Aretha Franklin - Aretha

Today (October 25th) marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of Aretha, the twenty-eighth studio album from the “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin. This 1980 release spent thirty weeks on the US Billboard Album chart, peaking at number 32. It also reached number 6 on the US Billboard R&B chart and won her a Grammy award for Best Female R&B Vocal.

Kenny G - G Force

Following his self-titled 1982 release (click here for that review), Kenny G hit the charts again in February of 1983 with his second studio album G Force. This one went to number 56 in the UK, number 62 on the US Billboard Hot 200, number 17 on the US Billboard R&B chart and number 6 on the US Billboard Jazz chart.

As with his first album, the vinyl release and the CD release of this one had differing cover art. Trying to keep things here on the blog as old-school as possible, I opted to use the original vinyl release artwork for this post. In my opinion, it has a more 80's feel to it.

Kenny G - Kenny G

Kenneth Bruce Gorelick came on to the American adult contemporary and smooth jazz scene in the early 1980's under his stage name of Kenny G. In the early 1970’s, while still in high school, he worked with Barry White’s Love Unlimited Orchestra.

On August 1st of 1982, he released his first album. The self-titled Kenny G went to number 10 on the US Jazz charts and eventually went Gold. Today we will look at this record as part of its thirtieth anniversary celebration.