Reputation
by Dusty Springfield
Released - 1990
Chart peak - UK #18 (didn't chart in US)
After having (re)introduced the great Dusty Springfield to the "MTV generation" in 1987 via "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" the Pet Shop Boys continued to foster her resurgence by producing half of her 1990 album Reputation. Side One boasted a number of different producers and songwriters, but it's Side Two that interests us here, featuring as it did five PSB-produced tracks, four of which were also written by Neil and Chris.
The two songs discussed below were written by the Pet Shop Boys but aren't available in versions performed by them. The album also includes "Nothing Has Been Proved" and "In Private," the Pet Shop Boys' own renditions of which (the latter as a duet with Elton John) have now been released, and the Goffin-King song "I Want to Stay Here," produced by Chris and Neil; these tracks are discussed elsewhere on this website.
Incidentally, the half of the album not written and/or produced by the Pet Shop Boys is pretty darn good, too. My own particular favorites are the title track (written by Brian Spence and produced by Andy Richards)—which is so good that I often find myself wishing that Neil and Chris had written it—and "Born This Way" (written by Geoffrey Williams and Simon Stirling and produced by the late, great Dan Hartman), which comes very close to being Dusty's "coming out" song.
Reputation became Dusty's highest-charting album in the U.K. since the 1970s. It also sold well in various other countries. But it wasn't released in the United States until 1997, at which time it failed to chart. As is so often the case under such circumstances, dedicated fans of Dusty and/or the Boys had surely already obtained the album as an import, and without a Stateside radio hit, there was little impetus for anyone else to buy it.
Note: Only the Reputation tracks written, produced by, and/or that feature the Pet Shop Boys in some other way appear in the following list. The links for "In Private" and "Nothing Has Been Proved" will take you to other sections of this website for albums where versions of those songs performed by the Pet Shop Boys themselves appear. Please keep this in mind for "navigational" purposes.
It should be noted that this album has been reissued more than once in expanded editions, most notably in June 2016—a comprehensive 3-CD set with remixes (including the Shep Pettibone's Disco Mix of Dusty's collaboration with PSB on "What Have I Done to Deserve This?") plus a bonus PAL/Region 0 DVD of music videos.All text on this website aside from direct quotations (such as of lyrics and of other nonoriginal content) is copyright © 2001-2021 by Wayne Studer. All Rights Reserved. All lyrics and images are copyright © their respective dates by their respective owners. Brief quotations and small, low-resolution images are used for identification and critical commentary, thereby constituting Fair Use under U.S. copyright law. Billboard chart data are copyright © their respective dates by Nielsen Business Media, Inc.