Dusty in Memphis (1969)

Dusty in Memphis is the fifth studio album by English singer Dusty Springfield, released on 31 March 1969 in the United States by Atlantic Records and by Philips Records internationally. Springfield worked on the album with a team of musicians and producers that included Jerry Wexler, Arif Mardin, Tom Dowd, conductor Gene Orloff, backing vocalists the Sweet Inspirations, bassist Tommy Cogbill, and guitarist Reggie Young. Initial sessions were recorded at American Sound Studio in Memphis, while Springfield's final vocals and the album's orchestral parts were recorded at Atlantic Records' New York City studios.

Dusty in Memphis sold poorly upon its initial release despite featuring one of Springfield's top-10 UK hits "Son of a Preacher Man". It has since been acclaimed as her best work and one of the greatest albums of all time. Music critic Robert Christgau called it "the all-time rock-era torch record" and included it in his "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings, published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981). In 2001, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

In 2020, the album was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In its official press release, the library stated that despite its modest sales when first released, "over time, Dusty in Memphis grew in stature to become widely recognized as an important album by a woman in the rock era."

Writing and recording

Hoping to reinvigorate her career and boost her credibility, Springfield signed with Atlantic Records, at the time the label of Aretha Franklin, one of her soul music idols. Springfield signed with Atlantic on the condition that she work with the label's chief producer and co-owner Jerry Wexler. For their initial album project, Wexler provided Springfield with dozens of song demo recordings, and the two decided on a program of 11 songs, primarily in the pop genre. Eight of the songs were composed by New York and Los Angeles-based songwriters who at the time were associated with the "Brill Building Sound". However, "Son of a Preacher Man", the album's best-known track, was not among these, and it was written with the idea of submitting it to Aretha Franklin. (Franklin cut her own version of the song in 1969 after Springfield's single reached the #10 position in the Billboard Hot 100.) "Preacher Man" was musically and thematically closer to classic Southern soul as was "Breakfast in Bed". Farthest from the soul genre on the album was Michel Legrand's "The Windmills of Your Mind", which Springfield resisted and Wexler insisted she do. Wexler's and Springfield's idea for the album was to record the pop compositions with Southern soul's rhythmic feel, a combination that other producers had tried successfully at American Sound Studios with acts like The Box Tops and Merrilee Rush.

The Memphis sessions were supervised by Wexler, fellow Atlantic producer Arif Mardin, and Atlantic engineer Tom Dowd. Performing with Springfield were back-up singers the Sweet Inspirations and members of an informal group of American Sound Studios studio musicians known as the Memphis Boys, which included guitarist Reggie Young and bassist Tommy Cogbill. In addition to their pop session work, The Memphis Boys had previously backed soul musicians Wilson Pickett, Joe Tex, Bobby Womack, and King Curtis. Recording engineer Terry Manning, who was hired on assignment to write a piece on the sessions for the New Musical Express, attended and ended up assisting Dowd, along with Ed Kollis. The songs were written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Randy Newman, and Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

The recording was a challenge for Wexler. In his book Rhythm and the Blues, Wexler wrote that out of all the songs that were initially submitted to Springfield for consideration, "she approved exactly zero." For her, he continued, "to say yes to one song was seen as a lifetime commitment." Springfield disputed this, saying she did choose two: "Son of a Preacher Man" and "Just a Little Lovin'". Wexler was surprised, given Dusty's talent, by her apparent insecurity. Springfield later attributed her initial unease to a very real anxiety about being compared with the soul greats who had recorded in the same studios. Eventually Dusty's final vocals were recorded in New York. Additionally, Springfield stated that she had never before worked with just a rhythm track, and that it was the first time she had worked with outside producers, having self-produced her previous recordings (something for which she never took credit).