Recently, however, a new breed of record executives has been making itself known on the chart scene-involved, thinking and creative people like Paul McCartney, Herb Alpert and the man who now records Dusty Springfield in the U.S. as well as Aretha Franklin, Jerry Wexler.

Jerry is one of the top men at Atlantic, the man who brought Aretha out of the doldrums, and the man who personally produced Dusty's soulfully stirring "Son Of A Preacher Man." He feels proud and he has every reason to do so.

I spoke to him on a slightly erratic telephone line to Freeport in the Brahamas recently, and he told me that recording with Dusty was one of the greatest pleasures of his career.

"She knows so much of the technical side of recording," said Jerry, "but not at the expense of the soul. And Dusty really cares so much . . . in recording 'Son Of A Preacher Man' and the other tracks on her forthcoming Atlantic LP, she put in a lot of hard work and made at least four trips between Memphis and New York and back.

According to Jerry, not all of the numbers he's waxed with Dusty are in the "Preacher Man" mould. He added: "There are a good many more characteristic of her repertoire, and for her next single we are also thinking of an up-tempo very hard-driving rock 'n' roll thing."

He added that one of the songs they'd recorded together was either "Breakfast in Bed" or "Beautiful in Bed" (I said the line was bad!), but whatever the title it still sounded interesting.

Jerry firmly believes that British pop has found a permanent place in the U.S. charts. He speaks with great satisfaction of his label's association with Cream in the U.S., and places great faith in Led Zeppelin (risen from the ashes of the Yardbirds) and in Scotland's Cartoone.

"We are lucky in that so many of our artists are contributory," he adds, explaining: "However great their talent, some artists do not contribute to a session apart from the performance.

"But what Dusty and Aretha have in common is that both of them are full of ideas and interest in what's going on, and they really make the whole thing come alive. Remember, producers don't really make records . . . it's the artist.

"Another big hit we had was Wilson Pickett's 'Hey Jude.' Wilson took a bit of convincing he should do it, but boy . . . once he got into it there was no holding him back.

"It was a particularly great kick to find it go into the British charts, but in some way expected because Atlantic have always had a very welcome response from the British public.

"I think for a long time we were kind of a hip cult but that the public is now generally coming to accept our artists."

To give you some idea of the good company in which Dusty finds herself since signing with Atlantic, it's worth a reminder that in 1968 the company enjoyed the greatest year in its history. Sales went up by 85 percent over the previous year, and during 1968 it earned no less than 23 Gold Records-more than any other label before.

"Our secret weapon is my partner and recording associate Tom Dowd, " says Jerry.

"But then, with stars like Dusty and Aretha and Wilson, we've got some big guns to back him up!"

Alan Smith
(Publication unknown)
1969