Day 298: Dusty Springfield – Dusty in Memphis

Today, it was once again time to plug a massive hole in my music knowledge. I’ve only heard a few of Dusty Springfield’s songs but never an album and I definitely don’t know anything about her, so I thought I’d go for her most well-known album, Dusty in Memphis.

Album cover courtesy of Atlantic

Dusty Springfield was an English pop and soul singer who got her start in 1957, singing as a duo with her brother at folk clubs and at Butlins holiday camps. She and her brother were later in a trio called the Springfields, where she got the second part of her stage name – she’d been nicknamed Dusty as a child as she was a tomboy who liked playing sports with the boys. The band broke up in 1963, after which she focused on a solo career.

In 1969, she wanted to boost her career after a little slump where she was on a circuit playing at UK working men’s club, so she signed with Atlantic, because it was the label of her idol Aretha Franklin. Dusty in Memphis was her first time working with Atlantic’s Jerry Wexler, as well as Arif Mardin and Tom Dowd, who also worked with Aretha.. I originally wasn’t that big of a seller, even though she’d scored a hit with “Son of a Preacher Man”, but it’s later become known as her career-defining work.

First of all, I never knew that you could make a song about wanting to start your day with a bang and still sound as elegant as she does in the opener “Just a Little Lovin’” – somehow she manages to make it sound radio-tame and seductive at the same time. I also really liked “The Windmills of your Mind” and “In the Land of Make Believe”, the breathy and dreamlike slower jams songs from the middle of the album.

The songs are mainly quite simple songs about love and heartbreak, but delivered so convincingly that you can’t help but to be enamoured by them. Her voice is stunning and her delivery impeccable, elevating the album far beyond what you’d think it’d be, based on the description. There’s a reason why this album is so revered, and also why people hold her in such high value – it’s great.

I’ve been missing out. Here’s how little I knew about Dusty Springfield: I always thought she was American, based on very little else than having heard “Son of a Preacher Man” – apparently she’s from Hampstead. I need to get into more of her stuff. 9/10.