Anne Murray's Famous Friends

Anne Murray at the 2006 Canadian Country Music Awards

January 16, 2008 — For the first time in more than 35 years, Anne Murray stayed away from touring throughout 2007. Instead of doing concerts, she devoted her working hours to a new album, Anne Murray Duets: Friends & Legends, that came out yesterday. It features 17 new versions of songs she's previously recorded, each of them remade with other women.

The guest list is impressive: Martina McBride, Shania Twain, Celine Dion, Emmylou Harris, Nelly Furtado and Olivia Newton-John, among others. But the most difficult duet to arrange was a version of "I Just Fall In Love Again" that pairs Anne with the late Dusty Springfield. Dusty recorded the song in the 1970s, just a few years after the two singers had become friends. Dusty's estate originally declined the request to use her voice, but Anne wrote a personal letter explaining their friendship, and that cinched the deal. Dusty, who died of cancer in 1999, had provided background vocals on one of Anne's albums and appeared on a 1985 TV special Anne hosted.

"I didn't see her much, but we did develop a bond," Anne tells The Montreal Gazette. "I think the last time I talked to her, I was on a short list of people she wanted to talk to before she died. I called her a week before she died, and we had a long chat, and we talked about old times and we said goodbye."

Among the other artists on the album are Amy Grant, k.d. lang, Shelby Lynne and Carole King, who wrote Anne's 1985 hit "Time Don't Run Out On Me."