Reputation (Dusty Springfield album)


Reputation is the thirteenth studio album by British singer Dusty Springfield, and twelfth released. Issued on the Parlophone Records label in the UK and the rest of Europe in June 1990, Reputation was not only Springfield's first studio album in eight years at the time but also her first album to be released in her native UK since 1979's Living Without Your Love. After a string of commercially overlooked albums through the late 1970s and early 1980s Reputation finally managed to resurrect Springfield's career and belatedly resulted in her being re-evaluated and recognised by both music critics and the general public as the UK's foremost 'blue-eyed soul' singer. Mainly produced by Pet Shop Boys and Julian Mendelsohn and recorded in the UK over a period of some eighteen months, Reputation became her highest charting and best-selling album in the UK since 1970's From Dusty with Love, peaking at No. 18 and selling 60,000 copies within two weeks of its release.

Background

In late 1987, Springfield was beginning to look back towards the UK as a source of recording work, due in large part to her collaboration with Pet Shop Boys on their single "What Have I Done to Deserve This?". Pet Shop Boys had contacted Springfield's manager to ask if Springfield would perform guest vocals on the duet. Being a fan of their work, Springfield accepted the offer and the song became a massive hit all over the world, peaking at No. 2 in both the UK and the United States, which proved to be the biggest hit of her career in the US. This renewed Springfield's confidence in recording, as well as interest in her work from the general public, and led to another hit single "Nothing Has Been Proved", also written by Pet Shop Boys with Springfield in mind. The song was written for the movie Scandal, an account of the so-called Profumo affair of 1963, starring Joanne Whalley and John Hurt. "Nothing Has Been Proved" made the Top 20 in Britain, and led to yet another hit single, "In Private", which peaked at No. 14 on the British charts. Despite the fact that "In Private" never was commercially released in the US it managed to become a dance-floor hit in the States as well, peaking at No. 14 on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart in early 1990. Both singles were included on Reputation, and Pet Shop Boys collaborated with Springfield on half the album's tracks, which made up side B of the original vinyl edition. Side A included tracks produced by the Pet Shop Boys' longtime collaborator Andy Richards, Swing Out Sister producer Paul Staveley O'Duffy and Dan Hartman. Three of these titles were also mixed by the Pet Shop Boys' co-producer Julian Mendelsohn. Critics gave Reputation very favourable reviews, saying it was a long overdue return to form for Springfield, and the album spawned two further single releases, the title track "Reputation" and the ballad "Arrested by You", written by Rupert Hine and Jeanette Obstoj.
Dan Hartman contributed to the production of three songs from the album; "Send It to Me," "Time Waits for No One" and "Born This Way". "Time Waits for No One" was written by Hartman and Holly Knight. He also played various instruments and provided backing vocals. In a 1990 interview with Springfield, she revealed "Certainly the record company wanted to keep it as much in this country as possible. They finally relented on Dan Hartman, but basically they wanted it to be as British as possible." The three songs were produced at Hartman's own Multi Level Studios, located within his riverside home in Connecticut. Both Springfield and her close friend Helene Sellery stayed at his home during the sessions, which were reported to be slower than anticipated as Hartman was as fussy as Springfield about her vocals, and stopped and started her over and over again.

Release

The Reputation album was, in late 1990, followed by the video collection Reputation – The Videos, released on VHS in the UK and Europe by EMI's subsidiary Picture Music International, including the promo videos for "Nothing Has Been Proved", "In Private", "Reputation", "Arrested by You", interviews with Springfield, as well as a fifth animated promo video for the album track "I Want to Stay Here".
The Reputation album was first released in the US in 1997, then under the title Reputation and Rarities and expanded with additional tracks. This version of the album is also sold digitally from Parlophone Records - it is the only variant of the album currently available in digital distribution.
An expanded version of the album, including multiple mixes and tracks recorded but not included on the original album, was released in August 2016 on Strike Force Entertainment, a division of Cherry Red Records. The 3 disc set includes videos. It is available only in physical form - Warner Music Group, current owner of Parlophone Records and album's copyright holder, doesn't have any plans to reissue digitally additional tracks, which was included in Strike Force's reissue, but were not included in Reputation and Rarities reissue. This situation doesn't exclude videos - they're available on YouTube, but not from any of official channels owned by Warner Music-owned subsidiaries.

Track listing

Personnel

Singles