Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien OBE[2] (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), better known by her stage name Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, pop and dramatic ballads, with French chanson, country, and jazz in her repertoire. During her 1960s peak, she ranked among the most successful British female performers on both sides of the Atlantic. Her image – marked by a peroxide blonde bouffant/beehive hairstyle, heavy makeup (thick black eyeliner and eye shadow) and evening gowns, as well as stylised, gestural performances – made her an icon of the Swinging Sixties.[3]
Dusty Springfield
Born in West Hampstead in London into a family that enjoyed music, Springfield learned to sing at home. In 1958, she joined her first professional group, the Lana Sisters. Two years later, with her brother Dion O'Brien ("Tom Springfield") and Tim Feild, Springfield formed the folk-pop vocal trio the Springfields. Two of their five 1961–63 top 40 UK hits – "Island of Dreams" and "Say I Won't Be There" – reached No. 5 on the charts, both in the spring of 1963. In 1962, they also hit big in the United States with their cover of "Silver Threads and Golden Needles".
Dusty Springfield's solo career began in late 1963 with the upbeat pop record "I Only Want to Be with You" — a UK No. 4 hit, and the first of her six transatlantic top 40 hits in the 1960s, along with "Stay Awhile" (1964), "All I See Is You" (1966), "I'll Try Anything" (1967) and the two releases now considered her signature songs: "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" (1966 UK No. 1/US No. 4) and "Son of a Preacher Man" (1968/69 UK No. 9/US No. 10). The latter features on the 1968 pop and soul album Dusty in Memphis, one of Springfield's defining works. In March 2020, the US Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry, which preserves audio recordings considered to be "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
Between 1964 and 1969, Springfield hit big in her native Britain with several singles which in America either failed to chart or were not released, among them "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" (the biggest of her many Bacharach/David covers), "In the Middle of Nowhere", "Some of Your Lovin'", "Goin' Back" and "I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten". Conversely, she charted in the US (but not in the UK) with hits including "Wishin' and Hopin'", "The Look of Love" and "The Windmills of Your Mind".
From 1971 to 1986, Springfield failed to register a hit from five album releases (aside from a minor 1979 UK chart appearance), but her 1987 collaboration with UK synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, "What Have I Done to Deserve This?", took her back to the top of the charts, reaching No. 2 on both the UK Singles Chart and Billboard Hot 100. The collaboration also yielded two 1989 UK top 20 hits: "Nothing Has Been Proved" and "In Private". In 1990, Springfield charted with "Reputation" – the last of her 25 UK top 40 hits.
A fixture on British television, Springfield presented many episodes of the hip 1963–66 British TV music series Ready Steady Go! and, between 1966 and '69, hosted her own series on the BBC and ITV. In 1966, Springfield topped the popularity polls, including Melody Maker's Best International Vocalist,[4] and was the first UK singer to top the New Musical Express readers' poll for Female Singer. She is a member of the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the UK Music Hall of Fame. International polls have lauded Springfield as one of the finest female popular singers of all time.
Death[edit]
In January 1994, while recording her album, A Very Fine Love, in Nashville, Tennessee, Springfield began feeling ill. When she returned to England a few months later, her physicians diagnosed her with breast cancer.[103] She received months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, and the cancer was found to be in remission.[99] In 1995, in apparent good health, Springfield set about promoting the album, which was released that year.[119] By mid-1996, the cancer had returned, and despite vigorous treatments, Springfield died on 2 March 1999, aged 59, in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.[120][121]
Springfield's funeral service was attended by hundreds of fans and people from the music business, including Elvis Costello, Lulu and the Pet Shop Boys. It took place at the Anglican St Mary the Virgin church in Henley-on-Thames.[122][123][124] A marker dedicated to her memory was placed in the church graveyard.[125] In accordance with Springfield's wishes, she was cremated and some of her ashes were buried at Henley, while the rest were scattered by her brother, Tom Springfield, at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.
Legacy[edit]
She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two weeks after her death. Her friend Elton John helped induct her into the Hall of Fame, declaring: "I'm biased but I just think she was the greatest white singer there ever has been ... every song she sang, she claimed as her own."[126][127]
Of the female singers of the British Invasion, Springfield made one of the biggest impressions on the US market,[128] scoring 18 singles in the Billboard Hot 100 from 1964 to 1970 including six in the top 20.[27][106] Quentin Tarantino caused a revival of interest in her music in 1994 by including "Son of a Preacher Man" on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, which sold over three million copies.[129][130] In that same year, in the documentary Dusty Springfield: Full Circle, guests of her 1965 Sound of Motown show credited Springfield's efforts with popularising US soul music in the UK.[131][132]
In 2008, country/blues singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne recorded a tribute album featuring ten of Springfield's songs as well as one original. The album, titled Just a Little Lovin', featured two tracks selected from Springfield's debut, four from Dusty in Memphis and four from throughout her back catalogue. Lynne's album received critical acclaim, charted at number 41 on the US Billboard Charts and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical).
