Day Dreaming
Aretha Franklin | Artist Essentials
First released: 1972 (year verified)
Original full Young, Gifted and Black album recording
MusicAtlas editorial note: Let the floating opening settle into the groove, then follow the voice's small rhythmic departures.
YouTube opens a title-and-artist search. The selected recording and date are identified below.
Release evidence and recording details
First released: 1972 (year verified)
The full recording appeared on the January 1972 album. A separate single version followed that year; contemporary and later label sources differ on its month, so year precision is retained.
Recording: Original full Young, Gifted and Black album recording
Credit: Aretha Franklin
Role in this collection: Primary artist
Original album: Young, Gifted and Black
Young, Gifted and Black - Rhino original-release history
Original album released in January 1972; Day Dreaming was a later single that year. Rock Steady was already in circulation in 1971. Only the supported original-release years are asserted. | Reviewed 2026-10-17
The Atlantic Albums Collection - Rhino original track lists
Original Young, Gifted and Black album membership for Day Dreaming and Rock Steady; Let Me in Your Life membership for Until You Come Back to Me. The 2015 box-set date is not used. | Reviewed 2026-10-17
Record World, 29 May 1976 - Aretha singles and album discographies
Contemporary release-date tables in the Aretha supplement, PDF pages 44 and 46: 1967 singles and debut LP; Think single before Aretha Now in 1968; Rock Steady single in 1971 before Young, Gifted and Black in 1972; Day Dreaming in 1972; Until You Come Back to Me in 1973 before its 1974 album. Month differences against later Rhino histories are not resolved into exact dates. | Reviewed 2026-10-17
Annual version match under review
The selected recording has release evidence, but its version has not been matched to the retained annual entry. It is omitted from Beyond the yearly lists until this match is resolved.
The retained 1972 annual Day Dreaming entry does not specify album or single version. This selection is the full album recording; the label catalog also identifies a Single Version. The annual recording link remains provisional rather than being counted as a new song.
Young, Gifted and Black - Rhino original-release history
Original album released in January 1972; Day Dreaming was a later single that year. Rock Steady was already in circulation in 1971. Only the supported original-release years are asserted. | Reviewed 2026-10-17
The Atlantic Albums Collection - Rhino original track lists
Original Young, Gifted and Black album membership for Day Dreaming and Rock Steady; Let Me in Your Life membership for Until You Come Back to Me. The 2015 box-set date is not used. | Reviewed 2026-10-17
Day Dreaming (Single Version) - label-distributed Apple Music catalog
Explicitly distinguishes a commercial Single Version from the album selection. The attached original-album day and the modern compilation date are not used to date the single edit. | Reviewed 2026-10-17
About Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin developed as a singer and pianist in the gospel life of her father's Detroit church. Her early recordings for Columbia drew on pop, blues and jazz before her Atlantic work brought gospel phrasing and rhythm into a defining run of soul records. Respect and the albums Lady Soul and Aretha Now belong to that late-1960s period. She also continued recording gospel, including Amazing Grace, and later explored dance-oriented pop during her Arista years.
Artist background sources
Aretha Franklin - Rhino artist history
Detroit gospel upbringing, singing and piano, Columbia and Atlantic eras, late-1960s albums, Amazing Grace and later Arista recordings. | Retrieved 2026-10-17
Profile reviewed: 2026-10-17. Artist background does not establish a song's creative origin or release date.
Continue listening
Recommended positions express one editorial listening sequence. They are not measured quality scores.
Browse by year
1960-2025. Each year contains 150 selections.