My earliest Aretha album has her singing "If Ever I Would Leave You". it predates "Respect" by 5 or 6 years.
I think that rendition is finally on CD.
We had a woman come to an audition last year in NYC, and she sang it too. Blew us away! We asked why she had picked the song, and she said it was one of the first songs she heard Aretha Franklin sing. Amazing! And she sang it in the show key too - so she was belting high Fs and Gs.
Oh, it was the original "Acid Queen" from
The Who's Tommy, Cheryl Freeman.
One of my favorite auditions ever.