We are judging these two later in life versions. May I suggest watching at least the 'Retha version in full screen mode. The girls need the room.

I'm giving Aretha this one. But I think you stacked the deck, Mute; she's singing before the Dwellers Among The Clouds, where all is glimmer and fine dining and good sound crews fall like rain. In fairness to her, though, Aretha seems smoother than ever, as if that were even possible. Carole's betraying a bit more wear, which I could let slide, but that sing-with-me bit? I felt like I was in a retirement home being distracted from my pudding by a music therapist.

I thought 'Retha dragging that song out at the end was pitiful. Someone should have put her out of her misery. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

I confess I only listened to about the first 1/3 of each vid.

Good thing I permitted re-voting.

You should try listening to both at the same time. It's unspeakably other.

I feel the earth move with Carole, I don't even get respect with Aretha.

That was a bit of a pathetic sing-back.

I don't think she was performing at Yankee Stadium. She should have known her audience. I chose these clips because even the best make us look good.

I'll abstain from that all the same, thanks. No particular reason, other than I don't do nostalgia. Makes me feel like someone put an afghan over my lap and patted my hand, and that makes me cranky. And a cranky Nano is a Nine Nukes Nano.

The deck was stacked. BBC HD had much (much, much,) better sound & vision quality than that pirate clip of who knows what American Broadcaster. Carole King plays a mean piano, much better than Urethra does. Urethra's last note really was proooooootraaaaaaaaacteeeeeed unnecessarily. Put me in mind of Bleeding Gums Murphy singing the Stars & Stripes. Then again, Urethra was singing to a hostile, apathetic, moneyed, philistine audience, while Carole King was singing to a bunch of people who were there for the music. Carole Jazzing it up? Failed. Carole getting the people to sing? Failed.

On balance, the palm goes to Urethra. She's a natural.

I wonder how much of that is due to the sound man not capturing the audience.

Not that I usually care for that sort of thing, what seems to generally be a cheap trick employed in an attempt to drag the audience on board and wind 'em up.


OTOH having been in the audience when Lyle did If I Had A Boat and listening to well over 80% spontaneously decide to help...

Again a basic understanding of the
essentials of the stlyes is missing i.e. Blues, Gospel and
the most important Soul. Listening to carol king try to play in a
gospel fashion is like pat boone singing tutttie fruttie.
Whitebread all the way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu8uMmRGKHo&nomobile=1

I didn't play any of the clips at m.youtube because i needed to click on an allow pop-up. Wasn't going to do it.

Here's a clip from YouTube of Aretha Franklin playing piano on Soul Train. Nothing gets more soul than that. Maybe Aretha toned it down for the white bread audience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJtqyGr0 ... re=related

Never mind blues, gospel and soul... are you seriously suggesting that Carole King doesn't understand the stylistic essentials of a song she wrote and, if so, can you please explain what she doesn't understand about her own work?