Digging Our Own Crates: Dusty Springfield – Dusty in Memphis
For the past few days I have been obsessed with Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis. I recently got a double 45 pressing on Analogue Productions which sounds sweet. Unlike a lot of today’s younger singers, Dusty was less concerned with vocal acrobatics and more about actually feeling the music and it comes across. – Colleen Murphy
Dusty in Memphis is so much more than its iconic song “Son of a Preacher Man.” I wouldn’t have known so until I listened to its entirety for this series, but Dusty Springfield’s honey-soaked blue-eyed soul album has a lot to offer to willing listeners. Dust & Grooves interviewee Colleen Murphy made note of its opener, “Just a Little Lovin,” as a perfect wake up song and it’s clear why. The song, as so many on the album, are a concoction of torch songs and strings, culminating into the kind of album you could slow dance to all night (and should you choose to do so on your own, all the better).
When the British singer was recording this album, she was reportedly so nervous to record at American Sound in Memphis that she ended up doing all of her vocals in New York instead. Dusty herself has been overshadowed by “Son of a Preacher Man,” and she was constantly afraid of being compared to her soul idols, including Aretha Franklin, who the song was initially written for. She later told Mojo, “I hated it because I couldn’t be Aretha Franklin…To this day, I listen to Aretha Franklin’s phrasing and go, ‘Goddammit!’ That’s the way I should have done it. Now, if I do it onstage, I’ll cop her phrasing! It was a matter of ego, too: if I can’t be as good as Aretha, then I’m not gonna do it at all.”
Thankfully, ageless listeners have rejected this—the album consistently makes greatest-of-all-time lists and is a pop landmark. When I put on this record, I know I’ll be swaying all night long.
Check out our full interview with Colleen Murphy.
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