David Campbell gives some good lovin’

PAUL DELLIT
If you have followed David Campbell’s career, you will know that long before he came out as the son of rocker Jimmy Barnes, he was already making a name for himself in the entertainment world.

Although he is a master of many trades, music is Campbell’s main passion.

And it is music which has seen him through tough times and given him the great highs.

He has featured on television programs, starred in musical theatre, devised his own cabaret shows in New York, recorded two Top 10 albums and sold out a concert tour from coast to coast.

With two Top 10 multi-platinum albums under his belt, in the winter of 2008 Campbell recorded the album Good Lovin’.

The album is a collection of songs from the ’60s and early ’70s, harnessing the spirit of the early rock and soul era.

Campbell explained that he tried to find the middle ground with this album.

On the tour last year I tried to find songs that were brass-driven and still swung but were more rock. We delved into Louis Prima and more ’50s swing and that moved towards the Elvis/Tom Jones Vegas period that was the germination of this idea that I could bridge the gap between shout and swing.

It was the right emotional growth and the right growth musically. With the Swing Sessions I chose songs based on having a Bobby Darin track or a Sinatra. It was a direction that I really wanted to head in.

Campbell feels songwriting has changed over the years. People aren’t writing consistently any more, he said.

There is no Brill Building. No Beatles. Back in the days when you had great songwriters and the Phil Spectors and Motown, there was definitely a period when there were so many great songs being written. But not so much now.

When asked why he shows no favourites in the style of songs he performs and records, Campbell replied that not being a songwriter he’s had to approach performing and recording from a different angle.

Whether it is classic swing, pop, ’50s/’60s rock or music theatre, my heroes didn’t write their songs, he said. I wish I could be a singer/songwriter. If you don’t have that ability, then you have to choose carefully what songs you do record.

Good Lovin’ features a duet with Jimmy Barnes on the Righteous Brothers classic You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.

When I was putting this album together I called him up. He suggested this song. I said, -˜Okay let’s do it but I want to go the whole hog and we’ll do massive strings and timpanis and tubular bells and brass band and choirs’.

Campbell has no immediate plans to return to musical theatre but said he would love it if there was a production of Carousel.

To go back to musical theatre I would much rather originate a new role, than just be part of some of the -˜cookie cutter’ shows that are being produced, he said. I have been really lucky with shows like Shout. I was very proud to be part of that production and very committed to it.

As well as touring in support of Good Lovin’, Campbell is artistic director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, to be held in June.  He said he is very excited about the Cabaret Festival.

Broadway star Bernadette Peters will be appearing, and we will be launching the full program early in the new year.

But I consider myself an entertainer, and it’s really important to me how these songs are going to reach out from the album.

info: www.davidcampbell.com Good Lovin’ is out through Sony Music.