Fact #171375

Jerry Wexler (producer, Dusty In Memphis) : Dusty had a lot of great songs before she came to us – The Look Of Love that she did with Burt Bacharach – there was another aspect that we brought into the game which was this. She was recording with traditional orchestras and traditional arrangers with strings and horns and backing groups. We recorded her in the southern style with just a rhythm section of highly able rhythm and blues and country influenced musicians – the bass, guitar, drums, keyboards. We took her to Memphis which we were told would be a disaster because it seemed a bad match. But it turned out that Dusty In Memphis not only became a viable product but it also has an afterlife. It never seems to go away.

Dusty had a very fragile temperament, and was a very fragile person. She didn't feel right because it was Aretha Franklin's booth or Wilson Pickett or so on. But the performance she finally delivered was incredible. She had a magical soul-like quality of her own which is not rhythm and blues or jazz, I don't how to characterise it. Usually if you say it is too white or too vanilla, you are saying that it lacks soul or passion, but Dusty was the incarnation of the white soul queen. She infused everything she did with tremendous passion. There was a certain sexual vulnerability that Dusty conveyed that was a very important component in reaching her audience.
(Source : not known)