Jess: Sandy Shaw is a singer and we'll be addressing her in a minute. But Jim and I just saw the film The Stunt Man, a 1980 film directed by Richard Rush, written by Rush and Lawrence B. Marcus, starring Peter O'Toole, Barbara Hershey and Steve Railsback. And right at the start of the film, this great song comes on, "Bits & Pieces," being made an instant classic by the late Dusty Springfield.
Jim: We saw the movie Friday and couldn't stop talking about it and that theme through Saturday. We were also noting how sad it was that Dusty Springfield had passed away. She had hits with "Son of a Preacher Man," "The Look Of Love," "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," All I See Is You," "I Only Want To Be With You," "The Windmills of Your Mind," "Brand New Me," "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" with the Pet Shop Boys, "Something In Your Eyes" with Richard Carpenter, "As Long As We Got Each Other" with B.J. Thomas and one of her biggest hits "Wishin' and Hopin'."
Jess: And those are just her hits in the US. Dusty was from England. Along with making one of the all time classic albums, Dusty In Memphis, she also had many, many more hits in England. In England she made it to number one with "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me." She had 20 other top 40 hits in England, most of those in the 60s, making her one of England's most popular singers.
Jim: And as we went on and on, Ava and C.I., having just arrived said that while it's great the Dusty's talent is appreciated, if our argument is how sad it is that she's gone, Dusty has peers who are still around and one of them will have a five-disc album released this week. Elaine?
Elaine: That's Cilla Black. She was part of the 'Mersey Beat' and is from Liverpool. She was tight with the Beatles and John Lennon got their manager Brian Epstein to listen to her. The audition, with the Beatles backing her, didn't go well but Epstein eventually signed her. She scored a number one hit in England with "Anyone Who Had a Heart." While I do love Dionne Warwick, I think Cilla's version is the one that really puts the Hal David and Burt Bacharach song across. Paul McCartney has argued that her version of "The Long and Winding Road" is the definitive version. While the Righteous Brothers topped the British charts with "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," Cilla's version was at the number two slot -- yes, the top two spots were two versions of the same song. She would score 19 top 40 hits in England, two of which went number one. Her only American hit was "You're My World" in 1964 which made it to number 26.
Jim: You'd think, with her connections to the Beatles, she'd be better known in the US. You'd also think there would be excitement about Completely Cilla which comes out this Tuesday, April 23rd. C.I.?
C.I.: Cilla Black has made her place in music history. Her politics, she's a member of England's Conservative Party, may harm her from receiving the attention she should. The album is five audio discs and one DVD. It will be available in the UK on Tuesday. In the US, it will be available on May 1st. Unless something changes, the discs will be cheaper than the MP3. Just a tip to keep in mind. It's called Completely Cilla 1963 - 1973 and all the tracks were produced by George Martin who made his name producing so many of the classic Beatles songs.
Jim: And Cilla Black's gone on to a very successful TV career in England. Another of Dusty's peers acted back while she was hitting the charts. Stan?
Stan: I was watching Will & Grace when the show was still doing new episodes and there was this song Karen sang,. Before she sang it, she talked about how when she was a girl in sixties London, she had a teacher who whipped her into shape. And then she broke out into a song I would learn was "To Sir With Love," from the Sidney Poitier film of the same name. I'd never seen it. I really loved the song. And I'd never heard it until Karen -- Megan Mullally -- sang those few lines. Don't know the episode --
C.I.: Season six, "Swimming from Camobdia," written by Sonja Warfield.
Stan: Thank you. So I ask around and find out it's a song called "To Sir With Love." By a woman named Lulu. And then I see the movie and find out Lulu was also in the movie. She had 18 top 40 British hits including the number one "Relight My Fire" with Robbie Williams band Take That. And that was in 1993. Unlike Dusty or Cilla, she continued to chart in the 70s and 80s and 90s. In 2002, she was at number two with Ronan on "We've Got Tonight." In the US, she only had four top 40 hits. In 1981, she made it to number 18 with "I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do)." That was her second biggest hit in the US. Her biggest hit in the US? The number one single "To Sir With Love" which never charted in England.
C.I.: Lulu also co-wrote Tina Turner's hit "I Don't Want To Fight."
Stan: I did not know that. Another reason to enjoy her. The album I listen to the most of her's is The Greatest Hits which is an 18-track CD.
Cedric: And then there's Petula Clark. Like the others, she too has acted. She started out a child actress. She's about 15 years older than her 'peer' group of Cilla, Lulu and Sandy Shaw. She had 21 top 40 British hits, two were numbers ones "Sailor" and "This Is My Song." In the US, she hit the top 40 15 times. She also hit number one twice in the US, for different songs though. "My Love" -- that's not the Paul McCartney song. And the other is the song she's best known for in this country "Downtown."
Wally: And then there's Sandy Shaw. That's who we're using a photo of to illustrate this piece. She had 16 top 40 hits in England, three of which went to number one. Those three are "Puppet on a String," "(There's) Always Something There To Remind Me" and "Long Live Love." In the US, she never broke the top 40.
Jim: And yet we use her for the illustration.
