"Son of a Preacher Man" is a song recorded by Dusty Springfield

Dusty Springfield

Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...

 in September 1968 and featured on the album, Dusty in Memphis

Dusty in Memphis

Dusty in Memphis is a landmark album by Dusty Springfield, released in 1969. It was produced by Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin and engineered by Tom Dowd. "So Much Love", "Son of a Preacher Man", "The Windmills Of Your Mind", "Breakfast in Bed", "Just One Smile", "I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore",...

. It was written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins. The rights to cover "Son of a Preacher Man" were originally offered to Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...

, who turned it down. It was only upon hearing Springfield's version that Franklin reconsidered and recorded the song herself. By that time, however, Springfield's version had already become a hit; thus, Franklin's version, included on her 1970 album, This Girl's In Love With You

This Girl's in Love with You

This Girl's In Love With You is a 1970 album by Aretha Franklin. It reached Billboards Top 20 and was reissued on compact disc through Rhino Records in the 1990s....

, charted only as a tag-along b-side of the single, "Call Me

Call Me (Aretha Franklin song)

"Call Me" is a song recorded and written by American Soul singer Aretha Franklin. The song was co-produced by Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin. Franklin came up with the idea for the song after she saw a young couple engaged in deep conversation on New York's Park Avenue. Before they parted,...

".

Springfield's version was produced by Jerry Wexler

Jerry Wexler

Gerald "Jerry" Wexler was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s...

, Tom Dowd

Tom Dowd

Tom Dowd was an American recording engineer and producer for Atlantic Records. He was credited with innovating the multi-track recording method. Dowd worked on a virtual "who's who" of recordings that encompassed blues, jazz, pop, rock and soul records.- Early years :Born in Manhattan, Dowd grew...

 and Arif Mardin

Arif Mardin

Arif Mardin was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco, and country...

 for her first album for the Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

 label and became an international hit reaching #10 in the United States and #9 in her native UK when released in late 1968. The album Dusty in Memphis

Dusty in Memphis

Dusty in Memphis is a landmark album by Dusty Springfield, released in 1969. It was produced by Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin and engineered by Tom Dowd. "So Much Love", "Son of a Preacher Man", "The Windmills Of Your Mind", "Breakfast in Bed", "Just One Smile", "I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore",...

was released in stereo

Stereophonic sound

The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...

 though its singles were remixed and released in mono

Monaural

Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or channels are fed from a common signal path...

. "Son of a Preacher Man" was to be the last Top Ten chart hit for the artist for almost 20 years until she teamed up with Pet Shop Boys

Pet Shop Boys

Pet Shop Boys are an English electronic dance music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasional guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards....

 for the single "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" in 1987.

Legacy

The writers of Rolling Stone magazine placed the release at #77 among The 100 Best Singles of the Last 25 Years in 1987. The record was placed at #43 of the Greatest Singles of All Time by the writers of New Musical Express in 2002.
In 2004, the song made the Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" was the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone, issue number 963, published December 9, 2004, a year after the magazine published its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time"....

 at #240.

Samples from "Son of a Preacher Man" were used on Cypress Hill

Cypress Hill

Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California. Cypress Hill was the first Latino hip-hop group to have platinum and multi-platinum albums, selling over 18 million albums worldwide...

's "Hits from the Bong" on their album Black Sunday

Black Sunday (album)

Black Sunday is the second album by rap group Cypress Hill. It was released on July 20, 1993. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 selling 261,000 copies in its first week, recording the highest Soundscan for a rap group at the time. The album went Triple platinum in the U.S...

in 1993 and on Adil Omar

Adil Omar

Adil Omar is a rapper and singer-songwriter from Islamabad, Pakistan. He is one of the few hip-hop artists from Pakistan and musicians from the region to write and perform in English. He has also collaborated with mainstream artists such as Cypress Hill, Xzibit, Everlast, Kool G Rap, DJ Lethal of...

's "Known to Kick It" in 2008. In 1994 the song was featured in a scene of the film Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction (film)

Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote its screenplay with Roger Avary. The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references...

. In the movie, the song was a background for the scene of Mia Wallace (portrayed by Uma Thurman

Uma Thurman

Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Among her best-known roles are those in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill...

) making Vincent Vega (portrayed by John Travolta

John Travolta

John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...

) wait on the intercom

Intercom

An intercom , talkback or doorphone is a stand-alone voice communications system for use within a building or small collection of buildings, functioning independently of the public telephone network. Intercoms are generally mounted permanently in buildings and vehicles...

