Dusty Springfield

[copley]

Remembering the great Dusty Springfield, good friend to Motown, who was born this day 16 April 1939 :)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsi0pruE3-k

[copley]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_QfgIVZ-yU

[Motown Eddie]

Thanks for posting these clips. I didn't know that Dusty recorded a version of 'Reflections' for BBC TV. Happy Birthday [[In Paradise) to the Great Dusty Springfield.

[BigAl]

I miss her to this day.

In addition to introducing Motown artists to UK audiences, she covered so many Hitsville songs so capably that many felt she should have signed with Motown during her label-jumping years, but if she did, she probably would have butted heads with the top brass there right away because she wasn't one to just go along with the program and had definite musical ideas of her own. Taking orders wasn't anywhere on her agenda. Still, it's nice to think about what wonderful music she might have made there.

[kenneth]

Do you think the Chris Clark signing was Gordy trying to get a Dusty-type singer?

Honest, I've had her 2 albums for years and have never played either one. I have her collection on Spectrum as well.

Any Chris Clark fans have an opinion?

[BigAl]

Do you think the Chris Clark signing was Gordy trying to get a Dusty-type singer?

Most definitely.
Chris' voice and musical style weren't all that similar to Dusty's, however. Chris was smoother, Dusty more gutsy. Still, I believe Chris was being consciously styled into a Dusty sort of mode. I wonder if Motown ever approached Dusty with any offers before grooming Chris as their "answer" to Dusty.

[copley]

Dusty was never approached by Motown which is just as well. I have a feeling that she would have said no. CC was good, but Dusty was in a league of her own.

[kenneth]

Dusty was never approached by Motown which is just as well. I have a feeling that she would have said no. CC was good, but Dusty was in a league of her own.

I agree. I don't know how critics evaluated her voice, but like Cher, you know instantly who was singing when you heard a Dusty song. I love her.

[BigAl]

Although Dusty's public appeal waned as the years went by, she was always well-respected within the industry, and most of her albums throughout the '70s, '80s and '90s received critical acclaim, but they just didn't sell. I think she might have been so strongly identified with the '60s and thus was viewed later as some kind of anachronism and largely dismissed by the public, which was a pity because she did some very fine recordings right up to her final Nashville album shortly before her passing.

[sophisticated_soul]

Dusty was the best, she was singular. While there were and are other excellent blue-eyed soul singers, IMO Dusty remains peerless.

[kenneth]

Although Dusty's public appeal waned as the years went by, she was always well-respected within the industry, and most of her albums throughout the '70s, '80s and '90s received critical acclaim, but they just didn't sell. I think she might have been so strongly identified with the '60s and thus was viewed later as some kind of anachronism and largely dismissed by the public, which was a pity because she did some very fine recordings right up to her final Nashville album shortly before her passing.

Well, she certainly didn't help with her tendency towards high drama, domestic violence and other problems. I think she was a great artist, but not a career artist say, in the sense of Diana Ross. Dusty was a Diva in the true sense of the word - everything was heightened and magnified beyond recognition. It came through in her singing, too.

I think "Dusty in Memphis" is a flawless album. From the first note to the last..."I Don't Want to Hear it Anymore," "Just One Smile," "No Easy Way Down," "Windmills of Your Mind." All masterpieces. I grew up in an upper middle class area of Detroit, but those lyrics to "I Don't Want to Hear It" spoke to me somehow, about hearing people talking about you through the thin walls of the apartment. Scott Walker did a great job on that song too. I might like his even better, I suppose because with a guy singing it made me identify even more!

I wish she had been a little better at her "career," because although we have a lot on her, we might have had more recorded output. The Pet Shop Boys certainly revered her!

[lakedistrictlad1]

I've never understood why Chris Clark and Dusty are ever mentioned in the same breath.

Is it just the Soul Sounds photo cover that raises the comparison? Other than that, I just don't see it.

As much as I love Chris's recordings and voice, Dusty is, as previously mentioned, peerless.

[luke]

Dusty brilliant. Why didn't Chris Clark make it?