It Begins Again [Extra tracks, Import, Original recording remastered]

Dusty Springfield | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 9, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: Polygram Int'l
• ASIN: B00005Y44F
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #492,315 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Turn Me Around

2. Checkmate

3. I'd Rather Leave While I'm In Love

4. A Love Like Yours

5. Love Me By Name

6. Sandra

7. I Found Love With You

8. Hollywood Movie Girls

9. That's The Kind Of Love I've Got For You

10. That's The Kind Of Love I've Got For You (12' Extended Mix)

Editorial Reviews

Dusty's Mercury album from 1978, digitally remastered with the added bonus of the rare 12 inch extended mix of 'That's The Kind Of Love I've Got For You'. Available on CD for the first time ever!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting new beginning for Britain's finest female voice, October 6, 2004

By 

Chris "Glitterama" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It Begins Again (Audio CD)

It's near impossible to rate any of Dusty's back catalogue below three stars because anything she manipulated with that incredible voice became gold. In her native country Britain, five years of hit single after hit single (1964-1969) had well and truly established Dusty as an icon. However, after an ill-fated move to Los Angeles in the early seventies her career began back-peddling at a rapid rate of knots. It was not until the intervention of then-hot duo the Pet Shop Boys in 1988 that she would reclaim mainstream popularity, but her attempts in the late seventies (of which 'It Begins Again' is an artefact) were admirable if not particularly successful.

It's interesting to note that this release marked the first time a photograph of Dusty had appeared on a studio album of hers for almost a decade. Her self-loathing and bouts of depression are well documented in other resources, but all things considered it's obvious Dusty threw herself into this 1978 comeback - albeit an airbrushing effort that would even make Beyonce gawk. Along with the flattering photography, the rest of 'It Begins Again' reeked of professionalism. The credits read like a 'who's who' of soft rock / easy listening music from the seventies: writing credits include Barry Manilow, Nona Hendryx (of Labelle), Lesley Gore, the Motown hitmakers Holland/Dozier/Holland, whilst the production responsibilites went to Roy Thomas Baker who had recently workd with Queen. Even the most stubborn critic would have to agree this was a pretty impressive line-up.

The album yields a handful of highlights good enough to rival Dusty's seemingly infallable sixties catalogue. Her reading of the Peter Allen / Carole Bayer Sager co-write 'I'd Rather Leave While I'm In Love' rises above the cliche of the lyric to become unambiguously poignant, whilst 'Hollywood Movie Girls' is an all-too-knowing look at the less glamorous reality of Hollywood. 'Turn Me Around' melds a capable vocal from Dusty with a memorable hook and 'Love Me By Name' is classic 'theatre de Dusty' a la her sixties recordings, but as always it is Dusty's more experimental selections which prove most satisfying. 'Sandra', the sweeping melodrama about a depressed housewife who drinks her sorrows away and eventually commits suicide, becomes a stunning piece of work with Dusty's vulnerable and soaring vocals respectively capturing the character's desperation and yearning. The fact that lyrically it runs close parallels with her private life a few years earlier doesn't exactly hurt the integrity of the performance, either. The final cut (despite being hideously out of place musically) is a futuristic Latin-disco tune (!) called 'That's The Kind Of Love I Got For You', with Dusty's treated vocal writhing in pure ecstasy over the infectious melody. Bizarre, but that was increasingly becoming Dusty's specialty.

The entire album is technically superb and every cut is an enjoyable one, however I can't help but feel that Roy Thomas Baker's suffocating production hinders the project rather than enhancing it. That said, no level of production can hide the strength of Dusty's performances here. Nona Hendryx's 'Checkmate' is a rocking track with a curious lyric whilst the Motown-influenced cuts 'A Love Like Yours' (a baffling first single choice) and 'I Found Love With You' become are inoffensive but joyful efforts. On the upside, the overall feel of the production manages to offset the fact that 'It Begins Again' is quite schizophrenic; starting with midtempo pop moving to soft rock to balladry to Motown to disco, the record could be quite disjointed but Baker's 'sound' manages to ground it.

