Yearly Most Successful Female Album: The beginning (1960-1982)

1968 – Aretha Franklin – Aretha Now

After I Never Loved A Man the Way I Love You, Franklin continued her strong run with the Top 5 album Aretha Arrives, home of #4 hit Baby I Love You. In early 1968 the prolific singer dropped Lady Soul, a #2 album which had as many as 3 Top 10 hits. They were (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (#8), Chain of Fools (#2)  and (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone (#5).

https://youtu.be/KtBbyglq37E

She was on such a roll that it wasn’t enough to be her biggest album from the year. The LP Aretha Now was a #3 record. It contained 2 Top 10 singles, Think and I Say a Little Prayer (as a B-Side of stand-alone hit The House That Jack Built). These two singles became her main two songs behind Respect. Let’s see how they perform among the artist’s top songs on Spotify:

1. Respect – 132 million
2. I Say a Little Prayer – 84 million
3. Think – 49 million
4. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman – 32 million
5. Son of a Preacher Man – 25 million

Chain of Fools comes next at 17 million. In other words I Say a Little Prayer and Think are just as strong combined as Respect, both accounting for about 40% of total streams from her greatest hits packages. Thus, Aretha Now edges ahead of Lady Soul in a year dominated hands down by Miss Franklin.