1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die - #151. Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis (1969)

Label – Phillips
Producer – Tom Dowd, Arif Mardin and Jerry Wexler
Art Direction – Haig Adishian
Nationality – UK
Running Time – 33:31

Track Listing (standout tracks listed in bold)

1. Just A Little Lovin'
2. So Much Love
3. Son Of A Preacher Man
4. I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore
5. Don't Forget About Me
6. Breakfast In Bed
7. Just One Smile
8. The Windmills Of Your Mind
9. In The Land Of Make Believe
10. No Easy Way Down
11. I Can't Make It Alone

This is a fine record. This is one of those records that I always read about, and how it was a classic. Sometimes when I actually get around to listening to some of these ‘classics’ I wonder if memories distort or inflate the quality of recordings that have for one reason or another been labeled “classics”. In the case they are warranted. This set has definitive numbers in "Son of a Preacher Man," "Breakfast in Bed," and "Just a Little Lovin'" , but I enjoyed the entire record. It's truly a disc deserving of its classic status.
At the time Dusty Springfield was hoping to give her career a much needed boost, and although she had sung R&B tracks before, this was her first released of an entire album solely of R&B songs. “Dusty in Memphis” was produced by legendary producers Jerry Wexler, Arif Mardin and Tom Dowd. With that stable of producers who at the time had their pick of material from the top writers of the day, and the use of the finest session musicians in the Memphis area, it was hard not miss with this lp.
The standout track of the album is of course "Son of a Preacher Man". Released as a single, it reached #10 in the United Kingdom, United States and internationally. The Billboard year end chart placed the single at #96. It placed #77 among The 100 Best Singles of the Last 25 Years by the writers of the Rolling Stone magazine in 1987, and #43 of the Greatest Singles of All Time by the writers of New Musical Express in 2002.
“Dusty In Memphis” is frequently included in lists of the greatest albums of all time, and is highly recommended.


You can purchase the CD here, the 180 gram vinyl here