At Seventeen - Janis Ian (1975)

LCM Classic: ‘At Seventeen’ - Janis Ian

Our LCM classic this week is a beautiful and reflective Grammy winning No.1 song by US singer-songwriter Janis Ian, taken from her ‘Between The Lines’ album. We won’t say too much more about the song, as Janis gives a great introduction on this live version. Enjoy!

Janis’ most successful recording, the song is a commentary on society's beauty standards, adolescent cruelty, the illusion of popularity, and teenage angst, as reflected upon from the maturity of adulthood. It is told from the point of view of a woman who was an "ugly duckling" as a girl and ignored in high school while the popular girls got all the attention.

www.janisian.com

Sundown - Gordon Lightfoot (1974)

LCM Classic: ‘Sundown’ - Gordon Lightfoot

Our LCM Classic this week is the wonderful ‘Sundown’ a song by Canadian folk artist Gordon Lightfoot, taken from his eponymous album and released as a single in March 1974.

"Sundown" reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and and No. 13 on the Hot Country singles chart, as well as No. 1 in Canada on RPM's national singles chart and surprisingly only No. 33 in the UK chart. It was Gordon’s only single to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100.

The song's lyrics seem to describe a troubled romantic relationship, (often cited as notorious groupie Cathy Smith) with the narrator recounting an affair with a "hard-loving woman [who's] got me feeling mean".

In a 2008 interview, Gordon said: ‘I think my girlfriend was out with her friends one night at a bar while I was at home writing songs. I thought, 'I wonder what she’s doing with her friends at that bar!' It’s that kind of a feeling. 'Where is my true love tonight? What is my true love doing?'.

Whiskey Lullaby - Brad Paisley (ft Alison Krauss) (2003)

LCM Classic: Whiskey Lullaby - Brad Paisley (ft. Alison Krauss)

We have a fantastic modern classic for you this week taken from Brad Paisley’s 2003 album ‘Mud On The Tires’. This duet features wonderful LCM favourite Alison Krauss. The was song composed by Bill Anderson and Jon Randall. The song reached a peak of number three on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart and surprisingly just #41 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song won the 2005 Country Music Association Song of the Year Award and it is one of Brad’s four songs certified 2× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, the others being "She's Everything", "Then", and "Remind Me".

The single included a host of great musicians including Eric Darken (percussion), Jerry Douglas (Dobro), Kevin "Swine" Grantt (upright bass), Alison Krauss (lead vocals, viola), Kenny Lewis (background vocals), Brad Paisley (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, baritone guitar), Ben Sesar (drums), Dan Tyminski (background vocals) and Justin Williamson (fiddle)

Jon Randall, one of the song's co-writers, had just divorced from country singer Lorrie Morgan before writing this song. In addition, he had lost a record deal, and had not been able to find a songwriting contract either. He found himself drinking whiskey regularly and pursuing realtionships. After seeing the condition that Randall was in at the time, his manager told him, "Hey man, every now and then you've got to put a bottle to your head and pull the trigger."

Randall then wrote down that line, and decided to use it in a song. He then met Bill Anderson and began to write the song, which eventually made its way to Brad. When Brad originally discovered the song, he had told Bill Anderson that he would like to record it with either Alison Krauss or Dolly Parton; Anderson agreed to either singer (he is a fan of both).

The full-length music video is set in the World War II era. It starts out in a bus full of war vets and the sound of explosions still fresh in their minds. One of the men (played by Rick Schroder, who also directed the video) is looking at a picture of him and his wife kissing under a willow tree. He then has a flashback of him swinging her in his arms under the willow tree and him saying 'I'll love you forever!' to which she replies 'You come home and we'll start our family'. He's then woken up and the bus driver tells him it's his stop, before leaving the bus the driver says 'You're home, go start your life son'. As he walks into his house, he looks at the pictures of him and his wife (Marisa Petroro) and hears her voice again saying 'you come home and we'll start our family!'. He hears laughter upstairs and walks up expecting to find his wife alone, but instead she is in bed with another man. He then leaves her and the song begins again.

The first verse of the song in the video shows the man getting drunk, and not being able to get his wife off his mind. His drinking becomes chronic alcoholism that swiftly kills him due to his consumption, and the first chorus depicts his funeral and his wife crying.

