Dusty Springfield and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, It Must Be Dusty, 1968

The 1960s was the period in which the world of pop music began to split into two separate entities, Pop and Rock. As the decade had progressed, pop had gotten increasingly sophisticated - experimentalism, politics and intellect were all appearing on vinyl. Emerging musicians dispensed with conventional and polite showbiz conventions, and by the dawn of the 70s, the gulf between 'disposable' pop and 'serious' rock was a wide one indeed.

Sometimes, however, the counterculture met showbiz to remarkable effect. In the 1960s, television was fairly conservative, sunday evening programming especially so. In this time slot was a show hosted by Dusty Springfield, who, despite her slightly old-fashioned image, was a deservedly respected and soulful singer. Her show, It Must Be Dusty, featured a variety of acts, one of whom was The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Three songs were performed with the group, including a Jimi/Dusty duet of 'Mockingbird', a hit in 1963 for Charles and Inex Foxx, but typically, the tape of the show was deemed to be unimportant by production comany ATV, and it ended up wiped.

Two recordings made by the public survive. The first was captured from the television screen by means of an 8mm camera. The film is damaged and the whole recording is in poor quality, with only fragments of the duet visuals surviving, but you can just about tell that they've having a great time together.

 The second is an audio copy of the performances, in slightly better quality than the 8mm version, although still muddy. Nevertheless, it's fascinating to hear Dusty's blueswailing punctuated by Hendrix's guitar, before the group launches into 'Voodoo Chile (Slight Return), sadly with no Dusty on there. Their duet starts around the 4:15 mark in this video.