Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Dusty
A random internet moment today brought the information that 16 April is the birthday of Dusty Springfield - almost unbelievably it would have been her seventieth.
Here she is as I and countless others remember her in her glory days: elegant, beautiful, - and with that flawless, unique voice and extraordinary musicality that set her head-and-beehive above any potential rivals. (Sandy? Cilla? Lulu? Oh, please....)
And check the hand gestures. Up there with Piaf, in my view.
I saw her perform (with backing group The Echoes) at the Pavillion Theatre, Bournemouth, in the summer of 1967. Callow teenagers that we were, we knew that this one was special - effortlessly cool.
The quintessential Dusty experience? I choose the 1965 LP (we didn't say 'album', we said 'LP') Everything's Coming Up Dusty.
Glorious.
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6 comments:
I'd go for the live album Dusty in Memphis personally. Have you listened to any Duffy yet? Elijah and Elisha and all that.
Very nice tribute to Dusty as we move into 16th April, which would have been her 70th birthday.
You should join our Dusty forum - "Let's Talk Dusty!" at http://www.dustyspringfield.info/
Best wishes -
Will
Thank you, both.
Mr Gnome and I are not, as yet, steeped in the ouevre of the buoyantly bouffant Duffy - but we shall repair post haste unto Youtube to broaden our horizons!
'Dusty in Memphis' is my favourite as well... although the one I have definitely isn't live, it is a marvellous collection of R&B numbers written by people like Carole King and Randy Newman, backed by Atlantic's finest musicians and produced by Jerry Wexler that she recorded to try and revive a career that was seen to be in a slump...
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dusty_in_Memphis for details :-)
I'm off to the Apple Store to purchase the Memphis album forthwith!
Thank you, gentlemen!
Isn't serendipity a wonderful thing?
Those gestures are very strange - some of them seem to belong to a mannequin. But a great performance, very stylish and very stylised.
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