Reviews

Rhino High Fidelity, the label’s series of deluxe audiophile reissues, continues to prove its bona fides with a latest batch of limited-edition vinyl releases from three great women of song: Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark, Cher’s 3614 Jackson Highway, and the late Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis.

Joni Mitchell embraced pop on her sixth studio album, 1974’s Court and Spark, while continuing to develop her jazz stylings and maintaining her singular voice as both a singer and songwriter.  Produced by Mitchell, collaborating with engineer Henry Lewy, Court and Spark epitomized the sound of the Southern California musical landscape.  It boasts appearances from Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, David Crosby, Graham Nash, and even Cheech and Chong, as well as The Crusaders and fellow Canadian Robbie Robertson.

Exploring themes of romance as well as the price of celebrity, most songs on Court express some degree of ambivalence; Mitchell has always been an artist who explores every angle.  Even when her lyrics are abstract (as they frequently are here), she puts over the feeling, or feelings, in both words and music (and here, arrangements for a full rhythm section, horns, and even strings on one track).  The album’s seductive lead single “Raised on Robbery” was followed on 45 RPM by “Help Me,” perhaps the most irresistible, breezy, and melodic slice of pure pop ever released by Mitchell. It was pure Joni – no concessions to current trends, but also accessible to radio. “Help Me” became the artist’s only U.S. top ten single and topped the AC chart, too, but the love song was far from the album’s only triumph of composition, production, and arrangement.

“Down to You” is a sober if somewhat ambiguous reflection on a one-night stand, the aftermath, and the acceptance.  Its scope broadens from intimacy to grandiosity thanks to a complex, Grammy-winning arrangement. (David Crosby and Susan Webb chimed in on harmonies for a pivotal moment in the song.  Tom Scott’s strings lend gravity while Mitchell’s piano adroitly navigates a fiendishly tricky chord progression, and all elements coalesce with startling precision.)  The song sparks the listener’s own imagination and experiences as the narrator is never clear as to exactly whom she’s addressing.  The subject was much clearer in “Free Man in Paris,” an effortlessly melodic portrait of music mogul David Geffen.  It struck another universal chord and reached No. 2 AC/No. 22 Pop. An album of disparate songs that still hold together exquisitely, Court and Spark reflected Mitchell’s many musical personalities, even paying homage to Annie Ross with the vocalese classic “Twisted.” Court and Spark reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified 2x platinum. Mitchell had climbed another mountain – and did it her way.

The Rhino High Fidelity edition is housed in a sturdy, embossed, and glossy gatefold jacket with OBI.  Although the four-channel Quadio presentation may be the best way to immerse oneself in Court and Spark, Kevin Gray’s remaster from the original analog tapes is subtle, detailed, and crisp, allowing the listener to focus on the many instrumental textures.  Grammy-winning Joni Mitchell Archives co-producer Patrick Milligan conducts an interview with Mitchell in the four-page insert; her answers are expectedly, deliciously candid and revealing about the process behind the album.  The LP is housed in a protective sleeve.

When Dusty Springfield arrived in Memphis, Tennessee, the British songstress wasn’t sure what to expect.  Producers Jerry Wexler, Arif Mardin, and Tom Dowd even surprised her with the songs selected: “I figured it would be Aretha kinds of songs…much more gritty R&B.”  But the trio knew how to play to her strengths, focusing on the classy blend of pop and soul expected of the U.K. artist – but arranged in smoking American style.  Hence, 1969’s Dusty in Memphis opens with one of the most smoldering songs ever, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil’s “Just a Little Lovin’,” in its definitive arrangement.  Springfield stunningly captured its sensual, languid mood and set the tone for the ten tracks that followed.

Carole King and Gerry Goffin were tapped for “So Much Love,” “Don’t Forget About Me,” and two of the LP’s most dramatic tour de forces, “No Easy Way Down” and “I Can’t Make It Alone.”  The young Randy Newman offered two of his most moving early compositions, “Just One Smile” and “I Don’t Want to Hear It Anymore.”  Dusty imbued both with authenticity and vulnerability, evincing a sympathetic connection with Newman’s raw character studies.  Burt Bacharach and Hal David were tapped for the impressionistic and ethereal “In the Land of Make Believe.”  From the pens of Michel Legrand and Alan and Marilyn Bergman came the haunting, evocative “The Windmills of Your Mind,” hardly an expected selection for a southern soul album.