The second verse of the song in the video depicts the wife starting a drinking habit close to that of her late husband. During her drunken state, she dances with several men, but finds herself seeing her dead husband's face in the other men. There is a scene in which the wife pushes a man (with whom she was going to sleep) out of the room and shuts the door on him. She obviously holds herself at fault for her husband's death, and can only feel at ease while drinking whiskey from her bottle.

Just before the second chorus there is a shot of her at her husband's grave crying and drinking. When the chorus starts, it cuts to her funeral, which also took place in 1947. When the song finishes, a little girl looks back at the graves and sees their ghosts, hugging and kissing and falling in love again. The little girl in the video is played by Rick Schroder's daughter. The man's tombstone indicates that his name was Richard, born 1916, and the woman's tombstone indicates that her name was Katherine, born in 1919. They also indicate that their last name was Bartlett.

Into The Mystic - Van Morrison (1970)

LCM Classic: ‘Into The Mystic’ - Van Morrison (1970)

Our LCM Classic this week is a beautiful track from Van Morrison’s 1970’s album ‘Moondance’. It was recorded during the Moondance sessions at A&R Recording Studios in New York City in September to November 1969 with Elliott Scheiner the engineer. It’s one of our favourite Van Morrison songs.

The lyrics are about a spiritual quest, which is sometimes typical of Van Morrison's work. "Bass thrums like a boat in motion, and the song comes back to water as a means of magical transformation." "At the very end Van sings: “too late to stop now”, suggesting that the song also describes an act of love." (This phrase would also become a key point of many live concerts.) Compared to "Yesterday" by The Beatles, it has been described as "another song where the music and the words seem to have been born together, at the same time, to make one perfectly formed, complete artistic element.“

Van Morrison remarked on the song and how its use of homophones lent it alternate meanings:

"'Into the Mystic' is another one like 'Madame Joy' and 'Brown Eyed Girl'. Originally I wrote it as 'Into the Misty'. But later I thought that it had something of an ethereal feeling to it so I called it 'Into the Mystic'. That song is kind of funny because when it came time to send the lyrics in WB Music, I couldn't figure out what to send them. Because really the song has two sets of lyrics. For example, there's 'I was born before the wind' and 'I was borne before the wind', and also 'Also younger than the son, Ere the bonny boat was one' and 'All so younger than the son, Ere the bonny boat was won' ... I guess the song is just about being part of the universe."

“Into the Mystic" is No. 474 on the list of Rolling Stone magazine's 2010 feature, The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and was listed as No. 42 on The 885 Essential XPN Songs compiled in 2008 by WXPN from listener's votes.

Troubadour - George Strait (2008)

LCM Classic: Troubadour - George Strait (2008)

We have some classic Country for this week’s LCM Classic song. ‘Troubadour’ is the title track and the second single from George’s 2008 album. The song is a ballad in which the narrator reflects on his life as a troubadour, feeling that he is content with what he has accomplished ("I was a young troubadour, when I rode in on a song / I'll be an old troubadour, when I'm gone").

The song was written by Leslie Satcher and Monty Holmes. It was the 86th chart single of George’s career and it become his 79th Top Ten single on the Billboard Hot Country Songschart. "Troubadour" was nominated for Best Male Country Vocal Performance at the 2009 Grammy Awards. Vince Gill also sings background vocals on the single.

In August 2008, George released a music video for the song. Directed by Trey Fanjoy and edited by Scott Mele, the song's video alternates between footage of him singing, and shots of archived photos from various points in his career. This was his first music video since 2006's "The Seashores of Old Mexico" which Fanjoy also directed.

Pale Blue Eyes - Velvet Underground (1969)

Our LCM Classic this week is a great song ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ by the Velvet Underground, taken from their 1969 self titled album. The song was written and sung by the late and great Lou Reed.

Despite the name, "Pale Blue Eyes" was actually written about someone whose eyes were hazel, as Reed notes in his book ‘Between Thought and Expression’. The song is said to have been inspired by Shelley Albin, Reed's first love, who at the time was married to another man.

The Things We Do For Love - 10CC (1976)

Our LCM Classic this week is ‘The Things We Do For Love’ a great track by 10CC which was first released as a single in 1976. It later featured on their album ‘Deceptive Bends’ released in 1977 and was the group's first release after the departure of band members Godley and Creme. The song was a hit in various countries worldwide, reaching number one in Canada, as well as peaking at number 6 in the UK, number 5 in the US and Australia.

