''Longing'' was to have been

Dusty Springfield Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, Pop music, p ...

's second LP for the

ABC Dunhill Records ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels befo ...

label, and ninth studio album overall, recorded in 1974 and planned for release the same year. Most of the ''Longing'' recordings were mixed and released much later on the compilations ''Simply Dusty'' (2000) and ''Beautiful Soul: The ABC Dunhill Collection'' (2001). ''Longing'' was recorded in Blauvelt, New York and produced by Brooks Arthur, best known for his work as a sound engineer for

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...

and

Bert Berns Bertrand Russell Berns (November 8, 1929 – December 30, 1967), also known as Bert Russell and (occasionally) Russell Byrd, was an American songwriter and record producer of the 1960s. His songwriting credits include "Twist and Shout", "Piece ...

through most of the 1960s and later as a composer and producer in his own right for among others

Neil Diamond Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He has had ten No. 1 singles on the Hot 100 and Adul ...

Bette Midler Bette Midler (;''Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress, comedian and author. Throughout her career, which spans over five decades, Midler has received List of awards and nominations received by Be ...

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

and

Janis Ian Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink; April 7, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter who was most commercially successful in the 1960s and 1970s. Her signature songs are the 1966/67 hit " Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" and the 1975 Top T ...

. ''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,

Barry Manilow Barry Manilow (born Barry Alan Pincus; June 17, 1943) is an American singer and songwriter with a career that spans seven decades. His hit recordings include "Could It Be Magic", " Somewhere Down the Road", " Mandy", "I Write the Songs", " Can ...

) was used. Springfield recorded new lead vocals over the original backing track and the song was released as the B-side of her 1977 US single "Let Me Love You Once Before You Go" on the

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

label. In 1980 the re-recorded version was in turn issued as the B-side of the Philips Records UK single "

Your Love Still Brings Me to My Knees "Your Love Still Brings Me to My Knees" is a song originally recorded by British artist Dusty Springfield and released in the UK in early 1980. It was her last single release on the Mercury label, but failed to reach the UK charts, despite heavy ra ...

" and "I Am Your Child" subsequently found its way onto the compilation album ''Love Songs'' released by

Phonogram Phonogram may refer to: * A sound recording – see Geneva Phonograms Convention * ''Phonogram'' (comics), a comic book by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie * Phonogram (linguistics), a grapheme which represents a phoneme or a combination of phone ...

in Europe in the late 1980s. The song is also of special significance in the history of Manilow's own career as he claims it is the first song he ever wrote. 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 ''It Begins Again'' is the tenth studio album recorded by Dusty Springfield and the ninth released. Recorded during the middle of 1977, ''It Begins Again'' was her first completed and released album since '' Cameo'' five years earlier. Two of ...

'' with fellow Briton

Roy Thomas Baker Roy Thomas Baker (born 10 November 1946) is an English record producer, songwriter and arranger, who has produced rock and pop and songs since the 1970s. Career Baker began his career at Decca Records at the age of 14 and later worked as an a ...

she re-recorded two further tracks originally included in the ''Longing'' set; the Motown classic "

A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knocking Everyday) "A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knocking Everyday)" is a 1963 song issued as the B-side to Motown singing group Martha and the Vandellas' hit single, "Heat Wave", released on the Gordy label. The song, written and produced by Vandellas cohor ...

" and

Chi Coltrane Chi Coltrane (born November 6, 1948) is an American rock/gospel music, gospel singer, songwriter and pianist. She first came to notice in 1972 with the single "Thunder and Lightning (Chi Coltrane song), Thunder and Lightning". Her 1973 song "G ...

'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;

's "In the Winter",

Melissa Manchester Melissa Manchester (born February 15, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Since the 1970s, her songs have been carried by adult contemporary radio stations. She has also appeared on television, in films, and on stage. Early l ...

and

Carole Bayer Sager Carole Bayer Sager (born Carol Bayer on March 8, 1947) is an American lyricist, singer, and songwriter. Early life and career Bayer Sager was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Anita Nathan Bayer and Eli Bayer. Her family was Jewish. She grad ...

's "Home to Myself" and

Colin Blunstone Colin Edward Michael Blunstone (born 24 June 1945) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. In a career spanning more than 60 years, Blunstone came to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the English rock band the Zombies, whi ...

and David Jones' "Exclusively for Me", all of which had been mixed and digitally remastered as early as 1995. These three titles were finally released as part of

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, Dutch law. UMG's cor ...

UK's 4 CD boxed set ''Simply Dusty'', a project which was commissioned with Springfield's full approval before her death in 1999. In 2001

's American sublabel

Hip-O Records Hip-O Records is a record label that specializes in reissues and compilations. It is part of Universal Music Group. Established in 1996, the label has distributed releases from 'out of style' genres such as disco and early hip-hop music as wel ...

released the compilation ''Beautiful Soul: The ABC Dunhill Collection'' which besides the 1973 album '' Cameo'' also contained nine of the ten titles intended to be used on ''Longing'', including the original versions of "I Am Your Child", "A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knocking Every Day)" and "Turn Me Around". In addition, some of the tracks used incomplete or 'practice' vocals, done to enable a release of the album in any form; the track "Corner of the Sky" being the best example. Springfield completed some vocals on the track, but never sang a whole verse. Thus, it was the only track not included in the ''Beautiful Soul'' set as it was too incomplete to arrange any sort of commercial release. It was however completed and released in 2007 after fellow British singer

Petula Clark Petula Sally Olwen Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer. She has one of the longest serving careers of a British singer, spanning more than seven decades. Clark's professional career began during the ...

added her own vocals and released the song as a duet on her album ''Duets''. 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

, 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.

