#39 I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You by Aretha Franklin
The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time
- 2025 Album Rank
- 39
- 2011 Album Rank
- 68
- Total Points
- 1440.5
- Year Released
- 1967
- Billboard 200 Chart Peak
- 2
- Weeks at #1
- N/A
- RIAA Sales Certification
- 500,000 (Gold)
- Buy Album
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I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You Album Details
Released in March 1967, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You was the breakthrough album that cemented Aretha Franklin as the undisputed Queen of Soul. Recorded primarily at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, with the exception of most of the title track, this album marked her debut for Atlantic Records after years of artistic misdirection at Columbia. With producer Jerry Wexler giving her creative freedom and surrounding her with a stripped-down, deeply intuitive band, Franklin's immense talent erupted fully formed across every track.
The album opens with Respect, her era-defining reinterpretation of Otis Redding's song, and continues with a series of gospel-drenched, emotionally raw performances that span ballads, blues, and gut-punch soul. Her piano playing is prominent, her voice transcendent. The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, later dubbed The Swampers, provided a minimal but forceful backdrop, elevating songs like Dr. Feelgood and Do Right Woman, Do Right Man into testaments of female strength and vulnerability. It was not just a commercial triumph, it was a cultural and artistic turning point.
Other albums by Aretha Franklin on the chart: Lady Soul.
Interesting Facts about I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
- The title track was the only song recorded at FAME Studios before tensions flared between Franklin's then-husband/manager Ted White and the studio staff, causing the sessions to move to New York.
- Respect flipped the gender perspective of Otis Redding's original and added the now-iconic "R-E-S-P-E-C-T / Take care, TCB" bridge. Redding reportedly said after hearing it, "That girl stole my song."
- The backing vocals on the album were often provided by Aretha's sisters, Erma and Carolyn Franklin, contributing to the record's familial, church-rooted sound.
- Aretha insisted on playing piano during the sessions, a key move that shaped the feel of the entire album and distinguished it from her earlier Columbia recordings, where she was often kept from accompanying herself.
- Though Do Right Woman, Do Right Man was unfinished in Muscle Shoals, it was completed later in New York. Despite the fractured session, it became one of her most beloved songs and a staple of her live performances.
- The album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, a remarkable achievement for a soul record by a Black woman in 1967. It spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the R&B Albums chart.
- Jerry Wexler famously called Franklin's voice a "force of nature." He and engineer Tom Dowd captured much of the record in live takes, prioritizing feel and soul over technical polish.
- The song Dr. Feelgood (Love Is a Serious Business) was considered too intense and sensual for some radio stations, but it became a powerful feminist declaration wrapped in gospel energy.
- The Swampers' restrained, groove-based playing on tracks like Save Me and Baby, Baby, Baby influenced countless soul and R&B recordings in the late '60s and early '70s.
- The album's cover photo was taken by fashion photographer Jerry Schatzberg, who also shot the covers of Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and The Rolling Stones' Between the Buttons.
- The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009 for its cultural and historical significance.
I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You Track List
- Respect - Reached #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
- Drown in My Own Tears
- I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You) - Reached #9 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
- Soul Serenade
- Don't Let Me Lose This Dream
- Baby, Baby, Baby
- Dr. Feelgood (Love Is a Serious Business)
- Good Times
- Do right Woman, Do Right Man
- Save Me
- A Change Is Gonna Come
