DUSTY SPRINGFIELD : DUSTY IN MEMPHIS

 

  1. Just a Little Lovin'
  2. So Much Love
  3. Son of a Preacher Man
  4. I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore
  5. Don't Forget About Me
  6. Breakfast in Bed
  7. Just One Smile
  8. The Windmills of Your Mind
  9. In the Land of Make Believe
  10. No Easy Way Down
  11. I Can't Make It Alone
    Bonus Tracks :
  12. What Do You Do When Love Dies
  13. Willie & Laura Mae Jones
  14. That Old Sweet Roll (Hi-De-Ho)
  15. Cherished
  16. Goodbye
  17. Make It with You
  18. Love Shine Down
  19. Live Here with You
  20. Natchez Trace
  21. All the King's Horses
  22. I'll Be Faithful
  23. Have a Good Life Baby
  24. You've Got a Friend
  25. I Found My Way

Label : Rhino

Length : 76:42

Released : 1969 / 1999 (Deluxe Edition)

Review (AllMusic) : Sometimes memories distort or inflate the quality of recordings deemed legendary, but in the case of Dusty in Memphis, the years have only strengthened its reputation. The idea of taking England's reigning female soul queen to the home of the music she had mastered was an inspired one. The Jerry Wexler/Tom Dowd/Arif Mardin production and engineering team picked mostly perfect songs, and those that weren't so great were salvaged by Springfield's marvelous delivery and technique. This set has definitive numbers in "So Much Love," "Son of a Preacher Man," "Breakfast in Bed," "Just One Smile," "I Don't Want to Hear About It Anymore," and "Just a Little Lovin'" and three bonus tracks: an unreleased version of "What Do You Do When Love Dies," "Willie & Laura Mae Jones" and "That Old Sweet Roll (Hi-De-Ho)." It's truly a disc deserving of its classic status.

Review (AllMusic) Deluxe Edition : Just when you thought that the perfect album and its CD equivalent couldn't get any better, along comes Rhino with this 25-song deluxe edition of Dusty in Memphis. The new transfers on the original Dusty in Memphis material are sharper and brighter, but also warmer than the original 1992 CD - the finely nuanced richness of Dusty Springfield's voice on the softer numbers, such as "In the Land of Make Believe" and "Windmills of Your Mind," is captured perfectly on this new edition, where the old CD had a colder, harder texture. Among the bonus tracks, "What Do You Do When Love Dies" comes from the same sessions as the Memphis album, and its noninclusion on the original is difficult to explain, being one of the singer's more exuberant performances and tracks. The highlight of the bonus tracks, however, are the songs left over from sessions for the unfairly underrated Gamble- and Huff-produced Brand New Me album, and the unissued 1971 Jeff Barry-produced sides for a never-released third Atlantic album. If anything, she's more confident and bold on this material than on Dusty in Memphis. The sound is lusher, and heavier as well, but no less seductive and captivating, and the presence of treasures such as her covers of David Gates' "Make It With You" and Carole King's "You've Got a Friend," the gospel-flavored "Love Shine Down," and the hard-rocking "Natchez Trace" all serve to make this a must-own CD, even for those who already have the previous versions. One other nice feature of the new edition is that the clarity of the remastering brings the backing instruments out as never before, which makes one appreciate the production and arrangements as well as her performance.

Review (Wikipedia) : Dusty in Memphis is a landmark album by Dusty Springfield, released in 1969. It was produced by Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin and engineered by Tom Dowd. "So Much Love", "Son of a Preacher Man", "The Windmills Of Your Mind", "Breakfast in Bed", "Just One Smile", "I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore", and "Just a Little Lovin'" are some of the album's songs. Dusty in Memphis is frequently included in lists of the greatest albums of all time. Hoping to reinvigorate her career and boost her credibility, Dusty Springfield turned to the roots of soul music. She signed with Atlantic Records, home label of one of her soul music idols, Aretha Franklin. Although she had sung R&B songs before, she had never released an entire album solely of R&B songs. She began recording an album in Memphis, Tennessee, where some notable blues musicians had grown up. The Memphis sessions at the American Studios were recorded by the A team of Atlantic Records. It included producers Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin, the back-up singers Sweet Inspirations and the instrumental band Memphis Cats, led by guitarist Reggie Young and bassist Tommy Cogbill. The Memphis Cats had previously backed Wilson Pickett, King Curtis and Elvis Presley. Terry Manning (also a recording engineer, but in this case) a writer for the New Musical Express attended the recording sessions, and ended up assisting Tom Dowd. The songs were written by, among others, Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Randy Newman, and Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil. The recording was a challenge for Wexler. He was not used to working with an artist who was in such habitual pursuit of perfection. In his book Rhythm and the Blues, Wexler wrote that out of all the songs that were initially recorded for the album, "she approved exactly zero." For her, he continued, "to say yes to one song was seen as a lifetime commitment." Springfield disputed this, saying she did choose two: "Son of a Preacher Man" and "Just a Little Lovin'". He was surprised, given Dusty's talent, by her apparent insecurity. Springfield later attributed her initial unease to a very real anxiety about being compared with the soul greats who had recorded in the same studios. Eventually Dusty's final vocals were recorded in New York. Additionally, Springfield stated that she had never before worked with just a rhythm track, and that it was the first time she had worked with outside producers, having self-produced her previous recordings (although she never took credit for that). During the Memphis sessions in November 1968, Dusty suggested to the heads of Atlantic Records to sign the newly-formed Led Zeppelin. She knew the band's bass player John Paul Jones, who had backed her in concerts before. Without having ever seen them and largely on Dusty's advice, the record company signed a deal of $200,000 with them. For the time being, that was the biggest deal of its kind for a new band. Dusty in Memphis was first transferred from vinyl to CD by Philips Records/PolyGram and re-released in the UK/Europe in 1988. The first digitally remastered re-issue was released by Warner Music's sublabel Rhino Entertainment in the US in 1992, then including three bonus tracks. A Deluxe Edition with no less than fourteen bonus tracks, again released by Rhino, followed in 1999. A fourth 24-bit digitally remastered CD edition with a third set of bonus tracks was issued by Mercury Records/Universal Music in the UK/Europe in 2002. Among the additional materials featured on these re-releases are recordings from the Atlantic Records archives; outtakes and alternate mixes from the Dusty in Memphis sessions, two tracks from a cancelled second album with Jerry Wexler recorded in 1969, tracks from a shelved second album with Gamble & Huff recorded in 1970 (following A Brand New Me/From Dusty...With Love) and the intended Faithful album produced by Jeff Barry in 1971, which came to be Springfield's final recordings for the Atlantic label. The completed Faithful album was however left unreleased when its pilot singles "Haunted" and "I Believe In You" failed to perform. With the exception of a mono mix of the title track "I'll Be Faithful" all master tapes for this album were later destroyed in a fire - along with Springfield's unreleased recording of The Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" from the follow-up sessions with Wexler - but Barry had kept reference copies of the intended final mixes and these were digitally remastered and first released as part of Rhino's Deluxe Edition of Dusty in Memphis in 1999.