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Rhino High Fidelity, the label’s series of deluxe audiophile reissues, has announced a new trio of titles available today from three legendary women of song: Joni Mitchell, Cher, and the late Dusty Springfield. Each album has been cut from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray, pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Optimal, and packaged in sturdy, numbered “tip-on” gatefold jackets with new liner notes. The releases are limited to 5,000 copies each and available today, exclusively through Rhino’s webstore.
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. Court and Spark defined the sound of the Southern California musical landscape with 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. The 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 immediately accessible to radio. “Help Me” became her 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 from Mitchell. “Free Man in Paris,” an effortlessly melodic portrait of David Geffen “stoking the starmaker machinery behind the popular song,” struck another universal chord and reached No. 2 AC/No. 22 Pop. 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 new liner notes feature a Q&A with Joni.
Writing for Rolling Stone in 1969, Greil Marcus commented of Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis, “Most white female singers in today’s music are still searching for music they can call their own. Dusty is not searching. She just shows up, and she, and we, are the better for it.” When the British chanteuse showed up in Memphis, she wasn’t sure what to expect. “I figured it would be Aretha kinds of songs…much more gritty R&B,” Dusty commented. Instead, Dusty in Memphis served up the classy blend of pop and soul expected of Dusty – but arranged in smoking American style. Hence, the album produced by Jerry Wexler, Arif Mardin, and Tom Dowd opens with one of the most smoldering songs ever, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil’s “Just a Little Lovin’,” in its definitive arrangement. Carole King and Gerry Goffin were tapped for “So Much Love,” “Don’t Forget About Me,” and two dramatic tour de forces, “No Easy Way Down” and “I Can’t Make It Alone.” The young Randy Newman offered “Just One Smile” and the powerful character study “I Don’t Want to Hear It Anymore,” while Burt Bacharach and Hal David contributed the impressionistic “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 a standard 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, sensual vocals convincingly convey the saucy lyric, and the tight band just 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 finalize her vocals, the distinctive southern flavor was unmistakable. Andria Lisle provides the new liner notes.
Cher’s sixth album, 1969’s 3614 Jackson Highway took her out of the environs of Hollywood and into Muscle Shoals, Alabama. 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 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 soul-infused singing, top-drawer arrangements, and tight band performances, the album failed to restore her commercial fortunes. That, of course, would come later. But in the years to come, 3614 Jackson Highway was re-evaluated as a high watermark in Cher’s artistry as an interpretive singer. Rob Bowman writes the new liner notes.
All three Rhino High Fidelity titles are available now directly from Rhino.com at the links below.
Joni Mitchell, Court & Spark (Asylum 7E-1001, 1974 – reissued 2026)
Side One
Court and Spark
Help Me
Free Man in Paris
People’s Parties
The Same Situation
Side Two
Car on a Hill
Down to You
Just Like This Train
Raised on Robbery
Trouble Child
Dusty Springfield, Dusty in Memphis (Atlantic SD 8214, 1969 – reissued 2026)
Side One
Just A Little Lovin’
So Much Love
Son Of A Preacher Man
I Don’t Want To Hear It Anymore
Don’t Forget About Me
Breakfast In Bed
Side Two
Just One Smile
The Windmills Of Your Mind
In The Land Of Make Believe
No Easy Way Down
I Can’t Make It Alone
Cher, 3614 Jackson Highway (Atlantic SD 33-298, 1969 – reissued 2026)
Side One
For What It’s Worth
(Just Enough to Keep Me) Hangin’ On
(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay
Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You
I Threw It All Away
I Walk on Gilded Splinters
Side Two
Lay Lady Lay
Please Don’t Tell Me
Cry Like a Baby
Do Right Woman Do Right Man
Save the Children