885 Greatest Songs By Women: #8, Shelby Lynne - I Only Want To Be With You (2008)

I've loved Shelby Lynne for a long, long time as numerous posts on Bloggerhythms will make clear, so I actually feel guilty picking a song she didn't write as my favorite by this phenomenal singer-songwriter.

"I Only Want To Be With You" is Lynne's cover of Dusty Springfield's first hit that she released way back in 1963.

Springfield was the second British artist after The Beatles to have success on the American charts. The British star took the record to #12 in the USA in early 1964 and #4 in England.

The album Lynne's cover song came from - Just a Little Lovin,' from 2008 - is a lovingly sung, but unpretentious tribute to Springfield featuring nine of her songs and one new Lynne original.

The great thing about the album, and especially "I Only Want To Be With You," is Lynne completely remade it in her image instead of trying to copy Springfield who recorded an upbeat, pop song loaded with strings and horns accompanied by a rock rhythm section. The native Alabamian slowed it down considerably and producer Phil Ramone backed her up with a very sparse, acoustic arrangement. Lynne knows how she wants her records to sound and because of her perfectly laidback, unembellished vocals the light instrumentation is all she needed.

Springfield's record was a good one, but Lynne took the Mike Hawker and Ivor Raymonde composition to an entirely different level.

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