In Spite Of Our Ourselves - John Prine & Iris DeMent (1999)

You could say that this weeks LCM Classic 'In Spite of Ourselves' by John Prine and Iris DeMent is one of the most 'honest' love songs ever written. The lyrics will certainly make you smile. It's the title track from John's 13th studio album released in 1999 and features duets with well-known female folk and alt-country vocalists.

The album was John Prine’s first release since successfully battling throat cancer. The female duet partners include Iris DeMent, Connie Smith, Lucinda Williams, Melba Montgomery, Emmylou Harris, Trisha Yearwood, Dolores Keane, Patty Loveless, and his wife, Fiona Prine.

Lightning - Eric Church (2006)

Our LCM Classic this week is a modern one from 2006. It has been said that Eric Church received a publishing deal and was signed on the basis of this wonderful song 'Lightning'. It later became the lead single to his debut album 'Sinners Like Me'. It’s really a stand-out and a perfectly crafted one of a kind track.

But ‘Lightning’ has a strange story behind the actual release of the song.  It was supposedly released as a single.  Then, word spread that it was simply an album track with a music video. At the time, Eric said of the song, “This is one of those topics that there will always be disagreements on, and that’s okay. That’s what I do – make people think, make people talk,”  

The VP of marketing at Capitol Cindy Mabe said this about the decision to release the video, but not push the song at radio. “‘Lightning’ is the song that got Eric his publishing deal and ultimately his record deal. It represents everything that makes Eric unique…Video has the ability to translate differently than radio,” Mabe added. “We want people to watch this video and feel the pain and the regret of this man who has committed this horrendous crime and yet, somewhere inside of themselves, understand how they could end up in the same place.”

The twist on this ballad about a man sentenced to death is that the condemned man is painted as the protagonist.  It’s the murderer we feel sympathy for.  The lyrics tell of his remorse, ‘Every life owes a death/That’s what the Bible says/I owe mine to this state/For shootin’ that boy to death’.  The video depicts this remorse well with shots of the headlines the killer has kept, tucked inside his Bible.  The lyric even goes so far as to justify the narrator’s reason for commiting his crime, ‘A hungry blue eyed baby cryin’/Made me rob that store’.  A shot of the blue eyed baby, presumably the narrator’s daughter, is shown just as Church sings that line.  

Eric Church succeeds in painting a picture of a condemned man who is truly sorry for what he’s done and succeeds in making us feel sympathy for the man.  It tells a story with vivid imagery, but does it in a way that’s not politically driven and with this topic, that’s quite an accomplishment in my eyes.  The fact that the lyric is from a first-person perspective probably leads us to identify more strongly with a condemned man more so than a third-person account because we get to hear the man’s thoughts.  This way, we know he’s truly sorry.  But, he knows the punishment fits the crime.

You Are The Best Thing - Ray LaMontagne (2008)

We stay in the modern era for our LCM Classic this week "You Are the Best Thing" the great lead single from the album 'Gossip in the Grain' by American folk singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne. It was released on August 26, 2008, by Stone Dwarf Music, LLC, under license to RCA/JIVE Label Group (Sony Music). We are big fans of Ray here at LCM HQ and love this very catchy and retro sounding track. We also love 'Let It Be Me' from the same album. Ray's latest album is available in the link below.

http://tour.raylamontagne.com/

Papa Was A Rolling Stone - The Temptations (1972)

Here at LCM HQ we love to share some great and timeless classics. This week our LCM Classic is "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", a psychedelic soul song, written by Motown songwriters Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong and originally released as a single for Motown act 'The Undisputed Truth' in 1971. This version of "Papa" was released as a single in early 1972 and peaked at #63 on the Pop Charts and #24 on the R&B Charts and was included on The Undisputed Truth's 1973 album 'Law of the Land'.

Later that year, Whitfield, who also produced the song, took "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" and remade it as a 12-minute record for The Temptations, which was a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and won three Grammy Awards in 1973. While the original Undisputed Truth version of the song has been largely forgotten, The Temptations' version of the song has been an enduring and influential soul classic. It was ranked number 168 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, one of the group's three songs on the list. In retrospect, The Temptations' Otis Williams considers "Papa" to be the last real classic the group recorded (it would be the Temptations' last number one hit and would win them their second and final Grammy Award in a competitive category).

