Longing (Dusty Springfield album)
| Longing | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | Unreleased | |||
| Recorded | July – September 1974 | |||
| Studio | 914 Sound Studios, Blauvelt, New York | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 32:38 | |||
ABC Dunhill | ||||
| Producer | Brooks Arthur | |||
| Dusty Springfield chronology | ||||
| ||||
Longing is the unreleased ninth studio album by
Longing was recorded in Blauvelt, New York and produced by Brooks Arthur, best known for his work as a sound engineer for Phil Spector and Bert Berns through most of the 1960s and later as a composer and producer in his own right for among others Neil Diamond, Bette Midler, Van Morrison and Janis Ian. Elements was the working title of the album but it was re-titled and advertised as Longing in the music press near the end of 1974 and had at that stage also officially been given a catalogue number: DSD-50186. Springfield complained in interviews later in the seventies that some producers of her previous album, Cameo, had not even asked: "what key I wanted to sing in". Not used to being so uninvolved in her own work (owing partly to her own reported perfectionist tendencies), suffering from self-esteem issues due to her rapidly declining career, and enduring problems with substance abuse, Springfield abandoned the Longing album altogether late in the year.
The only track from the Longing sessions to be given an official release in the 1970s was "I Am Your Child", though only the instrumental track (featuring the song's writer,
When Springfield, after a time in her life often described as her 'wilderness years', returned to the music scene for the recording of the 1978 album It Begins Again with fellow Briton Roy Thomas Baker she re-recorded two further tracks originally included in the Longing set; the Motown classic "A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knocking Everyday)" and Chi Coltrane's "Turn Me Around", both with slightly updated and different arrangements.
The year 2000 saw the debut of three original recordings from the Longing sessions;
In 2001
As was the case with many of Springfield's albums released and/or recorded in the '70s, Longing, though unreleased, contained some of Springfield's most critically acclaimed work. The track "In the Winter", written and also recorded by Janis Ian, is often singled out from the recording sessions as an example. Ian said that after hearing Springfield sing the song she (Ian) could "no longer do the piece justice" herself. Melissa Manchester has also been quoted as saying she was "over the moon" upon hearing Springfield sing "Home to Myself" during the recording session, on which Manchester also played the piano.
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Official release | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Exclusively for Me" (Recorded on 9 July 1974) | David Jones, Edward Holland Jr., Brian Holland | Beautiful Soul: The ABC Dunhill Collection | 3:42 |
Personnel and production
- Dusty Springfield – vocals, background vocals
- Brooks Arthur – record producer, audio engineer
- Larry Alexander – assistant engineer
- Ron Frangiapane – musical arranger, keyboards
- Garry Sherman – arranger, keyboards
- Renee Armand – background vocals
- Gail Kantor – background vocals
- Merle Miller – background vocals
- Judy Thomas- background vocals
- Christie Thompson – background vocals
- Maretha Stewart – background vocals
- Rita – background vocals
- Steve Gadd - drums
- Gary Chester – drums
- Jimmy Johnson – drums
- Bernard "Pretty" Purdie– drums
- Barry Lazarowitz – drums
- Ralph MacDonald – percussion
- Joe Venuto – percussion
- Al Gorgoni – guitar
- Cornell Dupree – guitar
- Hugh McCracken – guitar
- David Snyder – guitar
- John Tropea – guitar
- Russell George – bass guitar
- Gordon Edwards – bass
- Stephen Schwartz– keyboards
- Frank Owens – keyboards
- Joe d'Elia – keyboards
- Richard Tee – keyboards
- Paul Griffin – keyboards
- Melissa Manchester – keyboards, background vocals, liner notes (Beautiful Soul: The ABC Dunhill Collection)
- Barry Manilow – keyboards, liner notes (Beautiful Soul: The ABC Dunhill Collection)
- Artie Kaplan – music contractor
- Ben Mitchell – digital remastering, mixing (Simply Dusty)
- Paul Howes – digital remastering, mixing (Simply Dusty)
- Tony Heester – digital remastering, mixing (Simply Dusty)
- Janis Ian – liner notes (Simply Dusty)
- Kevin Reeves – mixing (Beautiful Soul: The ABC Dunhill Collection)
- Dan Hersch – digital remastering (Beautiful Soul: The ABC Dunhill Collection)
- Jim Pierson – liner notes, compilation producer (Beautiful Soul: The ABC Dunhill Collection)
- Pat Lawrence – executive producer (Beautiful Soul: The ABC Dunhill Collection)
- Michele Horie – project coordinator (Beautiful Soul: The ABC Dunhill Collection)
- Dana Smart – project coordinator (Beautiful Soul: The ABC Dunhill Collection)
References
- ^ "Longing ~ Dusty Springfield". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
Sources
- Howes, Paul (2001). The Complete Dusty Springfield. London: Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. ISBN 1-903111-24-2.
- Liner notes: Janis Ian. Simply Dusty, Universal Music546,730-2, 2000.
- Liner notes: Barry Manilow & Melissa Manchester. Beautiful Soul: The ABC Dunhill Collection, Universal Music088,113,477-2, 2001.