Dusty & Burt

[grooverider]

I just finished watching a VHS entitled, "Dusty, Full Circle", a retrospective that has Dusty Springfield being "interviewed" by Jennifer Saunders & Dawn French. In it, Burt Bacharach is interviewed and a clip is shown with Mr. Bacharach at the piano and Ms. Springfield sings "A House Is Not A Home" (Burt Bacharach actually duets with her on the last verse).

IMHO, the most moving and down right spectacular version of that song that I have ever heard!
(And, actually, one of the top performances of ANY Bacharach/David song I have ever heard)
It got me wondering:
1.What is that clip from? From a Dusty Springfield show? Or, from a Burt Bacharach special?
2.Is that version available on CD (or vinyl)?
3.Did Burt Bacharach arrange the orchestra? (If it was from one of his specials, I assume it was.)
4.Where was the orchestra (Dusty makes a remark about the "phantom" orchestra)? Was it a "live"
performance? (with the orchestra playing along, too.)
5.What was the date of that performance?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. (My apologies if this has already been addressed in the past)

[steveo_1965]

Re:Dusty and Burt - House is Not a Home tv version
I agree with you, It's really a great arrangement and performance....I have spoken on
it before in this forum,..commented on the ending scoring where the words go "still in love"....
the divergent instrumental harmonies...spectauclar!
It''s from one of Burt's specials.....which one, I don't know....
ANd, no, I'm quite confident the then"new" chart was not totally Burt's scoring(it was re-arranged a bit).......
The Maestro probably reveiwed the score, and
yayed it or nayed it....possibly made a few changes...but, really,.. I believe, he just trusted the good taste of whoever the arranger was (he worked closely with a select few at that time)
It was "based" on Burt's arrangement for Dionne....so, in a way, he is co- arranger..

[Rio]

For ease of reference (and with a comment from Dusty, this time):

[An Enormous BB Fan]

Dusty is just fabulous. One of the great pop singers of all time. Yet, I have read, and I believe her statement at the end backs it up, that she suffered from self-doubt her whole career. But you would never know it to watch her or listen to her. I mean "A House Is Not A Home" is not an easy song to sing -- to say the least. And she handles it as well as anyone. It's really a shame that she didn't know how good she was.

[steveo_1965]

most great artists have that to a certain degree....its a way of keeping themselves humble...
and since only they know what they are aiming at, they are their
own worst critic...however, in Dusty's case...I think , as you say, her self doubt went beyond that of the typical star or artist.

[JR]

With a voice that could soar into the ionosphere, here's Dusty along with Martha Reeves revealing a comedic side. Notice Dusty's reaction to Martha's unfamiliarity with the lyrics. Cute.

[Hank]

Another one to look out for is Dusty's breathless version of Knowing When to Leave. I believe it was recorded during one of the Burt TV specials. There are other versions on YouTube but they don't measure up to this classic rendering.