Released on 08/17/10
Whew....I for one am glad that Rhino has jumped on the Quad-wagon. This release will be a nice complement to to the Chicago Transit Authority Quadtastic presentation of earlier this year...
For its second Quadio release, Rhino Handmade gives “Respect” to one of the greatest singers of all time with a reissue of The Best Of Aretha Franklin, a collection of stone-classic soul music that was released in 1973 exclusively in Quadraphonic. Out-of-print for decades, this music-only DVD features unique quad mixes by legendary producer Tom Dowd that have not been available since the original release.
Featuring four channels of 24-bit, 96 kHz audio (down-scalable to 24-bit, 48 kHz), this DTS DVD is to be played in a DVD player with Surround Sound in order to enjoy the Quadraphonic mix as intended. The release does not include a two-channel stereo mix.
THE BEST OF ARETHA FRANKLIN (QUADRAPHONIC MIX) contains 12 tracks, including an extended version of “Rock Steady” with music by the Memphis Horns that was cut from the stereo version and can only be heard in this Quadraphonic mix. The disc also includes a rare version of “Chain Of Fools” with an extended introduction. This version was released in stereo in 1995 as part of Rhino’s expanded edition of Lady Soul.
These songs spotlight Franklin during her white-hot run with Atlantic Records and capture the singer at the pinnacle of her hitmaking prowess. The collection opens with “Respect,” a song that topped both the Pop and R&B charts in 1967 and went on to become the singer’s signature hit. The disc gathers many of the Queen of Soul’s crown jewels and accounts for no less than eight #1 R&B hits, including “Baby, I Love You,” “Spanish Harlem,” “Don’t Play That Song, “Call Me,” and a cover of the Simon and Garfunkel ballad “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
One of the earliest offerings of what would later be known as Surround Sound, Quadraphonic sound uses four channels and speakers placed in four corners of a room to create signals that are independent of one another. To learn more, visit Rhino Handmade’s primer on Quadraphonic sound at www.rhino.com/global/what-quad .