Autumn Leaves - Eva Cassidy (1996)

Our LCM Classic this week is one of my favourite covers by Eva Cassidy, the beautiful 'Autumn Leaves'. Originally it was a 1945 French song, "Les Feuilles mortes" (literally "The Dead Leaves"), with music by Hungarian-French composer Joseph Kosma - derived from a ballet piece of music ('Rendez-vous', written for Roland Petit), itself partly borrowed from 'Poème d'octobre' by Jules Massenet and lyrics by French poet Jacques Prévert. 

The video is a live version recorded and filmed at The Blues Alley in Washington DC's Georgetown neighborhood and was the last album that Eva recorded. This version still gives me goosebumps, with Eva's very special and pure vocals soaring above the track. 

Don't Think Twice It's Alright - Bob Dylan (1963)

Our LCM Classic this week is the great "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" written by Bob Dylan in 1962 and recorded on November 14 that year. It was released on the 1963 album 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan' and as a single

In the liner notes to the original release, Nat Hentoff calls the song "a statement that maybe you can say to make yourself feel better ... as if you were talking to yourself." It was written around the time that Suze Rotolo indefinitely prolonged her stay in Italy. The melody is based on the public domain traditional song "Who's Gonna Buy Your Chickens When I'm Gone" and was taught to Dylan by folksinger Paul Clayton, who had used it in his song "Who's Gonna Buy You Ribbons When I'm Gone?"

As well as the melody, a couple of lines were taken from Clayton's "Who's Gonna Buy You Ribbons When I'm Gone?", which was recorded in 1960, two years before Dylan wrote "Don't Think Twice". Lines taken word-for-word or slightly altered from the Clayton song are, "T'ain't no use to sit and wonder why, darlin'," and, "So I'm walkin' down that long, lonesome road." On the first release of the song, instead of "So I'm walkin' down that long, lonesome road babe, where I'm bound, I can't tell" Dylan sings "So long, honey babe, where I'm bound, I can't tell". The lyrics were changed when Dylan performed live versions of the song and on cover versions recorded by other artists.

In addition to its original release, the song has appeared on several of Dylan's greatest hits compilations, including Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II (1971), The Best of Bob Dylan (1997), and The Essential Bob Dylan (2000). Another version of the song, recorded as a demo for Dylan's music publisher M. Witmark & Sons in 1963, was included on two releases in Columbia's Bootleg Series: Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack (2005) and Vol. 9 – The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964 (2010). In addition, live versions have been released on Before the Flood (1974; recorded February 14, 1974), Bob Dylan at Budokan (1978; recorded February 28, 1978), The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall (2004; recorded October 31, 1964), and Live at The Gaslight 1962 (2005; recorded October 1962).

Rocky Mountain High - John Denver (1972)

Our LCM Classic this week 'Rocky Mountain High' is a folk rock song written by John Denver and Mike Taylor about Colorado and is one of the two official state songs. It was recorded by Denver in 1972 and went to #9 on the US Hot 100 in 1973. Denver told concert audiences in the mid-1970s that the song took him an unusually long nine months to write. On April 10, 2017, the song was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of 500,000 digital downloads. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time

"Rocky Mountain High" is primarily inspired by John Denver's move to Aspen, Colorado three years before its writing and his love for the state. The seventh stanza makes a reference to destruction of the mountains' beauty by commercial tourism. The song was considered a major piece of 1970s pop culture and became a well-associated piece of Colorado history.

The song briefly became controversial that year when the U.S. Federal Communications Commission was permitted by a legal ruling to censor music deemed to promote drug abuse. Numerous radio stations cautiously banned the song until Denver publicly explained that the "high" was his innocent description of the sense of peace he found in the Rockies. In 1985, Denver testified before Congress in the Parents Music Resource Center hearings about his experience:

"This was obviously done by people who had never seen or been to the Rocky Mountains, and also had never experienced the elation, celebration of life or the joy in living that one feels when he observes something as wondrous as the Perseid meteor shower on a moonless, cloudless night, when there are so many stars that you have a shadow from the starlight, and you are out camping with your friends, your best friends, and introducing them to one of nature's most spectacular light shows for the first time."

