Let’s see if we can track all the prominent women pop vocalists’ excursions down South in the late 1960s and into the new decade:

(1) Dusty Springfield (née Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien) kicked things off when she recorded her classic Dusty in Memphis album at American Sound Studios in November 1968.

(2) Cher recorded her critically-acclaimed (though commercially under-appreciated) album 3614 Jackson Highway at the newly-opened Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in June 1969.

(3) Lulu followed suit, traveling to Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in September 1969 to record her New Routes album with such musicians as Duane Allman, Cornel Dupree, and Jim Dickinson.

(4) Joan Baez, in 1970, recorded an album in Nashville, One Day at a Time, that boldly – for its time – mixed Willie Nelson & the Stones with traditional folk and country songs.

(5) In 1970, Vikki Carr likewise recorded an album in Nashville – Nashville by Carr –– that was her last for Liberty, who issued two singles – neither of them including the track, “Living on a Prayer, a Hope & a Hand-Me-Down.”

[Pssst:  Click on the triangle to hear ”Living on a Prayer, a Hope & a Hand-Me-Down” by Vikki Carr.]

Guitars:      Harold Bradley, Pete Wade, Ray Edenton, Pete Drake,                                 Kelso Herston, Jerry Shook
Bass:          Junior Huskey, Henry Strzelecki, Norbert Putnam
Piano:         Larry Butler, Hargus “Pig” Robbins
Drums:        Buddy Harmon
Utility:       Charlie McCoy,
Voices:       Nashville Edition