This is a very strange album. I've always been a very big fan of Aretha's work on Columbia Records. If they had kept this album to her early '60s input for the lable, I would have probably cherished the compliation for the best you could get from the era.But half of the album is from her '70s and '90s gospel albums for Arista (since those masters are now owned by Sony/Columbia). What we're left with is a curious mash-up of two distinctly different styles. I don't think fans of her early '60s material OR her Gospel period would find this disc satisfying at all. Maybe someone should've released two differen EPs and allowed the fans to pick up the CD from the era they like best.As it stands, to my ears nothing comes together. It therefore makes her newest "This Christmas" album (even though it sure doesn't have THESE vocals) the preferable choice.