Photo credit: Tony Russell/Redfern/Getty

If You Love Me - Van Morrison and BB King (1997)

Perfect for a Sunday afternoon our LCM Classic this week is a wonderful track 'If You Love Me' from Van Morrison and BB King. We are big fans of both these very talented musicians here at LCM HQ. The song is taken from Van Morrison's 1997 album 'The Healing Game'. Enjoy :)

Play with Fire - The Rolling Stones (1965)

Our LCM Classic this week is "Play with Fire" by The Rolling Stones, which was originally released as a B-side to the song "The Last Time". It was later included on the American release of their 1965 album 'Out of Our Heads'.

'Play with Fire' is credited to Nanker Phelge, a pseudonym used when tracks were composed by the entire band, even though lead singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards are the only Rolling Stones to appear on the track. The song was recorded late one night in January 1965 while the Stones were in Los Angeles recording with Phil Spector at the RCA Studios. Richards performed the song's acoustic guitar opening while Jagger handled vocals and tambourine (enhanced using an echo chamber). Spector played bass (actually a tuned-down electric guitar), and Jack Nitzsche provided the song's distinctive harpsichord arrangement and tamtams. The Stones left for a tour of Australia the following day.

The song's lyrics talk of the singer's relationship with a high society girl, disparaging the lifestyle much in the same way that "19th Nervous Breakdown" would in a more up-tempo feel. The title refers to the idiom "If you play with fire, you will get burned."

In a 1995 interview with Jann Wenner for Rolling Stone, entitled "Jagger Remembers," Mick Jagger said, "'Play with Fire' sounds amazing—when I heard it last. I mean, it's a very in-your-face kind of sound and very clearly done. You can hear all the vocal stuff on it. And I'm playing the tambourines, the vocal line. You know, it's very pretty." 

"Play with Fire" went to No. 96 on the U.S. chart. It was also featured on the U.S. version of Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) (1966), Hot Rocks (1971) and Singles Collection: The London Years (1989).

The song was performed in concert during the Rolling Stones' tours of 1965 and 1966, and was revived on their 1989-90 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour.

Carolina In My Mind - James Taylor (1968)

Our LCM Classic this week is 'Carolina In My Mind' a great song by James Taylor, which first appeared on his 1968 self-titled debut album. James wrote it while recording in the UK for the Beatles' label Apple Records at Trident Studios, at the same time The Beatles were recording The White Album. The song's themes reflect his homesickness. Taylor recorded the album in 1968, Released as a single, the song earned critical praise but not commercial success. It was re-recorded for Taylor's 1976 Greatest Hits album in the version that is most familiar to listeners. It has been a staple of James Taylor's concert performances over the decades of his career. 

The song was also modest hit on the country charts in 1969 for North Carolinian singer George Hamilton IV. Strongly tied to a sense of geographic place, "Carolina in My Mind" has been called an unofficial state anthem for North Carolina. It is also an unofficial song of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, being played at athletic events and pep rallies and sung by the graduating class at every university commencement. The association of the song with the state is also made in written works of both fiction and non-fiction. It has become one of Taylor's most critically praised songs and one that has great popularity and significance for his audience.

The original recording of the song was done at London's Trident Studios during the July to October 1968 period, and was produced by Asher. The song's lyric "holy host of others standing around me" makes reference to the Beatles, who were recording The Beatles in the same studio where Taylor was recording his album. Indeed, the recording of "Carolina in My Mind" includes a credited appearance by Paul McCartney on bass guitar[8] and an uncredited one by George Harrison on backing vocals. The other players were Freddie Redd on organ, Joel "Bishop" O'Brien on drums, and Mick Wayne providing a second guitar alongside Taylor's. Taylor and Asher also did backing vocals and Asher added a tambourine. Richard Hewson arranged and conducted a string part; an even more ambitious 30-piece orchestra part was recorded but not used. The song itself earned critical praise, with Jon Landau's April 1969 review for Rolling Stone calling it "beautiful" and one of the "two most deeply affecting cuts" on the album and praising McCartney's bass playing as "extraordinary". Taylor biographer Timothy White calls the song "the album's quiet masterpiece."

Don't Know Why - Norah Jones (2002)

Our LCM Classic this week is the beautiful multi Grammy award winning "Don't Know Why" originally written by Jesse Harris, which originally appeared on his 1999 album, Jesse Harris & the Ferdinandos. It was also the second single by American singer Norah Jones from her debut studio album Come Away with Me (2002). Norah's version peaked at No. 30 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and was a critical success, helping establish her as a respected new artist and subsequently her album sold extremely well. The single went on to win three Grammy Awards in 2003 for 'Record of the Year', 'Song of the Year', and 'Best Female Pop Vocal Performance'. It remains Nora's biggest hit single in the United States to date and her only one to reach the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. The single was also a hit internationally and reached top 10 in several countries.

