Live At The BBC - Dusty Springfield

Advantages: A lively, upbeat album which is tautly compiled, including all the great hits.
Disadvantages: Lacks maybe one or two key songs. Album a little long.

...This album was compiled a few years before Dusty Springfield died of cancer in the 1990s, relaunching all of her hits onto a modern audience as well as allowing older audiences to relive her greatness. It is a fantastic disc for loyal fans of Dusty who want all of her hits on one disc, as well as a perfect gateway for new fans who want a taste of her music. Many of her well-known songs are here, including 'I Only Wanna Be With You', 'You Don't Have to Say You Love Me', 'I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself', 'The Look of Love' and 'Son of a Preacher Man'. It also includes 'What Have I Done To Deserve This', Dusty's collaboration track with the Pet Shop Boys, and the album as a whole provides a variety of upbeat and mellow tracks, making it a perfect soundtrack all year round. Dusty's originality was clearly marked in the 1960s when... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Flawless
Disadvantages: none

...A great mid-priced CD including 20 truly excellent Springfield songs. All the favourites are here. Dusty interprets each song so well and so differently. The opening 'Mama Said' is light and happy, but we soon see what Miss Springfield was famous for when we hear many slow, emotional tracks. Her voice seems perfectly able to tackle every mood, even the extremely soulful 'Mockingbird.' A must have CD if you like this sort of music at all. It's an excellent starting point and made me truly appreciate Dusty's profound and long-time overlooked talent!... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Hey, it's the Beatles!
Disadvantages: Not as polished as later output. Mostly not their own songs.

...First, let me make this clear: I LOVE the Beatles, and although by no means a specialist, I am a big fan. This album is quite different from the rest of the Beatles' albums, as it is not up to their usual studio recorded, very well produced standards. All the tracks were recorded during sessions the band did at the BBC in 1963/65. And while this format often leads to a lack of sound quality (although I guess no-one could have produced this better than George Martin himself), this is more than compensated by the sheer joy of being able to hear the Fab Ones live. We are offered a glimpse of the brilliant live talent we were deprived of by the excesses of Beatlemania. I won't list all the tracks as this double album contains almost 70. Suffice to say that 14 of the tracks are Lennon/McCartney songs (of which one, 'I'll be on my way... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful