Called Dusty went much further than that. Several of the tunes were covers of black pop hits (or soon-to-be hits) which Springfield refused to mellow out in the normal manner of white cover acts. Her spirited rush at The Supremes’ When The Lovelight Starts Shining Thru His Eyes, for instance, was just as effective as the original. She sings both parts on the treatment of the Inez and Charlie Foxx hit Mockingbird without neutering the result. On You Don’t Own Me (a success for Lesley Gore in the US), she comes close to sounding like a blues mama. In tracks like these, Dusty’s reputation as Britain’s great soul voice was born. But that famous misnomer – bolstered further by the later and probably overrated Dusty In Memphis – conceals her greater talent, as a kind of ice queen of torch singing. The tracks which really stand out here are the Bacharach–David tunes: Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa, Anyone Who Had A Heart, Wishin’ And Hopin’ and My Colouring Book, which approaches sheer desolation in feeling. Dusty was a great sufferer, and although even these songs would be surpassed by such monumental tearjerkers as I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten and All I See Is You, the record sows the seeds for her mastery of pathos. But that was some way off yet.
In 1964, this 25-year-old convent girl stared out from record racks and seemed an irresistible mix of country girl and pop diva.
The Beatles
A Hard Day’s Night
Rock’n’roll grows up as the Fabs write all of their third album.
Record label: Parlophone (UK) United Artists (US)
Produced: George Martin
Recorded: Abbey Road and Marconi Pathe Studios, London; January 29–June 3, 1964
Released: July 10, 1964 (UK) June 26, 1964 (US)
Chart peaks: 1 (UK) 1 (US)
Personnel: John Lennon (v, g); Paul McCartney (v, b); George Harrison (v, g); Ringo Starr (d); George Martin (p)
Track listing: A Hard Day’s Night; I Should Have Known Better; If I Fell; I’m Happy Just To Dance With You; And I Love Her; Tell Me Why; Can’t Buy Me Love; Any Time At All; I’ll Cry Instead; Things We Said Today; When I Get Home; You Can’t Do That; I’ll Be Back
Running time: 30.30
Current CD: CDP7464372
Further listening: With The Beatles (1963); Help! (1965)
Further reading: Revolution In The Head (Ian Macdonald, 1998); The Beatles As Musicians (Walter Everett, 1999); The Beatles: An Illustrated Record (Roy Carr and Tony Tyler, 1975); www.beatles.com
Download: Not currently legally available
By March 1964, The Beatles had changed pop music forever, setting standards of cross-generational appeal that remain a wonder to this day. They were also getting nods of musical approval from the establishment about their songwriting and for their third album – also serving as the soundtrack to their first movie – they decided to go for an unheard-of option, an all-originals set. In the end, side one of the LP comprised songs from the film while side two contained other new songs. (In America, side two used George Martin instrumentals, the other tracks creeping out on other albums.) John Lennon, perturbed by a recent Beatles single A-side being nabbed by the Paul McCartney-penned Can’t Buy Me Love, took full advantage of Paul being relatively distracted (by his romance with Jane Asher) to reassert his domination of the band by lead-composing or singing on ten of the thirteen resulting tracks.
Inevitably, given that the songs were written in the pressure bubble that was Beatlemania, the band – however spirited – occasionally sounded formulaic (Any Time At All, I Should Have Known Better, When I Get Home), but the best tracks were the pinnacle of what rock-era pop songwriting had yet achieved. Lennon’s ballad If I Fell encapsulates what Carr and Tyler called the ‘excellence-through-innocence’ that characterises the whole album while McCartney’s And I Love Her was instantly seized upon by adult pop merchants as a new standard. ‘I consider it his first Yesterday,’ Lennon reflected much later.
There was the bluesy title track with its unforgettable opening chord (written specifically as a startling opening to the movie), exotic guitar textures courtesy of George’s new Rickenbacker 12-string (which would have such an effect on West Coast Beatle-freak Roger McGuinn) and a pair of delicious compositions (Lennon’s I’ll Be Back – based on Del Shannon’s Runaway – and McCartney’s Things We Said Today) that wallow in minor/major ambivalence, signposts toward future sophistication. The Dick Lester-directed black-and-white biographical fantasy film was described by US critic Andrew Sarris as ‘the Citizen Kane of jukebox movies’ while elsewhere Lennon and McCartney were hailed as the greatest songwriters since Schubert.
The Animals
The Animals
Provincial British R&B, as dirty and sweaty as the group’s ill-fitting suits.
Record label: Columbia
Produced: Mickey Most
Recorded: EMI Studios, London; 1964
Released: October 1964
Chart peaks: 6 (UK) 7 (US)
Personnel: Eric Burdon (v); Alan Price (k); Hilton Valentine (g); Chas Chandler (b); John Steel (d)
Track listing: Story Of Bo Diddley; Bury My Body; Dimples; I’ve Been Around; I’m In Love Again; The Girl Can’t Help It; I’m Mad Again; She Said Yeah; The Right Time; Memphis, Tennessee; Boom Boom (S/US); Around And Around
Running time: 38.52
Current CD: EMI Gold 4732722 adds: Rare Tracks album
Further listening: The Complete Animals (1990)
Further Reading: I Used To Be An Animal – But I’m All Right Now (Eric Burdon, 1992)
Download: iTunes; HMV Digital
By 1964, the Merseybeat boom had fizzled out. Only The Beatles and The Searchers proved to have staying power. The new boom on the block was tough, rootsy R&B, propagated by a network of clubs across the UK. Newcastle’s Club Au Go Go was an essential stop on any American bluesman’s tour itinerary. However, when elder statesmen such as Sonny Boy Williamson II hit town, they ran the risk of being blown off-stage by the toughest outfit of the British blues boom. The Animals majored on the musicianship of Alan Price on piano and Vox Continental organ and the secret weapon of the raw impassioned vocals of Eric Burdon and their repertoire, drawn from the rougher end of Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, et al.
They were signed to EMI by producer Mickey Most, and debuted during three one-day sessions in January 1964. A second date in February and third in July provided the material for this album, the first three singles and their B-sides. The second of these was The House Of The Rising Sun, which, released in July, quickly topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
For the album, The Animals essentially played their live set and that was it. Burdon gave out true bottled soul on Bury My Body and I’m Mad Again (one of three John Lee Hooker songs), while the unsung Hilton Valentine (the final member to join) provided a great growling guitar solo. Alan Price contributed rolling piano to Hooker standard Dimples. (‘He was always better on piano,’ says Burdon, ‘I hated the sound of that fucking Vox Continental, but it was the only practical thing to use for live dates.’)
Thanks to The Animals and two other eponymous, largely R&B-influenced albums by British bands the same year – The Kinks and The Rolling Stones – this music would remain the dominant form in the clubs and charts until the