Dusty In Memphis


As the sixties were drawing to a close, Dusty was becoming unsettled and restless with her career. Her triumph as the most gifted, musically aware and talented female singer the UK had produced was undisputed, but she was starting to question her musical direction. Her 1967 album Where Am I Going continued to reveal her eclectic taste and unique ability to master a range of styles, but it was not a major hit.
Chart success continued, but not at the level that Dusty had previously enjoyed. She felt herself being pushed into the adult cabaret bracket, and although this provided material stability, she was finding it increasingly unsatisfying artistically. The sixties ended with the release of Dusty's most famous, celebrated and critically acclaimed album Dusty In Memphis.
	By the time Dusty was recording this album in 1969, she was taking her voice to a new place. Gone were the loud drums and the Spectoresque production sound, and from Memphis onwards her voice took centre stage. Dusty always said that she used her voice as an instrument, as part of the ensemble, and from this period onwards this is more evident.
Switching from Philips to Atlantic records, Dusty delivered an album that showcased her soulful attributes like never before, featuring material from the likes of Randy Newman, Goffin & King and Bacharach-David.
It is a travesty that this album did not sell well, only reaching number 43 in her home country. It is now widely acknowledged as being one of the greatest albums of the decade, producing the massive selling single Son Of A Preacher Man, which hit number 9 in the UK and number 10 in the USA in December 1968.
		For the observer of the popular music chart, one could be forgiven for thinking that after Son Of A Preacher Man Dusty vanished from the scene, apart from a few sporadic songs that just made the Top 40: Am I The Same Girl (1969), How Can I Be Sure (1970) and, later, Baby Blue (1979). The fact of the matter is quite different. Too many biographical pieces falsely state that “Dusty vanished from the scene as the sixties came to a close.”
It is my opinion that, during the seventies and into the eighties, Dusty made some of her finest work, drawing on both past and present personal experience and thus emotionally charging her material as never before. Dusty created an artistic triumph with Dusty In Memphis and it soon became an album that was to set a standard, not only for her, but for other artists as well.
It may well be that the heights to which she soared on this album were to become a rod for her own back as she sought to progress and develop further. Certainly, the critics were not going to allow her or the public to forget this album, which is now a part of music's mythology.
		^ Top Next >