It Begins Again

Infobox Album |
Name = It Begins Again
Type = Album
Artist = Dusty Springfield


Released = February, 1978
Recorded = Cherokee Recording Studio, Los Angeles, California,
April-September, 1977.
Genre = Pop
Length = 41:08
Label = United Artists Records
UA-LA791-H (US)
Mercury Records
9109 607 (UK)
Producer = Roy Thomas Baker
Reviews = Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:kbftxqe0ldhe]
Last album = "Longing"
(1974)
"(Unreleased)"
This album = "It Begins Again"
(1978)
Next album = "Living Without Your Love"
(1979)|

"It Begins Again" is the eleventh studio album by Dusty Springfield, but only the ninth released. Recorded in late 1977 and released in early 1978, "It Begins Again" was her first completed and released album since "Cameo", some five years earlier, and found Springfield back on track - both personally and professionally. Two of the album's titles, "Turn Me Around" and "A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knocking Every Day)", were in fact tracks from the abandoned 1974 "Longing" sessions and Springfield decided to record new versions of both songs for "It Begins Again", even placing Chi Coltrane's "Turn Me Around" as the opening track.

"It Begins Again", which was Springfield's debut album for the United Artists label in the U.S. and Mercury Records in the U.K., was recorded in Los Angeles but was produced by Englishman Roy Thomas Baker, at the time best known for helping create the four first albums by Queen. Musically "It Begins Again" was however as far from bombastic heavy metal as it could be, and was geared towards the American adult contemporary, pop and disco markets. Contributing on the album were some of the most renowned American session musicians of the era, such as Jay Graydon, Jeff Baxter, Joe Sample, Ed Green and David Paich and it featured backing vocals by Pattie Brooks, Dianne Brooks and Brenda Russell - all acclaimed recording artists and composers in their own right. The songs on the album were also written by a number of notable composers and lyricists, among others Nona Hendryx, Lesley Gore, Ellen Weston, Dean Parks, Peter Allen and Carole Bayer Sager. The track that since the album's original release often has been singled out as the most relevant and in hindsight most personal is however Barry Manilow's "Sandra", a gentle piano ballad with contrastingly 'kitchen sink' realistic lyrics. The song portrays the safe and secure life of a suburban housewife who minutely details her daily chores, all the while assuring both herself and the listener that "I swear I love my husband and I swear I love my kids" - yet in the last verse she reveals that she one day found herself cutting her wrists "doing the dishes, quite by mistake. It was real touch and go for a while."

Containing a diverse range of styles, "It Begins Again" was seen as somewhat experimental by Springfield herself, as well as music critics, who generally gave it favorable reviews. Despite the critical reception, the tellingly hopeful album title, as well as a series of promotional performances made in both the States and the UK promoting the up-tempo singles "A Love Like Yours" and "That's The Kind Of Love I've Got For You", "It Begins Again" failed to live up to its expectations, although it did briefly make the charts in Britain, peaking at #41. Springfield stated that she had wanted to try something different, but felt that she now needed to move into a different style, a commercial, lightweight R&B, which resulted in the following album "Living Without Your Love".

In 2002, Mercury/Universal Music UK released the album on CD for the first time, then also including Tom Moulton's extended remix of "That's The Kind Of Love I've Got For You", originally only released as a promotional 12" single, which took advantage of the popularity of disco at the time. The song which was the closing track on "It Begins Again" was, however, the only true disco song on the album. The 12" version was somewhat popular with US deejays and the track in fact managed to reach #86 in the US Hot Dance Club Play chart.

When the Pet Shop Boys in 2005 released their installment in the mix album series "" they both included a Dusty Springfield track, Neil Tennant chose her 60s classic "Goin' Back" - and Chris Lowe rather surprisingly the ballad "I'd Rather Leave While I'm In Love" from "It Begins Again".

Track listing

Side A
#"Turn Me Around" (Chi Coltrane) - 3:28
#"Checkmate" (Nona Hendryx) 3:23
#"I'd Rather Leave While I'm in Love" (Peter Allen, Carole Bayer Sager) - 2:53
#"A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knocking Every Day)" (Lamont Dozier, Edward Holland Jr., Brian Holland) - 3:17
#"Love Me by Name" (Lesley Gore, Ellen Weston) - 4:16

Side B
#"Sandra" (Enoch Anderson, Barry Manilow) - 4:37
#"I Found Love With You" (Bob Esty, Michelle Aller) - 3:18
#"Hollywood Movie Girls" (Gaille Heideman) 3:40
#"That's the Kind of Love I've Got for You" (Dean Parks, Donald Fletcher) - 5:00

Bonus track 2002 CD reissue
#

"That's the Kind of Love I've Got for You" (Extended Mix) (Fletcher, Parks) - 7:10
#* First release: promotional 12" single, United Artists SP 178. First commercial release: 4 CD boxed set "Simply Dusty", 2000

Personnel and production

* Dusty Springfield - lead vocals, background vocals, production associate
* Roy Thomas Baker - record producer
* Tom Moulton - remix ("That's The Kind of Love I've Got for You" Extended Mix)
* Barry Fosman - musical arranger
* Peter Matz - arranger
* Bob Esty - arranger
* Wm D. Smith - arranger
* Trevor Veitch - arranger
* David Hines - sound engineer
* Joe Robb - engineer
* Michele Aller - background vocals
* Dianne Brooks - background vocals
* Patti Brooks - background vocals
* Brenda Russell - background vocals
* Tommy Vig - background vocals, vibraphone
* Rick Shlosser - drums
* Ed Greene - drums
* Oscar Castro-Neves - percussion
* Mr. M. - percussion
* Jeff Baxter - guitar
* Charles Fearing - guitar
* Jay Graydon - guitar
* Thom Rotella - guitar
* David T. Walker - guitar
* Keni Burke - bass guitar
* Colin Cameron - bass
* Bob Glaub - bass
* Chuck Rainey - bass
* Joe Sample - piano, keyboards
* David Paich - piano, keyboards
* William D. "Smitty" Smith - piano, keyboards
* Jai Winding - piano, keyboards
* John Barnes - synthesizer, keyboards, electric piano, Clavinet
* Bill Payne - synthesizer, piano, electric piano, Clavinet
* Richard Tee - piano, keyboards
* Jerome Jumonville - saxophone, horn arrangements
* Sid Sharp - concert master
* Bill Burks - art direction
* Jeanette Post - album coordination
* Norma Goldstein - album coordination
* Barry Krost - management
* Trevor Veitch - musical contractor
* Michael Childers - photography
* Recorded and Mixed at Cherokee Recording Studios, L.A.
* Mastered at Sterling Sound, N.Y.
* Produced for R.T.B. (Audio Visual) Prod. Ltd.

ources

* Howes, Paul (2001). The Complete Dusty Springfield. London: Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. ISBN 1 903111 24 2.