A music video directed by Anastasia Simone and Ian Spencer was released in 2002.

Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell (1969)

We have something very special for you for this week's LCM Classic. We travel back to 1969 for the beautiful and heartfelt song 'Both Sides Now' from the always wonderful Joni Mitchell. Written by Joni but originally recorded by Judy Collins, the song first appeared on the U.S. singles chart during the fall of 1968. The next year it was included on Joni's album 'Clouds' (which was named after a lyric from the song). It has since been covered by dozens of artists, including Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson and Herbie Hancock. Joni re-rerecorded the song with an orchestral arrangement, on her 2000 album 'Both Sides Now'.

In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked "Both Sides, Now" at #171 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Joni wrote "Both Sides, Now" in March 1967, inspired by a passage in Henderson the Rain King, a 1959 novel by Saul Bellow. "I was reading Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King on a plane and early in the book Henderson the Rain King is also up in a plane. He's on his way to Africa and he looks down and sees these clouds. I put down the book, looked out the window and saw clouds too, and I immediately started writing the song. I had no idea that the song would become as popular as it did.'

Clouds

By Joni Mitchell

Buy on Amazon

You Don't Have To Say You Love Me - Dusty Springfield (1966)

We head back to 1966 for this week's LCM Classic. 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me' was a UK No.1 hit for the great Dusty Springfield. The song also reached No.4 on the Billboard Hot 100 making the song Dusty's most successful hit single. It was originally based on a 1965 Italian song by Pino Donaggio and lyricist Vito Pallavicini entitled 'Io che non vivo (senza te)" or 'I, who can't live (without you)'

Dusty Springfield, who participated at the 1965 Sanremo Festival, was in the audience when Donaggio and Miller performed "Io che non vivo (senza te)" and despite having no awareness of the lyrics' meaning the song moved Dustry to tears. She obtained an acetate recording of Donaggio's song, but allowed a year to go by before actively pursuing the idea of recording an English version.

On 9 March 1966, Dusty had an instrumental track of Donaggio's composition recorded at Philips Studio Marble Arch: the session personnel included guitarist Big Jim Sullivan and drummer Bobby Graham. Dusty still lacked an English lyric to record. Eventually Dusty's friend Vicki Wickham, the producer of Ready Steady Go!, would write the required English lyric with her own friend Simon Napier-Bell who was the manager of the Yardbirds. Neither Wickham nor Napier-Bell had any discernible experience as songwriters: according to Napier-Bell, he and Wickham were dining out when she mentioned to him that Dusty hoped to get an English lyric for Donaggio's song and the two lightheartedly took up the challenge of writing the lyric themselves: "We went back to [Wickham]'s flat and started working on it. We wanted to go to a trendy disco so we had about an hour to write it. We wrote the chorus and then we wrote the verse in a taxi to wherever we were going." Neither Wickham or Napier-Bell had any understanding of the Italian lyrics of the original song: according to Wickham they attempted to write their own lyric for an anti-love song to be called "I Don't Love You"; when that original idea proved unproductive it was adjusted first to "You Don't Love Me" and then "You Don't Have to Love Me" which was finalized as "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" to fit the song's melody. Napier-Bell was later to title his first book (an autobiographical account of the British music scene of the 1960s) 'You Don't Have to Say You Love Me' after the song.

Dusty recorded her vocal the next day: unhappy with the acoustics in the recording booth she eventually moved into a stairwell to record. She was not satisfied with her vocal until she had recorded 47 takes.

Released on 25 March 1966 in the UK, the single release of her recording became a huge hit and remains one of the songs most identified with her. When Dusty died from breast cancer in March 1999, the song was featured on Now 42 as a tribute.

The song proved so popular in the US that Dusty's 1965 album 'Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty' was released there with a slightly different track listing, and titled after the hit single (the B side of the US single, "Little by Little" was issued in the UK as a separate A side and reached No.17 there). In 2004, the song made the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time at No.491.

Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty

By Dusty Springfield

Buy on Amazon