When Aretha Franklin passed away on August 16, 2018, we lost the Queen of Soul, acknowledged as the greatest singer of her generation, who sold over 75 million records during her stellar career. The sadness felt by so many soul fans at that time was all the more acute because we knew we would never hear her beautiful voice on any new recordings. So, it is with great pleasure that we present a never-before-heard live Aretha set on a commercial CD release. And it is with pride that we can say these recordings, made at a TV studio in Cologne during her first European tour in 1968, sit right in the middle of soul’s golden age. This is prime Aretha Franklin—and soul music does not get any better than this.