Lesley Rae Dowling - Spaniard remixed.

Great news.

Producer, Terence McCullagh, who produced most of Lesley Rae Dowling's hits has been working on the old master tapes of her recordings. A re-issue album featuring the singer's classic songs is planned for later this year.

Lesley is something of an enigma in the South African (SA) entertainment scene. Critics hailed the release of her debut recordings in 1981, as a ground breaking moment in SA pop music history. She had a meteoric rise in media profile and then disappeared from the business after four albums. More of that story later.

Some of the multitrack tapes from the original recording sessions have deteriorated beyond rescue but fortunately this is not the case with all of them. It is still possible to restore parts of the missing or damaged sequences, with the aid of digital technology employed in current music production.

Lesley Rae Dowling circa 1984 (c) Songwrights

The first re-issue will be Lesley's classic song, The Spaniard, which Terence re-arranged and pepped up sound wise, and added new instruments to bring it up to date a bit. Though not her biggest hit, many fans regard the track as her breakthrough recording. It featured her wonderful sultry mid register voice in counterpoint to her own special piano playing style. In addition it is her own composition.

Link to the new mix - Spaniard 2020

Spaniard (2020) will be out in February marketed by the Sea Records label.

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