Which Aretha Franklin album includes 'Rock Steady' and 'Day Dreaming'?

Aretha Franklin’s album *Young, Gifted and Black* includes “Rock Steady” and “Day Dreaming.”

Released by Atlantic Records on January 24, 1972, *Young, Gifted and Black* was Franklin’s eighteenth studio album. It presents a broad mix of original songs and covers, but the two tracks in the question are especially useful identifiers because Franklin wrote and performed both of them.

“Rock Steady,” released as a single in 1971, is a hard-driving funk-soul performance built around a strong rhythmic groove. “Day Dreaming,” released in 1972, is a more atmospheric soul ballad; it topped the U.S. Hot Soul Singles chart for two weeks and reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Both songs were recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami during the album’s sessions.

The album’s title comes from Nina Simone’s “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” which Franklin also covers. That connection can cause confusion with the title track, but the pair “Rock Steady” and “Day Dreaming” clearly identifies Franklin’s *Young, Gifted and Black*, not *Lady Soul*, *Aretha Now*, or the *Sparkle* soundtrack.