The Bottom Line
The "poor man's Dusty Springfield" was as soulful a singer as that title would suggest, but history has not been as kind as it should to her, because Jackie was every bit as important to the development of the female singer-songwriter as Carole King. This compilation, the latest in a series from Ace UK spotlighting lesser-known recordings of songwriter songbooks, proves that handily.
Pros
- This collection sheds a long-overdue spotlight on one of the Sixties' great songwriters.
- There are some classic unearthed gems here, in a variety of styles.
- Many of these songs are available for the first time on CD.
Cons
- Just because the songs are great doesn't make these the definitive versions.
- Jackie was as prone to mediocrity as anyone who got paid by the song.
Description
- Release date: November 4, 2008
- Ace Records UK 1208
- Studio (1961-1967)
- Single disc
- Unreleased
- Rarities
Guide Review - Break-A-Way: The Songs of Jackie DeShannon
Had it not been for 1981's giant, unavoidable smash cover of her "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes, the odds are very good that Jackie DeShannon wouldn't be thought of as a songwriter at all: a sultry and soulful female singer during one of the most sexist periods of pop, she was marketed using other people's songs, resulting in one big hit that was only partly hers ("Put A Little Love In Your Heart") and one that wasn't by her pen at all (the Bacharach/David warhorse "What The World Needs Now Is Love"). The generous 27-song collection Break-A-Way looks to help change all that: beginning with one of the five-star girl group raveups of all time (the title track, a highlight of Irma Thomas' early career) and one of her big hits (The Searchers' "When You Walk In The Room"), it shows how this ex-rockabilly singer perfectly mirrored the journey rock itself took during the Sixties, moving from Ricky Nelson's forgettable take on a throwaway called "Thank You Darlin'" and a couple of Brenda Lee and Duane Eddy mediocrities through the eventual explosion of folk-rock -- a genre Jackie was ahead of the curve on, resulting in the Byrds' cover of her "Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe" -- to chamber-pop, represented by Cher's take on "Come And Stay With Me."Unfortunately, Jackie herself was usually the best interpreter of her own material, mainly because she was more talented than many of the hack producers grinding out tracks by some of these nobodies. Her own version of "Splendor In The Grass" beats the Boys version here, and... the Fashionettes? Diana Dawn? As if to acknowledge this, the set closes with a rare and unreleased demo of her own "Only You Can Free My Mind." But while you may get a twinge of recognition from, say, Brenda Lee's "So Deep," a talent as big as Jackie's deserves to be taken on its own terms. Where's the box set, anyway?