Ava: Because she's still incredible. Wally, Kat and I have seen her live twice. C.I. saw those and she's seen her live many other times as has Elaine and C.I. and Elaine know Sandy. Wally, Kat, C.I. and I saw her perform most recently in September. It was a festival and she rocked the house. Even with competition from the likes of Lenny Kravtiz, Sandy Shaw owned the stage and owned the festival.
Jess: Elaine, your thoughts on Sandy Shaw?
Elaine: I was so pissed when I heard about them seeing Sandy Shaw live last fall. I would have been there if I'd known. I'm not joking. Sandy never really made it onto the charts in this country but those Americans who know her work are impressed with her. I got to know her when I was dating an British official decades ago. We went to several tapings of Sandy's BBC show. I believe all the women we're mentioning had TV variety shows. I don't doubt that she stole the show because she was a very talented singer at the start of her career but she's really matured into this even deeper talent.
Jess: Trina, you remember some from when they were played on the radio and they were new songs.
Trina: Yes, I do. Cilla Black never really came across in the US and that may be due to her closeness to the Beatles. When they came over to the US, I was far too young to know them, sorry. You'll have to talk to someone else about that. But I do remember the occasional comment about her as people reflected on the Beatles, especially when they split up, and they started as a bubble gum boy band which attracted a strong female base in the US. That base wasn't really going to embrace any woman. The Stones were different because they didn't want to just hold your hand and you didn't see them as pure. So Marianne Faithful wasn't a threat to American girls. Petula Clark was someone you couldn't escape on AM radio. Try though you may, you couldn't escape her. She was sort of the Celine Dion of her day. Sandy Shaw I did not know. Lulu came on like every team's mascot. You couldn't hate Lulu. She was so -- she was a ball of joy. And Dusty was Dusty. I know people freak over "Son Of A Preacher Man" but no one's ever done "The Look Of Love" or "Brand New Me" better than Dusty -- and, yes, I do know Aretha's version of "Brand New Me." So in terms of radio, it was really Petula, Lulu and Dusty and Dusty was the outstanding, one-of-a-kind singer. Petula? I wouldn't rank her high. Lulu's too much fun to ever put down.
Jim: And now Kat's going to give us an overview now of the women.
Kat: Dusty started out in the folk group The Springfields, even had a top 20 hit in the US with their version of "Silver Threads and Golden Needles" and raked up 5 hits in the British top 40. She was the soul singer. And that's the path she followed as a solo artist. Part of her problem, never addressed in most overviews, is that she was a soul singer as soul was going in two directions: poppier or disco. "The Want Ads" really doesn't need a singer, for example. And disco really did harm R&B. It would have been better if her labels and producers had moved her towards the work of Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro. Everyone wanted to grab a hit single for Dusty and all that did was provide one failure after another and hurt her image. Dusty would have been better off doing a solid album of singer-songwriter songs -- especially by the three women mentioned because Dusty had a range and those three women also did -- and that could have established her as an album artist. It could have helped her career a great deal. She was also a perfectionist who tortured herself in the studio and was rarely pleased with any vocal. I often see her as being like Marilyn Monroe. The expectations she had for herself were so high that it made her art very difficult. Cilla Black's was not a trained voice. She handled drama better than any of the women mentioned her or maybe melodrama. The reason her "Anyone That Had A Heart" works so well -- and it is better than Dionne's, is because she knows how to pull off the quiet and soft parts but she pours her all into the chorus. Her manner of singing was a great deal like what Nirvana would do in the 90s, in fact. Lulu was much less into drama on her songs. Black's voice was best suited for love lost songs, Lulu was best suited for up tempo numbers. But not bouncy ones. Lulu had substance. Petula Clark comes across as the most polished vocalist but she had that child actress wind-up doll quality, that look at me, aren't I marvelous aspect that drove a lot of people away. She's not really someone who's earned a great deal of respect for her music -- despite her tremendous success. It's also true that she was too old to be part of the swinging sixties in lifestyle and she certainly wasn't part of it in terms of music. If this were 1967, you'd be listening to "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane and your parents would be listening to Petula sing "Don't Sleep in the Subway." Sandy Shaw? Elaine's correct that she becomes deeper as her career goes along. She could have been another Lulu. But she found something that rooted her voice and let it explore. I don't think any of the other women mentioned could handle "Monsieur Dupont" which requires bounce and joy but shading as well and "Girl Don't Come" probably couldn't have been a hit with any other woman at that time. It needed her phrasing and her vibrato.
Jim: So you'd rank how?
Kat: I'd actually rank Sandy Shaw ahead of Dusty which I know is a heresy. But I would rank her highest. Then it would be Dusty. Third would be Cilla Black who is highly underrated as a singer and who probably did more with what she had than anyone since Judy Garland. I mean that as a compliment. Judy did not have a huge range, her range was very small for a professional singer. But she used it better than any of her peers. Some will disagree with that and that's fine. But her big voice is her natural voice. The other voice she uses is a faux falsetto. Faux because women don't have a natural falsetto. But that's how she hits high notes when she does and it's also why she hits them the way she does. She has more power and support when she's using her natural voice.
Jess: So that's a brief look at Lulu, Petula Clark, Cilla Black and Sandy Shaw, four of Dusty Springfield's contemporaries who are still with us. If they're new to you, make a point to explore their music. The easiest way to sample is to go to YouTube and search for videos.