. The soundtrack

Pulp Fiction (soundtrack)

Music from the Motion Picture Pulp Fiction is the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction. No traditional film score was commissioned for Pulp Fiction. The film contains a mix of American rock and roll, surf music, pop and soul...

 reached No. 21 on the Billboard 200, and at the time, went platinum (100,000 units) in Canada alone. "Son of a Preacher Man" helped to sell over 2 million units of the album and to reach #6 on the charts according to SoundScan. Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...

 has been quoted on the "Collectors Edition" DVD of Pulp Fiction as saying that he probably would not have done that scene had he not been able to use "Son of a Preacher Man". The song is also featured in the film Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a 2005 documentary film based on the best-selling 2003 book of the same name by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, a study of one of the largest business scandals in American history...

, during scenes depicting Kenneth Lay

Kenneth Lay

Kenneth Lee "Ken" Lay was an American businessman, best known for his role in the widely reported corruption scandal that led to the downfall of Enron Corporation. Lay and Enron became synonymous with corporate abuse and accounting fraud when the scandal broke in 2001...

, ex-Enron

Enron

Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with...

 CEO and son of a Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 minister. In the 2008 television episode of the American series The Office entitled "Baby Shower", Jan Levinson

Jan Levinson

Janet "Jan" Levenson is a fictional character from the US television series The Office. Though her last name is commonly misspelled as "Levinson", NBC spells it as "Levenson". Her counterpart in the UK version is Jennifer Taylor-Clarke...

, played by Melora Hardin

Melora Hardin

Melora Diane Hardin is an American actress, best known for her roles as Jan Levinson on NBC's The Office and Trudy Monk on USA's Monk.-Early life:...

, is filmed singing "Son of a Preacher Man" as a lullaby to her newborn daughter Astrid.

Other recorded versions

Country singer Peggy Little

Peggy Little

Peggy Little is an American country music singer best remembered for her country cover version of Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man"...

 released a cover version in 1969 that peaked at #40 on the Billboard country charts.

Album track covers at the time of the Springfield/Franklin/Little hits include Skeeter Davis

Skeeter Davis

Mary Frances Penick , better known as Skeeter Davis, was an American country music singer best known for crossover pop music songs of the early 1960s. She started out as part of The Davis Sisters as a teenager in the late 1940s, eventually landing on RCA Records. In the late '50s, she became a solo...

, Tina Turner

Tina Turner

Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...

, Bobbie Gentry

Bobbie Gentry

Roberta Lee Streeter , professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is a former American singer-songwriter notable as one of the first female country artists to compose and produce her own material...

, Liza Minnelli

Liza Minnelli

Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....

, Jan Howard

Jan Howard

Lula Grace Johnson , known professionally as Jan Howard, is an American country music singer and Grand Ole Opry star. She attained moderate success as a country female vocalist during the 1960s and early 1970s...

, and Nancy Wilson.
Tanya Tucker

Tanya Tucker

Tanya Denise Tucker is a female American country music artist who had her first hit, "Delta Dawn", in 1972 at the age of 13...

 recorded a version in 1975 on her album Tanya Tucker

Tanya Tucker (album)

Tanya Tucker was the eponymous fourth album by Tanya Tucker, although it was the first for her new label, MCA Records. The album rose to #8 on the Billboard Country Albums chart, and two of its singles both rose to the #1 position: "Lizzie and the Rainman" and "San Antonio Stroll." "Lizzie and the...

.
Canadian country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 band Farmer's Daughter took a version of the song to #35 on the RPM

RPM (magazine)

RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,...

Country Tracks charts in 1995.

A live version by Joan Osborne

Joan Osborne

Joan Elizabeth Osborne is an American singer-songwriter. She is best known for her song "One of Us". She has toured with Motown sidemen the Funk Brothers and was featured in the documentary film about them, Standing in the Shadows of Motown.-Biography:Originally from Anchorage, Kentucky, a suburb...

 appears on her 1996 album Early Recordings

Early Recordings

Early Recordings is an album by Joan Osborne released on November 5, 1996.Except for "His Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles," it consists of live recordings, mostly from Osborne's debut album, Soul Show: Live at Delta 88.-Track listing:...

.

Cam Clarke

Cam Clarke

Cameron Arthur "Cam" Clarke is a prolific American voice actor and singer, well known for his work in animation and video games. Clarke is well known for providing the voices of Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Shotaro Kaneda in the 1989 original English-dub of Akira. He often voices...

 recorded the song in 1999, giving it a gay interpretation.

