Throwback Thursday: Joss Stone, ‘Son of a Preacher Man’

Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly series showcasing an album, single, music video or performance of a bygone era and its personal and/or cultural significance.

Dusty Springfield is the kind of voice that’s defined generations. It’s silky and smooth and finds command in subtlety. Even in her performance of “Son of a Preacher Man,” a provocative, gospel-bleached ode to sweet summer love, written by the explosive songwriting pair John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins, Springfield delivers the lusty coming of age narrative with a sly quietness, which allows the story of two young lovers to really simmer. The British pop legend, notably of the blue-eyed soul style of singing, notched countless other chart hits in her career, including “Wishin’ and Hopin’,” “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” and “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself.”

So, as a surprise to no one, Springfield was honored for her craft and legacy at the 2006 UK Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony. That year, she was celebrated alongside other such trailblazers as Prince, Rod Stewart, James Brown, Bon Jovi Brian Wilson and Led Zeppelin. Tasked with paying tribute to Springfield’s impact, Joss Stone, arguably one of the best vocalists of today’s music scene, gave “Son of a Preacher Man” a soul-spun, big-band update. She soars and dips around the classic melody with a fierce passion for which Stone has become known, growling across certain words or phrases to really pump up the volume and intensity of such a cosmic and intoxicating romance. Stone’s reworking serves to remind the listener that a true, undeniable and iconic song is chameleon in nature, and while you could protest that such an explosive interpretation loses the essence and truth of the original, it’s actually the opposite.

“Out through the back yard we’d go walkin’ / Then he’d look into my eyes / Lord knows, to my surprise,” Stone warbles. And you believe her. Her conviction grows thick and muggy in the performance space, and you’d never know it given the stiffness of the audience, who seem rather unconcerned with the magic unraveling right before their eyes. To Stone’s credit, she lets the song build, and by the final march around the chorus into a soaring, surreal fireworks vocal display in the last few bars, her heart is laid bare for the whole world to see. It’s the kind of performance that transcends that seemingly-fleeting moment in time, but now, it lives on in our memories…and on YouTube.

Watch below:

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