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November 6, 2009 - 2:22pm
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Dusty Springfield: I wanted to like her but...
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The only reason anyone ever thought Dusty Springfield was great was that for years Harry Pearson of The Absolute Sound pushed her version of "The Look of Love" from the Casino Royale soundtrack as the ultimate recording.
When Harry Pearson grows up (which will probably be never), he will realize that he has been confusing some sort of adolescent fantasy with good singing for all these years.
If you want to hear some really great singing, get the new release of Julie London's greatest; it's a 2-CD set with some wonderful renditions of the classic ballads. For those who have forgotten (or never heard of her), she was a cabaret singer who made at least 20 great LP albums in the 1950s and 1960s, and acted on TV in the "Emergency" series for years as nurse Dixie McCall in the ER ( an incredibly sexy woman, too...lol).
(she was incidentally married to Jack Webb of "Dragnet" fame and then Bobby Troup, the bandleader who pushed her career, wrote "Route 66", and also acted in "Emergency" as the ER doctor...)
I agree with Harry that that recording was extremely good. Most likely he picked that particular recording because of its outstanding technique, not the performance or the performer. Must be some kind of audiophile thing. If you can find the original Colpix soundtrack, which is rather unlikely, you'll see what all the fuss wuz about.
If you're expecting Dusty Springfield to compete with jazz cabaret singers then you're going to be disappointed. She was a pop star, not a chanteuse.
However, her voice has a very distinctive "smoky" timbre that I find very appealing when used appropriately. I think her "The Look Of Love" is as good as any of the other recorded performances of Burt Bachrach songs from the '60s, and that's what she's really competing against. For an English singer suddenly thrust into the world of the Cutting Crew and the LA recording scene of the 1960s, I think she holds her own quite nicely.
"Dusty In Memphis" was her best work,IMO. Other than that she was mostly a victim of "great voice, lousy material" syndrome. There are enough gems buried in her recordings after Memphis to support a decent compilation album.
Way to go! There can NEVER, EVER be nearly enough bashing of HP and his absolutely useless "Super Disk" lists. When are audiophiles ever going to learn to listen for themselves?
The "Casino Royale" soundtrack ranks right along side of "Famous Blue Raincoat" and my all time favorite "Jazz At The Pawn Shop" as some of the best examples of what happens when one listens through one's ass-hole instead of one's ear-hole.
I don;t know who harry pearson is nor do I care. ive liked dusty for a very, very long time. shelby lynne has a similar thing going on..