‘Live It Up’: the strange tale of Dusty Springfield’s northern soul anthem
Introducing British shores to the infectious sounds of Motown, crafting a litany of timeless hits, and being perhaps the greatest soul voice ever produced by this sceptred isle are just a few of the things that Dusty Springfield could stick in her trophy cabinet. Being a northern soul icon, on the other hand, is a little more contentious a title.
Springfield has a particularly unique relationship with the northern soul scene that captivated the youth of northern England during the early 1970s. On one hand, northern soul simply wouldn’t have existed were it not for her efforts in the mid-1960s, bringing Motown stars over to the UK for the first time and spurring on the soul obsession of the mod subculture. Then again, Springfield’s chart power and celebrity status never really fit in with the obscurity quota of the scene.
At the risk of oversimplifying the realm of northern soul, the singles that tended to make it big on the circuit, at places like Manchester’s Twisted Wheel and, a little later, Wigan Casino, had a Motown feel within their sound but, crucially, weren’t hit records. Over the years, northern DJs found themselves in constant competition with each other to uncover the rarest, most unheard-of American soul records. No Casino DJ worth their salt would consider digging through the discography of Dusty Springfield.
Nevertheless, Springfield’s extensive output does have its fair share of underrated gems that – were it not for the star power of her name – might very well have made it onto the northern soul circuit, alongside her fellow British soul singers like Paula Parfitt. One song of hers that seems almost tailor-made for the northern soul scene, in fact, is her 1964 single ‘Live It Up’.
Penned by the architect of the Philadelphia soul sound, Leon Huff, the single fit the northern soul bill of never achieving chart success. In fact, the single wasn’t released in the UK until 1965, as part of the Dusty In New York EP, almost a year after it had been introduced to the airwaves of the United States and Canada. Arguably, then, it wasn’t all that different from the various American non-hits of the northern soul realm – it certainly wouldn’t be the only one with Huff behind it.
More importantly than its commercial performance, though, the single’s lyrics seem to perfectly encapsulate the enduring spirit of northern soul. The opening lyrics, “You work all week just to make that money/Waiting for the weekend to finally come,” couldn’t have been better positioned to reflect the lives of those people who spent countless hours queuing outside the Twisted Wheel, The Torch, or Wigan Casino.
A core part of the northern soul scene, with that backdrop of the industrial north, was the idea that its disciples were focused entirely on the weekend and getting through their menial workweek with the express intent of making up for lost time on the dancefloor come Friday night. As Springfield put it, “There’s nothing but music in the atmosphere/So come on everybody, let’s live it up.”
Couple those lyrics, blaring horns, and that songwriting with Springfield’s typically incredible, soulful vocals, and it is hard to dispute the floor-filling quality of ‘Live It Up’. It might not have the same obscurity points as ‘Do I Love You’ or ‘Nothing But A Heartache’ – which, incidentally, are both far more popular and widespread in the modern age than ‘Live It Up’ ever has been – but the single seemed almost destined for the northern soul scene.
For DJs that aren’t afraid to slip in some Dusty Springfield into their soul sets, ‘Live It Up’ has been a gift that keeps on giving. For others, though, it is merely another long-running debate over what exactly can be considered true northern soul.
