Rhino's
Love Songs series usually features unimaginative anthologies of romantic-minded tunes from a star's catalog. Whether through an act of sneaky subversion or not,
Dusty Springfield's entry in the series is quite the worthwhile exception. It focuses almost wholly on rarities that will be an appreciated supplement to the library of even the dedicated
Springfield collector. All of the tracks date from 1967-71, and only two of them -- the hits "Son-of-a Preacher Man" and "The Look of Love" -- could be considered familiar and easily obtainable. The rest are an assortment of songs that were not released in the U.S. at that time, whether they appeared only on U.K. albums or singles, or on the now hard-to-find The Legend of Dusty Springfield box set. Over half of the 16 tracks were previously unissued in the U.S., and three songs from her early 1970 sessions with Gamble-Huff appear here for the first time anywhere. Most important of all, the music is worthwhile, and pretty much up to the standard of her better material from the late 1960s and early 1970s, widely available or otherwise. It's pretty diverse as well, taking in quality soul covers (
Barbara Acklin's "Am I the Same Girl"), Gamble-Huff originals (from the discarded 1970 sessions), lush orchestrated pop ("The Colour of Your Eyes"), cool jazz (David Frishberg's "Sweet Lover No More"), pop ("Spooky"), and even bossa nova (
Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Meditation") and pop-folk ("Morning Please Don't Come," a 1970 single with her brother
Tom Springfield).