The album didn't perform as well as had been expected and as such never reached the status of a 'classic' Dusty record. This is a shame, because 'It Begins Again' is a solid effort - one of the best post-sixties releases - ultimately worth hearing for some incredible vocals (by now Dust had completely mastered the breathy subtlety which would characterise her work around this period) and some truly excellent songs.

[The CD reissue adds the attraction 12" remix of 'That's The Kind Of Love I Got For You', but I wonder why Mercury didn't add some of the other recordings from this period such as 'Let Me Love You Once Before You Go', 'I Am Your Child' and 'Give Me The Night'?]

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Starting over, January 27, 2004

By 

Jake Z "holden84" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It Begins Again (Audio CD)

This 1978 release was Dusty Springfield's first album since 1973's CAMEO, or if you count it, the unreleased 1974 (intended) album "Longing", which they believed would have killed her career. She went through some personal problems between those albums, but she came back in top form with this release.

The album opens with the wonderful "Turn Me Around", which was intended for the LONGING album. She does a great job on Nona Hendryx's "Checkmate". Another notable cover song on here is her cover of Barry Manilow's "Sandra", which sounds better from a woman's perspective, with Dusty's warm vocals. The album is a bit overproduced, but has some fine vocals from Dusty. The album was produced by Roy Thomas Baker. I enjoy the ballads a lot on this disc, such as "Love Me By Name", "I'd Rather Leave While I'm In Love", and "Hollywood Movie Girls".

There's some nice album filler like "I Found Love With You". I don't particularily like her version of "A Love Like Yours", which was originally done by Martha and the Vandellas. The album closes with a disco ditty called "That's The Kind of Love I Got For You", in it's original form and a 12" extended mix. It's a nice song, a bit obscure on here but memorable. Overall a fine album, probably the best of her 70's work.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars After battling personal problems, Dusty begins again...well, sort of, October 30, 2005

By 

30-year old wallflower "Eric N Andrews" (West Lafayette, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It Begins Again (Audio CD)

I am not too sure what is in the water over in England, but it appears that they have a better time creating White singers with fair amounts of Black soul in them than anywhere else (certainly, than in America). Of course, Dusty Springfield had originally started out singing folk music with her group, The Springfields, until she was won over by American soul music. While her first real stab at all-out soul music would not come until 1969's DUSTY IN MEMPHIS, even the white-bread music of her early solo years still had a lot more life in it than the similar material in vogue at the time.

After that album, Dusty's career (which had always appeared to be based more on singles than albums) began to go sideways more than forward. 1970's A BRAND NEW ME was another stab at R&B that was not quite the pleasant surprise of IN MEMPHIS; 1972's SEE ALL HER FACES gave equal time to Adult Contemporary pop & White R&B, but was released only in Europe; 1973's CAMEO was more the former than the latter, though the occasional surprise like Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey" elevated it above normal. Then Dusty began work on an album called LONGINGS that was never completed, mainly because it was assumed it would be a career-killer. So for 5 years after CAMEO, Dusty was silent, spending most of the time dealing with various personal problems.

But in 1978, Dusty made a slight return back into the limelight with her new album IT BEGINS AGAIN. The consensus appears to be that this album was more polish than rough edges, accenting the poppier side of Dusty's sound. Yes, the host of studio musicians & back-up singers indicated the album would have no holes in it whatsoever, and producer Roy Thomas Baker was more famous for his work with bands like Queen & The Cars. However, the choice in material is what makes IT BEGINS AGAIN stand out in Dusty's catalog. LONGINGS was said to have featured material that broke away from Dusty's usual easily-accessible pop music, and IT BEGINS AGAIN even features one song slated for that album. As Mop & Glo-smooth as the album's sound may be, there is no denying the song choices being given the treatment, and Dusty has always known which songs were best for her.

IT BEGINS AGAIN begins with the LONGINGS outtake "Turn Me Around", written by Chi Coltrane, who had had a top 40 hit in 1972 with the Carole King-derived "Thunder & Lightning". The album's preoccupation with ballads & midtempo numbers is set with this song that just barely hints at something more soulful than what was on the radio at the time. Even if Dusty was going into her "commercial love song" character, she was still going to go her way.

