Whether you like Amy Winehouse, Adele or Duffy; if you're a fan of the British female soul singer, then all roads lead back to Dusty Springfield.
Springfield, like the R&B besotted Brits of her generation, sang her versions of American soul with love and enormous respect. What she brought to it was a pop sensibility informed by her very catholic tastes - everything from Gershwin, Rodgers & Hart and Cole Porter to Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller. The woman knew great music, and it came out in both her song selection and in the American acts that she promoted in England. In 1965, she hosted the first Motown TV show in England, and decades later, many Motown greats credited her with helping their music grow in popularity in the UK.
Her greatest and most beloved work, Dusty in Memphis, recorded with Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin, is one of the greatest white soul albums of all time, an album of remarkable and lasting emotional resonance. If it sounds effortless, it wasn't. Surrounded by the producers, singers and musicians who were responsible for some of the greatest soul music ever, she was clearly intimidated. Suffering from what Jerry Wexler called, "a giant inferiority complex," she had to record her vocals in New York, away from the musicians.
But that is another story. Today, on Bootleg Friday, her exquisite taste is revealed here in the songs she selected for her performances on the BBC. Revel in that voice.
Download: Tossin' And Turnin'
Download: I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
Download: Little By Little
Download: Uptight (Everything Is Alright)
Download: You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
Download: Good Lovin'
Download: To Love Somebody
Download: Son Of A Preacher Man
Download: (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher And Higher
Friday, February 20, 2009
Bootleg Friday: Dusty Springfield At the BBC
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4 comments:
Thanks for the great show. Any chance you know what the date for this show was? Also, I was wondering if there is any way you could point me to the full recordings of either this show or the Sam and Dave one that you shared a couple of weeks ago.
Either way, thanks for sharing and thank for the fantastic blog.
Wow. I am an idiot. I looked at the tagging on iTunes and saw the info I was looking for. Still wondering about the Sam and Dave show, though.
Great music and tidbit on NYC vocals "in Memphis". If you haven't seen it, check out DVD on producer - "Tom Dowd & The Language of Music" - for incredible bio and fabulous ride through Atlantic heydays.
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