Dear Dusty Springfield… the greatest female soul singer these islands have ever produced. She was one of THE defining voices of the 60s. Her hit list speaks for itself while amongst her many admirers were Berry Gordy and Burt Bacharach… both of whom know a thing or two about music! Then in the early 70s, a lull; a dip in a garlanded career that saw Dusty decamp to America. There she recorded sporadically but albums like ‘White Heat’ failed to capture the spirit, the magic, the essence of Dusty Springfield.
Then, thankfully, a renaissance… a comeback engineered by, maybe oddly, the Pet Shop Boys. The duo contacted Dusty and asked her to contribute vocals to a new song, ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This’ and the result was that Dusty was soon back in the UK charts some 17 years after her last appearance. The single soared to no. 2; kept off the top spot by a fresh faced newcomer called Rick Astley with an ear worm of a pop song called ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’.
Ms Springfield, though, was back in business and she began work on an album right away. That long player, 1990’s ‘Reputation’ was both critically acclaimed and a commercial success and it’s just won a fabulous, expanded, de-luxe reissue courtesy of Strike Force Entertainment (SFE).
The new release offers three discs… 2 CDs and 1 DVD. The first CD contains the original ten track album along with 12″ mixes of some of the key cuts like ‘Nothing Has Been Proved’ and ‘In Private’. You also get the in-demand Shep Pettitbone remix of ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This’ (a song that was never actually on ‘Reputation’). The second CD is labelled ‘Remixes and B sides’ which sort of speaks for itself. It’s a treasure trove for Dusty fans and indeed for 90s collectors. At the moment we have the atmospheric instrumental version of the ‘Scandal’ song, ‘Nothing Has Been Proved’ on repeat.
The DVD disc features five promotional videos of the album’s singles, one of which, interestingly, is Dusty’s version of Goffin and King’s ‘I Just Want To Stay Here’. Despite the modernity and the contemporary gloss, Dusty still looked back to the 60s for that great song!
As befits such a landmark release the package comes compete with a lovely, thorough, 32 page booklet that lets you know everything you need to know about the album… a perfect complement to the great music.
(BB) 4/5
