Whenever I’m visiting another town I always use the Yelp app on my phone to find out if there are any used book and record shops in the area, and any place that doesn’t have any immediately goes down in my estimation. So I would like to give a big TripAdvisor thumbs-up to the 9th Street area of Durham, NC, for having both. I picked up this Lulu album at a used record shop there when I was down that way last week. I didn’t know anything about it but it was produced by Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd, and Arif Mardin and only cost $3 so I thought it was worth a punt.
Released in 1970, Melody Fair was the second album Lulu recorded with the legendary Muscle Shoals crew. She was following in the footsteps of fellow Brit-pop chick Dusty Springfield by making a “soul” album in America, but while it’s no Dusty In Memphis it does have its moments. The title track in particular is quite lovely, a cover of a Bee Gees song (Lulu was married to Maurice Gibb at the time) it’s worth $3 all on its own.
Download: Melody Fair – Lulu (mp3)
cryingallthewaytothechipshop.wordpress.com 
Love a bit of Lulu!
… and who’s this previous owner “Bronson”, writing his name in the top right hand corner – Charles maybe?!
Phil
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Hmm, I have to say, I much prefer the BeeGee’s (excellent) version of “Melody Fair”. Has more richness to it I think. Lulu’s cover is bit well, lightweight imo 🙂
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This song was used in the movie “Melody” along with “First Of May” from the Odessa album (unless I’ve misremembered the whole thing)
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More Gibb-penned songs on New Routes, which I like very much. Oh Me Oh My is just great. https://youtu.be/pUuV3ybvkpc
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