Dusty Springfield - Faithful (2015)

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Dusty Springfield - Faithful (2015)

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Dusty Springfield - Faithful (2015)

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"Faithful" is the title of Dusty Springfield's planned 3rd album for Atlantic Records, and 7th recorded studio album overall, recorded in the first half of 1971. Two singles from the planned album, "I Believe In You" (b/w "Someone Who Cares"), and "Haunted" (b/w "Nothing Is Forever", a track not intended for the album) were released in the U.S. in the fall of 1971, but failed to chart nationally. Due to poor response from the two singles, and a rumoured falling out with Atlantic executives, Springfield's contract with the company was not renewed, and the planned album was shelved and never given a catalogue number or title. "Faithful" was a working title, taken from the name of an album track, "I'll Be Faithful", which had possibly been under consideration as a third single. A fire in the mid-seventies at one of Atlantic's storage sites was thought to have destroyed the Faithful session tapes, leaving only the two singles (and possible third single, as a mono mix existed into the nineties) and their b-sides from the sessions intact. However, in the nineties the album's producer, Jeff Barry, was asked about the sessions and revealed he had kept completed stereo mixes of all the tracks. Most were released as bonus tracks on the Rhino/Atlantic deluxe remastered edition of Dusty in Memphis in 1999, though "Someone Who Cares" and "Nothing is Forever" had been released on Springfield's UK-only 1972 album See All Her Faces. In April 2015, "Faithful" was released as a proper album, forty-four years after its planned release was shelved, with an additional bonus track, "Nothing Is Forever", which was the B-side to the aforementioned single "Haunted". Additionally, Faithful marks Springfield's 14th studio album release, chronologically speaking, first in two decades, and first posthumous release. The release of the album as a standalone work, rather than a collection of bonus tracks, leaves only the planned 1974 release Longing as her lone remaining unreleased album. "Faithful" received a limited-edition, orange-colored vinyl release in May 2016, restricted to 1000 copies. Due to technical limitations this reissue does not feature the bonus track, "Nothing Is Forever".

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Dusty Springfield - Faithful (2015)

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Dusty Springfield intended to follow 1970's Gamble/Huff-produced A Brand New Me with an album produced by Jeff Barry, but this, her planned third record for Atlantic, wound up shelved in 1971. Why it was abandoned is unclear. Neither of the singles released from the sessions August's "Haunted"/"Nothing Is Forever, November's "I Believe in You"/"Someone Who Cares" dented the charts, a situation that understandably discouraged Dusty, who then had her manager release her from Atlantic. When she left the label, she left this Barry-produced record behind. Thought to be lost in a warehouse fire in 1978, tracks started to surface as Rhino assembled deluxe reissues of Dusty in Memphis and A Brand New Me, but the entire album didn't appear until Real Gone constructed Faithful in 2015. Produced by Jim Pierson and annotated by Joe Marchese, this release of Faithful certainly does have the feel of a lost classic, a record that exists on a plane between the gritty Southern soul of Dusty in Memphis and the smooth, assured A Brand New Me (known as From Dusty with Love in the U.K.), tempered with a heavy dose of professional studio craft from Barry and his crew of regular songwriters. Among these composers are Bobby Bloom he'd later have a hit with "Montego Bay" and Alex Harvey, who wrote hits for Kenny Rogers & the First Edition, but Barry and Springfield also cherry-picked David Gates' "Make It with You" and Carole King's "You've Got a Friend," giving them a lush, soulful sheen. Most of Faithful simmers on this level, although the bluesy funk of "Natchez Trace" comes as a surprise, as does the spooky strut of "Haunted." This is just enough variety to give spice and momentum to Barry's immaculate constructions, but even these productions are soulful, not stiff: he gets the band cooking, letting them lay a slyly seductive bed for Springfield, who remains at the peak showcased on her two previous Atlantic records. If Faithful isn't as perfect as Dusty in Memphis, it's because few records are. If Faithful is as good as A Brand New Me and it very nearly is it's a testament that sometimes the record business is unfair, even to some of its brightest stars.

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Dusty Springfield - Faithful (2015)

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Dusty Springfield - Faithful (2015)

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Dusty Springfield - Faithful (2015)

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