Customer Reviews

Dusty Springfield (You're the Voice)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This set went out of print shortly after it's release for a redesign of the package; the result is amazing. I've never seen a boxed set design quite like this one, it's called an "ear book." It's "11 x 11" and fits on a bookshelf, the pages filled with photos, essays and extensive liner notes describing each song. The cd's are filled to capacity and while I wish the extended mix of "In Private" was here, there isn't enough room for the extra three minutes and the bulk of the material makes up for any shortcomings. The songs mentioned in the liner notes but missing such as the duets with Cilla Black, Spencer Davis, BJ Thomas, and the extended version of the Donna Summer co-penned "Sometimes Like Butterflies" can be found on the release "Heart & Soul" on the Varese Sarabande label. This boxed set should serve as a prototype for any collection attempting to be comprehensive as it contains all the hits and every album, including the abandoned projects, is represented. The closing track and Dusty's final recording "Someone To Watch Over Me" is stark and beautiful, it's the way any standard should be sung. Overall, for lack of a better term, I'd say this set is a masterpiece.

This is an incredible book and the CD's are awesome! Dusty chronology as far as songs, when, where & why is noted page by page, as well as photographs throughout her career. It has early songs almost impossible to find as well as hits. 95 in all. A tribute to a great great singer and an interesting catalogue of the music and the times. Thoughts by other artists about Dusty's contribution throughout. Worth the price tag.

I have plenty of boxed sets, but none of them compare to this. The packaging is remarkable as well as the photos and the music. Dusty could make choking noises sound beautiful.

She was born Mary O'Brien in 1939, the daughter of a tax accountant and a housewife, in London. In the 1950s, like many other English teens, she became enamored of American music--and in 1958 became a member of a girl group known as "The Lana Sisters." In 1960 she left the group to form "The Springfields" with brother Dion and Tim Field, who was later replaced by Mike Hurst. The trio met with significant chart success in both England and America, but by 1963 "The Springfields" had run their course. By this time Mary was known as Dusty Springfield, and she embarked on a solo career that would launch her to international fame as both a singer and a personality.

Although Mary O'Brien had been an ordinary-looking young woman, Dusty Springfield was an astonishing vision, sporting a blonde bouffant, light make-up, and heavy eye-liner--a look that became known as "Panda Eyes." Her gowns sparkled; her gestures were broadly melodramatic; her life as it unfolded was a riot of scandal that included alcohol, drugs, and whispers of lesbianism. She rode the rocket of fame throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, self-destructed more than once in the 1970s and 1980s, and made a stunning return to the public eye in the 1987. She died of breast cancer in 1999.

Now that swinging London, panda eyes, and all the trappings of her heyday in the spotlight have passed into myth, it has become possible to more clearly assess Springfield's gifts. And by any standard her work was and is exceptional. Springfield was clearly influenced by the folk and soul movements of the 1960s as well as various jazz artists, most particularly Peggy Lee--and in light of this many critics have attempted to define her by genre. But as Burt Bacharach so famously said, "you could hear just three notes and you knew it was Dusty." Her vocal stylings often reflect her influences, but she was never less than herself, unique, specific.

Likewise, Springfield's choice of material tends to defy genre. She did indeed do a host of recordings that most people would describe as "soul," but at the same time she did everything from lounge-style to Broadway to blues-inflected. It is extremely difficult to think of another singer with such broad tastes: from "the wall of sound" effect of "Stay Awhile" to the smoky, nightclub-ish "The Look of Love" to the super-clean style of "Goin' Back," she encompassed virtually every 20th Century pop idiom.

SIMPLY DUSTY suffers from the usual complaint one always has about collections: what to keep in and what to leave out. I am personally frustrated by the failure to include "Silver Threads and Golden Needles" recorded with The Springfields and the Bacharach "24 Hours From Tulsa." But such quibbles aside, this is a remarkably effective collection of ninety seven cuts (the opening cut, "Dusty Springfield," is a tribute by Blossom Dearie)--including bits from The Lana Sisters and The Springfields and continuing right up until the last recordings she made before her death. The recordings are crisp and clean and have tremendous clarity.

The accompanying book is also quite nice, offering a brief but accurate biography, overview of her career, a history of each song included in the set, and lavish photography. I am sure there are more comprehensive collections, but even so, this may be the best available. Worth the price and strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

A wonderful collection for any Dusty fan or for someone looking to be introduced in a more sophisticatd way than to just buy her 'best of' albums. She is here in all her glory. A must for the Dusty devotee.

If you are a serious Dusty Springfield fan...buy this RIGHT NOW. It is a GREAT set, and collectible. One of the nicest items I have ever purchased on Amazon.com 5-Stars +++

This 4-CD set offers the absolute best and farthest spanning, most
complete overview of Dusty's recording career of any other boxed set
available, including the more recent 2011 "Goin' Back" set, which fails
to properly document her wonderful 1970s material when her voice was
at its emotional peak.

SIMPLY DUSTY is a four CD sampler of Dusty's greatest singles and album
tracks plus a healthy dose of rarities. In addition, this record album
sized edition (12 x 12") comes with an expanded full-color book which
is hard-covered and the quality of a coffee table book, with the 4 CDs
nicely embedded on the inside cover.

If you love Dusty and have most of her albums, you will still want and
need this set for many reasons stated above. If you are just now starting
to look for an ideal Dusty compilation, this is also your best choice --
you'll get the hits and so much more.

I do not own this box set but I have listened to it,it is a huge work and contains so much of Dusty's output including rare tracks and is very well presented,MY COMPLAINTS CONCERN ONLY THE SOUND QUALITY,ACTUALLY A LACK OF IT.

I always try and find the best possible recordings/transfers,by this I mean the tracks must be stereo where possible and properly remastered,this is sadly often not the case with older pop music AND IS THE CASE HERE,AS ALL THE EARLY TRACKS AND SOME LATER ONES ARE MONO AND HAVE A VERY MUDDY SOUND QUALITY.NOT GOOD ENOUGH IS WHAT I SAY,BUT DO HAVE A LISTEN AND MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND.

I realise most reviewers have raved about this box set,but they are reviewing only the music,which is beyond the 5 stars,my rating is 1 star for sound,5 stars (the max allowed) for Dusty's music,average 3 stars.

This is not a book about Dusty Springfield. It is a songbook for guitar and other instruments. This should be clarified in the description for people who are debating the purchase. It comes with a CD of the songs which are included in the songbook. This was a very misleading description for me, and hopefully, others will not follow.

I ordered this & received the full size 11x11 book, not the 6x10 book like the description says. Great book & CD selections!