The Atco Sessions 1969 - 1972

Product Description BBC Review At the end of the 60s, Lulu knew she could be as relevant as any Dusty; steering herself away from the series of iffy A&R decisions that had thus far been made on her behalf since she'd broken through with "Shout!" in 1964. Partially inspired by her marriage to Bee Gee Maurice Gibb, Lulu became part of the Atlantic family, home or one-time home to her heroes, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. Her career has always been something of a dichotomy. As she signed to make deep, soulful records with none other than Jerry Wexler (the man who had so recently cut his favourite album of all time, Dusty In Memphis), she was fresh from winning the Eurovision Song Contest with the extremely triflesome "Boom Bang A Bang". This new material was designed to highlight her increasing maturity. The Atco Sessions includes the whole of New Routes, its follow-up Melody Fair, all the Atco and Atlantic singles and unreleased tracks. New Routes is the better of the two albums, produced by the remarkable trio of Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin: It's warm and Lulu's vocals are direct and affecting. Playing with the Muscle Shoals sessionmen - including a young Duane Allman - a beautiful version of "In The Morning" demonstrates her abilities, while the album's lead single "Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool For You Baby)" later was to have the ultimate accolade of being covered by Aretha. Although not as strong, Melody Fair was recorded with the Dixie Flyers and contains the fiery "To The Other Woman (I'm The Other Woman)". Seen now by many as Take That's guest singer, The Atco Sessions will hopefully do its bit to restore Lulu's credibility as one the of the UK's leading vocalists. --Daryl Easlea