Even throughout her Nineteen Sixties heyday, Dusty Springfield launched quite a few superb albums that had been critically undervalued and failed to grasp their chart potential. Chief amongst these, in fact, is the timeless Dusty In Memphis, now universally considered a basic LP which astoundingly, to today, has nonetheless by no means appeared on the UK charts. However this time, we’re specializing in one other considerably hidden gem in her catalog.
Instantly earlier than Springfield went to Memphis, she launched a fourth studio album which was important for a number of causes, not least that it was the primary to be co-produced by the singer herself. Dusty…Positively listed Dusty alongside her longtime collaborator, and made its UK chart debut on December 21, 1968.
Dusty had by now signed a brand new US cope with Atlantic, below which Dusty In Memphis can be the primary launch. However she remained on Philips again within the UK, the place she’d been within the singles Prime 10 that August with the good “I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten.”
Dusty…Positively featured a usually attention-grabbing number of superior interpretations, to her traditional excessive specification. Some mirrored her soul leanings, such because the Bert Berns/Jerry Ragovoy favorite “Piece Of My Heart” and Ashford & Simpson’s “I Can’t Give Back The Love I Feel For You,” first recorded by Syreeta Wright, when she was nonetheless referred to as Rita.
Springfield additionally turned once more to the work of Bacharach & David for each “Another Night” and the enduring “This Girl’s In Love With You.” The album additionally included her excellent studying of Randy Newman’s “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” and stylish grownup modern outings on Charles Aznavour and Herbert Kretzmer’s “Who (Will Take My Place)” and Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen’s “Second Time Around.”
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Because the album made its chart bow, Dusty was additionally climbing the singles countdown with the peerless “Son Of A Preacher Man,” however that wasn’t included on Dusty…Positively, being saved as an alternative for Dusty In Memphis. The sooner LP entered at No.38 and climbed to No.30 over Christmas and new 12 months 1969, however, maybe hampered by the shortage of a success single of its personal, did not climb any greater. But it surely’s an entry in her album output that repays listening all these many years later.
Purchase or stream the expanded model of Dusty…Positively.