However, Dusty breaks the mold a few times on IT BEGINS AGAIN, particularly on Nona Hendryx's "Checkmate". One can only imagine what Patti Labelle would have done with this song (Nona was a former member of Labelle), but Dusty does a not-half-bad job at injecting a little life into what could easily have been a too-slick album. Just maybe a little more grit like this could have improved IT BEGINS AGAIN's chances of being the commercial comeback it was intended to be.

But it was songs like Peter Allen's "I'd Rather Leave While I'm In Love" that appeared to be what Dusty (or at least her record label) wanted to come back with. Not that the song was bad; in fact it was quite good, but maybe a little too good. Music that sounds perfect with not one note sounding out of place may be what often tops the charts, yet also is what irks critics who contend that the music business is, after all, a hit factory. Dusty claims in the liner notes that one of the reasons for her 5-year hiatus was because her managers tried to market her as an Adult Contemporary goddess playing nightclubs. Recording songs like this was certainly not going to have people see otherwise.

A lot of people have claimed releasing Martha & The Vandellas' "A Love Like Yours" killed IT BEGINS AGAIN's chance for success, but it actually would been a surefire hit if radio stations had paid attention. A bouncy pop nugget that harked back to the days of "I Only Want To Be With You", this really did have "hit" written all over it because it manages to be catchy but not grating. Also, looking to an old soul classic helped reaffirm Dusty's reputation as a White girl with soul. A true missed opportunity for a hit if I saw one.

Another song that echoes Dusty's 1960s glory days is Lesley Gore's "Love Me By Name". However, the dramatic ballad side of Dusty in the vein of "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" is the template here for a better-than-average love song with more than enough soul to put it above the generalness of "I'd Rather Leave While I'm In Love". This could certainly have added some spice to the soft rock radio formats of the late 1970s.

Barry Manilow may have a problematic reputation as an artist on his own, but what about people who cover his music? Could it be more palatable from artists who know not to oversell a song like he can? If that is true, then Dusty's version of Barry's "Sandra" is ample proof. Again, the genius is in covering a song no one would think about doing, and this story of a woman's battle with alcoholism is certainly miles ahead of "Mandy". Dusty thought the song sounded better coming from a woman's voice, and I definitely agree. Where she could have played to the back row, Dusty goes more for subtlety, and that is what wins the song points for poignancy.

"I Found Love With You" suffers again from the "I'd Rather Leave While I'm Love" syndrome of being pleasant-yet-inconsequential AC pop that could have been a hit, but a cheap hit nevertheless. Dusty could sing songs like these in her sleep, and while she does not act like that while singing it, even she had to agree that she could do much better than this.

The old story about a young small-town girl heading for the city to make it big in show business is as old as time itself, but Dusty shows with "Hollywood Movie Girls" that cautioning people about the fickleness of fame is also timeless. Dusty herself knew that no one is famous forever seeing as her own career had its hills & valleys, and would continue to for the rest of her life. Whenever Dusty could play on her own experiences for singing a song, that is what made it succeed so often, and above-average tunes like "Hollywood Movie Girls" was one she had a goldmine in.

IT BEGINS AGAIN closes out with one last bow to current trends in "That's The Kind Of Love I've Got For You". Disco was riding high with just about every artist young & old trying it at least once on a song, and with a voice like Dusty's, she could certainly succeed in creating an anthem to dance the night away. But the Latin elements of the tune rise the song above typical disco & make it yet another lost opportunity for a hit single (it was one after "A Love Like Yours"). The bonus 12" mix provides more opportunities for getting your groove on, and would definitely still find a home in today's club culture.

While IT BEGINS AGAIN had all the efforts & makings of returning Dusty Springfield to the top of the commercial game, audiences just did not warm up to it. Maybe Dusty's label did not promote it enough, although critical reviews were mostly positive. Even now, IT BEGINS AGAIN seems to divide fans who either think it was a brave attempt at recovering lost commercial ground, or an album made more by committee than one that highlighted what made Dusty tick. She would try again with a similar approach on her next album, even though it would take her another decade to have a truly sizable hit. Not quite the career-energizer it was hoped to be, but IT BEGINS AGAIN did at least show Dusty Springfield was ready to start again somehow.