Australian-born country singer Sherrié Austin

Sherrié Austin

Sherrie Veronica Krenn is an Australian actress and singer, known professionally as Sherrié Austin. Active as a singer since her teenage years, Sherrié initially recorded as one half of the duo Colorhaus, which also featured Phil Radford...

 also released a cover version, taking it to #46 on the U.S. Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

country charts in 2004.

There is a version in Swiss German

Swiss German

Swiss German is any of the Alemannic dialects spoken in Switzerland and in some Alpine communities in Northern Italy. Occasionally, the Alemannic dialects spoken in other countries are grouped together with Swiss German as well, especially the dialects of Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg...

 called "där Sohn vom Pfarrär" recorded in 1994 by Sina from Switzerland.

The song has also been covered by Katey Sagal

Katey Sagal

Catherine Louise "Katey" Sagal is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She first achieved widespread fame as Peggy Bundy on the long-running Fox comedy series Married.....

 for an episode of the television show Sons of Anarchy

Sons of Anarchy

Sons of Anarchy is an American television drama series created by Kurt Sutter about the lives of a close-knit outlaw motorcycle club operating in Charming, a fictional town in Northern California...

.

Hank Marvin

Hank Marvin

Hank Brian Marvin is an English guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist for The Shadows. The group, which primarily performed instrumentals, was formed as a backing band for vocalist Cliff Richard...

 covered the song on his 2000 album Marvin at the Movies.

The song was also covered by German singer Sarah Connor (on the album Soulicious

Soulicious

Soulicious is the fifth studio album by German singer–songwriter Sarah Connor, released in German-speaking Europe on 30 March 2007 by Epic. Entirely produced by Kay Denar and Rob Tyger, the album consists of a collection of cover versions of Motown music from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, apart from...

), Jessica Simpson

Jessica Simpson

Jessica Ann Simpson is an American recording artist, actress, television personality, and fashion designer whose rise to fame began in 1999. Since that time, Simpson has achieved many recording milestones, starred in several television shows, movies, and commercials, launched a line of hair and...

 (performed on the Early Show) and Joss Stone

Joss Stone

Jocelyn Eve Stoker , better known by her stage name Joss Stone, is an English soul singer-songwriter and actress. Stone rose to fame in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist...

.

R&B/soul trio The Honey Cone

Honey Cone

Honey Cone was an American R&B and soul all girl vocal group, who are best remembered for their Billboard #1 hit single, "Want Ads". They were the premier female group for Hot Wax Records, operated by Holland–Dozier–Holland after they had departed from Motown Records.-Career:Honey Cone comprised...

 recorded a version for their 1971 album Sweet Replies

Sweet Replies

Reviews for Sweet Replies have been positive. Robert Christgau rated it a B+, stating that "most of this is pure Vandellas." He also stated that the producer "uses every H-D-H [Holland-Dozier-Holland] trick and comes up with a few electronic effects of his own". In a retrospective review, Andrew...

.

Sylvia Vrethammar

Sylvia Vrethammar

Sylvia Vrethammar , is a Swedish singer of popular music, standards and jazz. She is the daughter of Harald Vrethammar, an education official, and Britta Vrethammar, a musical education teacher, specializing in the piano...

 recorded the song in Swedish as "En lärling på våran gård", which was released as a single in 1969 and entered the Svensktoppen

Svensktoppen

Svensktoppen is a record chart at Sveriges Radio. Until January 2003, the songs had to be in the Swedish language. Svensktoppen has aired since 1962, except for the years 1982-1985. Svensktoppen airs once a week...

 chart the same year.

Canadian singer Jann Arden

Jann Arden

Jann Arden is a Canadian singer-songwriter.-Life and career:Arden was born and raised near Calgary in Springbank, Alberta and attended Springbank Community High School. Her breakthrough came with her critically acclaimed 1993 debut album Time for Mercy and her first single "I Would Die For You"...

 recorded the song on her 2007 album Uncover Me

Uncover Me

Uncover Me is the seventh album from Canadian singer-songwriter Jann Arden, released in 2007. "Counterfeit Heart" is the only track written by Jann Arden . Three additional tracks from these sessions, "Moon River", "What the World Needs Now", and "End of the World", are available from her Myspace...

.

Liza Minnelli

Liza Minnelli

Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....

 covered the song as part of her 1972 filmed concert Liza with a Z

Liza with a Z

Liza with a ‘Z’. A Concert for Television is a 1972 concert film, made for television and starring Liza Minnelli. The film was produced by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse. As well as producing, Fosse also directed and choreographed the concert, and Ebb wrote and arranged the music with his song-writing...

.

External links

• [ Son of a Preacher Man] at allmusic.com