The seductive atmosphere continued with Eddie Hinton and Donnie Fritts’ “Breakfast in Bed,” but the song that put Dusty in Memphis on the map was John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins’ “Son of a Preacher Man.”  Springfield’s smoky vocals convincingly convey the saucy lyric, and the tight band crackles behind her.  The match of material to artist to musicians (The Memphis Boys of American Sound Studios) and background singers (The Sweet Inspirations) achieved on Dusty in Memphis was unparalleled, and even though Dusty retreated to New York to record most of her vocals, the distinctive southern flavor was unmistakable.  Andria Lisle provides the new liner notes in the four-page insert, exploring the in-studio tension that led to arguably the singer’s finest hour as a recording artist; the insert is housed within the thick and glossy gatefold (once again with OBI).  Kevin Gray has once again mastered with a light hand, allowing the tight rhythm section (drummer Gene Chrisman, guitarist Reggie Young, bassist Tommy Cogbill, keyboardist Bobby Emmons, and pianist Bobby Wood) and Mardin’s sweeping strings to shine.

Cher’s sixth album, 1969’s 3614 Jackson Highway took the California native out of the environs of Hollywood and into Alabama for her own southern soul experience.  Supported by the great musicians of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio including Eddie Hinton, David Hood, Roger Hawkins, Jimmy Johnson, and Barry Beckett, as well as Dusty in Memphis producers Wexler, Mardin, and Dowd, it was intended to showcase a side of Cher previously unknown.  (The title refers to the address of the studio.)  It featured songs by Bob Dylan (“Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You,” “I Threw It All Away,” and “Lay Baby Lay”) as well as Stephen Stills’ “For What It’s Worth,” Otis Redding and Steve Cropper’s “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay,” and Dr. John’s “I Walk on Gilded Splinters.”  Southern soul staples from Dan Penn and Chips Moman (“Do Right Woman, Do Right Man”) and Penn and Spooner Oldham (“Cry Like a Baby”) were also featured.

But despite Cher’s most emotive, expressive, and soul-infused singing, top-drawer arrangements, and tight band performances, the album failed to restore her commercial fortunes.  (The 2001 Rhino Handmade CD reissue premiered numerous outtakes also cut for Atlantic that paint an even fuller picture of the artistic risks taken by Cher during this period.)  That greater success, of course, would come later.  But in the years to come, 3614 Jackson Highway was rightly re-evaluated as a high watermark in Cher’s artistry as an interpretive singer.  This remastered edition makes it clear why.  Cher was up to the task of delivering these songs in a full-throated yet honest manner.  Stax historian Rob Bowman writes the new liner notes, delving into the fraught sessions with Sonny Bono present.  The packaging is typically top-notch for Rhino Handmade, with the wraparound album cover presented with a reflective gloss.  Kevin Gray brings the same deft touch as to Dusty in Memphis, bringing the gritty Muscle Shoals sound to vivid life here with good guitar, bass, and drum definition and pristine vocals.

Each album has been pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Optimal, and packaged in sturdy, numbered “tip-on” gatefold jackets with replica labels on the LPs. The releases are limited to 5,000 copies each and available today, exclusively through Rhino’s webstore at the links below.

Joni Mitchell, Court & Spark (Asylum 7E-1001, 1974 – reissued 2026)

Side One

1. Court and Spark
2. Help Me
3. Free Man in Paris
4. People’s Parties
5. The Same Situation

Side Two

1. Car on a Hill
2. Down to You
3. Just Like This Train
4. Raised on Robbery
5. Trouble Child

Dusty Springfield, Dusty in Memphis (Atlantic SD 8214, 1969 – reissued 2026)

Side One

1. Just A Little Lovin’
2. So Much Love
3. Son Of A Preacher Man
4. I Don’t Want To Hear It Anymore
5. Don’t Forget About Me
6. Breakfast In Bed

Side Two

1. Just One Smile
2. The Windmills Of Your Mind
3. In The Land Of Make Believe
4. No Easy Way Down
5. I Can’t Make It Alone

Cher, 3614 Jackson Highway (Atlantic SD 33-298, 1969 – reissued 2026)

Side One

1. For What It’s Worth
2. (Just Enough to Keep Me) Hangin’ On
3. (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay
4. Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You
5. I Threw It All Away
6. I Walk on Gilded Splinters

Side Two

1. Lay Lady Lay
2. Please Don’t Tell Me
3. Cry Like a Baby
4. Do Right Woman Do Right Man
5. Save the Children