The Windmills of Your Mind

Dorothy Ashby recorded “The Windmills of Your Mind” at Ter Mar Studios in Chicago in March 1969 for the album Dorothy’s Harp. Richard Evans arranged, conducted and produced the session, with Stu Black engineering and Odell Brown credited on Fender electric piano. Released on Cadet in 1969, the track placed Michel Legrand and Alan and Marilyn Bergman’s recent film-song standard inside Ashby’s orchestral Cadet sound. It extended the pop-conscious direction of Afro-Harping while keeping Ashby’s harp as the lead voice. The recording remains a distinctive late-1960s reading of a widely covered song and a strong example of Ashby’s ability to move the harp into contemporary popular repertoire. Dorothy’s Harp later became part of the wider rediscovery of her Cadet catalogue by jazz, soul and crate-digging audiences.