My Ten Favorite Woman Songs: (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (#10)

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Way back when (about three weeks ago), @teamfreak16 started the idea of favorite "girl" songs. I grabbed that and ran with it! From there we moved on to "boy" songs. Now it's time for the girls to grow up and be women! Here's my first song on the countdown of favorite songs with "woman" in the title. #10: (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman - Aretha Franklin There are great songwriters out there who can't sing for doo-doo (hello, Willie Nelson). There are also great songwriters out there with terrific voices. Carole King is someone in the latter category. Her 1971 album Tapestry is a classic of my generation...heck, of any generation. One of the songs on that album is "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." Carole's version is outstanding, make no doubt. But, like Patsy Cline did with "Crazy" by taking the song and transforming it into something other-worldly with her rendition, Aretha Franklin's 1967 hit rendition of the song that King wrote with her then-husband Gerry Goffin and producer Jerry Wexler is stunning. And that's a gross understatement. If you've ever seen The Blues Brothers you know how the Queen of Soul can steal a scene. She did just that in doing "Think" in the film. And, if you saw The Kennedy Center Honors last December, when Carole King was given the honor, you know just how well 'Retha can steal a show just about anytime she wants to. What a song. And what a performance. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman Written by Carole King, Gerry Goffin, and Jerry Wexler Recorded by Aretha Franklin From Lady Soul, 1967 Here's Aretha bringing Carole King to tears at the Kennedy Center Honors presentation from 2015: