying we later found out!

Not surprising though when you think Otis Redding had recently died in a plane crash and a few years earlier other act's had lost lives. We had our money refunded and she came over in 1971 to Hammersmith Odeon and was presented with a Blues & Soul 'best soul singer' poll award for that year on stage, I have it all on audio tape! I also managed to get her autograph on an album cover.

In fact she had won best soul singer four consecutive times! looking at the cover of Blues & Soul magazine it was all a bit laid back compared to these days she would be splashed all over the cover, although Marvin Gaye won best male and he's on the cover adorning his dapper white suit, frilly shirt and country hat! (two years later and its a 'pom-pom' hat and jeans.) The inside spread of the Aretha program I proudly put on the Free Radio Nold (FRN) studio wall, my life-long friend Bob Edmunds is posing at the studio console.

Aretha tribute
Uploaded by mickeynold

I broadcast Sunday afternoons on 222 Metres on the Medium Wave band with pure soul/funk music. One of the early shows can be found on the bottom right side of your PC display. I remember doing test transmissions and walking the streets with my Discatron to check quality of broadcasts. I'd put a JB's album on and walk away for about 10 minits and then walk back, it would be the end of side one. I remember one day getting about 5 minits down the road when the signal started humming loudly, I ran back to find the transmitter on fire! I used two PL509 TV valves in push-pull (I could get them from work as I was a TV repair man). I had a 111 feet long 1/2 wave aerial in the back garden of my parents home. The neighbor's must have loved me. I've uploaded a short Aretha Tribute where she talks about Columbia days.