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

Personnel and production

* Dusty Springfield – vocals,

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...

* Brooks Arthur – record producer,

audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

* Larry Alexander – assistant engineer * Ron Frangiapane –

musical arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

, keyboards * Garry Sherman – arranger, keyboards * Renee Armand – background vocals * Gail Kantor – background vocals *

Merle Miller Merle Dale Miller (May 17, 1919 – June 10, 1986) was an American writer, novelist, and author who is perhaps best remembered for his best-selling biography of Harry S. Truman, and as a pioneer in the gay rights movement. Miller came out ...

– background vocals * Judy Thomas- background vocals * Christie Thompson – background vocals * Maretha Stewart – background vocals * Rita – background vocals *

Steve Gadd Stephen Kendall Gadd (born April 9, 1945) is an American drummer, percussionist, and session musician. Gadd is one of the best-known and highly regarded session and studio drummers in the industry, recognized by his induction into the ''Modern D ...

- drums *

Gary Chester Gary Chester (born Cesario Gurciullo; October 27, 1924 – August 17, 1987) was an American studio drummer, author, and teacher. Beginning in the 1960s, he played on hundreds of records for bands such as The Coasters, The Monkees, and The Lovin ...

– drums * Jimmy Johnson – drums *

Bernard "Pretty" Purdie Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie (born June 11, 1939) is an American drummer, and an influential R&B, soul and funk musician. He is known for his precise musical time keeping and his signature use of triplets against a half-time backbeat: the "Purdie ...

– drums * Barry Lazarowitz – drums *

Ralph MacDonald Ralph Anthony MacDonald (March 15, 1944 – December 18, 2011) was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian American, Trinbagonian-American percussionist, songwriter, musical arranger, record producer, steelpan virtuoso and philanthropist. His compositions ...

– percussion * Joe Venuto – percussion *

Al Gorgoni Al Gorgoni (born 1939) is an American guitarist, composer, arranger, and producer, known for his work as a studio musician during the 1960s and 1970s. Biography Growing up in Philadelphia, his family moved to The Bronx where he took up the guit ...

– guitar *

Cornell Dupree Cornell Luther Dupree (December 19, 1942 – May 8, 2011) was an American jazz and R&B guitarist. He worked at various times with Aretha Franklin, Bill Withers, Donny Hathaway, King Curtis and Steve Gadd, appeared on David Letterman,

– guitar *

Hugh McCracken Hugh Carmine McCracken (March 31, 1942 – March 28, 2013) was an American rock guitarist and session musician based in New York City, primarily known for his performance on guitar and also as a harmonica player. McCracken was additionally ...

– guitar *

David Snyder David L. Snyder (born September 22, 1944) is an American film and television production designer. He has worked as an art director, producer, and assistant director on films including ''Blade Runner'', '' Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey'', ''The Whole ...

– guitar *

John Tropea John Tropea (pronounced 'tro-pay'; born January 7, 1946) is an American guitarist. Career Tropea began guitar studies at the age of 12. His musical education continued at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied jazz guitar, harmony, ...

– guitar * Russell George – bass guitar * Gordon Edwards – bass *

Stephen Schwartz Stephen Lawrence Schwartz (born March 6, 1948) is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over five decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as ''Godspell'' (1971), ''Pippin'' (1972), and ''Wicked'' (20 ...

– keyboards *

Frank Owens Frank Walter Owens (January 25, 1886 – July 2, 1958) played the position of catcher for professional baseball teams in the American League in 1905 and 1909, and for teams in the Federal League in 1914 and 1915. Sources

1886 births 1958 ...

– keyboards * Joe d'Elia – keyboards *

Richard Tee Richard Edward Tee (born Richard Edward Ten Ryk; November 24, 1943 – July 21, 1993) was an American pianist, studio musician, singer and arranger, who had several hundred studio credits and played on such notable hits as "In Your Eyes", "Slip ...

– keyboards * Paul Griffin – keyboards *

– keyboards, background vocals, liner notes (''Beautiful Soul: The ABC Dunhill Collection'') *

– keyboards, liner notes (''Beautiful Soul: The ABC Dunhill Collection'') *

Artie Kaplan Artie Kaplan is an American recording artist, songwriter and a session musician. He has also been a music contractor where he was hired to musicians for sessions. In the 1960s, he was casting musicians for sessions for Aldon Music. When musicia ...

– music contractor * Ben Mitchell – digital remastering, mixing (''Simply Dusty'') * Paul Howes – digital remastering, mixing (''Simply Dusty'') * Tony Heester – digital remastering, mixing (''Simply Dusty'') *

– 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

Sources

* Howes, Paul (2001). The Complete Dusty Springfield. London: Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. . * Liner notes: Janis Ian. ''Simply Dusty'',

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

546,730-2, 2000. * Liner notes: Barry Manilow & Melissa Manchester. ''Beautiful Soul: The ABC Dunhill Collection'',

088,113,477-2, 2001. {{Dusty Springfield Dusty Springfield albums Unreleased albums Albums produced by Brooks Arthur