Springfield was popular in Europe and performed at the Sanremo Music Festival. Recordings were released in French, German, and Italian: her French works include a 1964 four-track extended play with "Demain tu peux changer" (also known as "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"), "Je ne peux pas t'en vouloir" ("Losing You"), "L'été est fini" ("Summer is Over") and "Reste encore un instant" ("Stay Awhile");[133] German recordings include the July 1964 single, "Warten und hoffen" ("Wishin' and Hopin'") backed with "Auf dich nur wart' ich immerzu" ("I Only Want to Be with You");[134] Italian recordings include "Tanto so che poi mi passa" ("Every Day I Have to Cry") issued as a single.[40] Her entries at the Sanremo festival were "Tu che ne sai" and "Di fronte all'amore" ("I Will Always Want You").[40]
Springfield is known to have brought many little-known soul singers to the attention of a wider UK record-buying audience. In April 1965, she hosted a special Motown edition of the hugely popular British TV music series Ready Steady Go!, featuring the first national TV performances of many top-selling Motown artists.[3] Although her music was not directly associated with the British music/dance movement northern soul, her efforts were seen as a contributing factor in the formation of the genre.[135]
Springfield is a cultural icon of the Swinging Sixties, where she "was an instantly recognisable celebrity".[15][98] In public and on stage, Springfield developed a joyful image supported by her peroxide-blonde bouffant hairstyle, evening gowns and heavy make-up that included her much-copied "panda eye" mascara. Springfield borrowed elements of her look from blonde glamour queens such as Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve and pasted them together according to her own taste.[136][137]
By the 1990s, she had also become a camp icon,[100] especially with her ultra-glamorous look and this, combined with her emotive vocal performances, won her a powerful and enduring following in the gay community.[102][138] Besides being a prototypical female for drag queens, she was presented in the roles of the 'Great White Lady' of pop and soul and the 'Queen of Mods'.[105][139]
Awards and tributes[edit]
Springfield is an inductee of the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999) and the UK Music Hall of Fame (2006) and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame (2023). She has been placed among the top 25 female artists of all time by readers of Mojo magazine (May 1999),[140] editors of Q magazine (January 2002),[141] and a panel of artists on VH1 TV channel (August 2007).[142] In 2008, Dusty appeared at No. 35 on the Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".[143] In the 1960s she topped a number of popularity polls, including Melody Maker's Best International Vocalist for 1966; in 1965 she was the first British singer to top the New Musical Express readers' polls for Female Singer, and topped that poll again in 1966, 1967, and 1969 as well as gaining the most votes in the British Singer category from 1964 to 1966.[135][19] Her album Dusty in Memphis has been listed among the greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone and in polls by VH1 artists, New Musical Express readers, and the Channel 4 viewers,[71] and in 2001, received the Grammy Hall of Fame award.[144]
In March 1999, Springfield was scheduled to go to Buckingham Palace to receive her award as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, given for "services to popular music".[2] Due to the recurrence of the singer's breast cancer, officials of Queen Elizabeth II gave permission for the medal to be collected earlier, in January, by Wickham and it was presented to Springfield in hospital with a small group of friends and relatives attending. She died on the day that she would otherwise have collected her award from the Palace.[145]
Various films and stage musicals have been created or proposed to commemorate her life. On 12 January 2006 an Australian stage musical, Dusty – The Original Pop Diva, received its world premiere at the State Theatre of the Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne. In May 2008, actress Nicole Kidman was announced as star and producer of a biographical film,[146] but, as of July 2012, it was yet to surface. Another reported candidate for a role as Springfield was Madonna in a TV film project.[146] Universal Pictures scheduled another biopic with Kristin Chenoweth in the starring role.[146][147] However, according to Chenoweth in January 2012, the project's status was in limbo and the "script … needed a lot of work".[148]
In 1970, US jazz singer-pianist Blossom Dearie recorded a tribute song, "Dusty Springfield", on her album That's Just the Way I Want to Be – it was co-written by Dearie, Tanega (Springfield's then-partner) and Jim Council.[149] UK singer-songwriter David Westlake on his 2002 release, Play Dusty for Me, "fêted [Springfield] in both the album title and opening title track".[150] US singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne's tenth studio album, Just a Little Lovin' (2008), was issued as a tribute.[151] In 2012, a biographical jukebox musical titled Forever Dusty opened Off-Broadway in New York City at New World Stages. The production starred Kirsten Holly Smith as Springfield. Smith also co-wrote the book of the musical.[152]
In 2015, Springfield was named by Equality Forum as one of their 31 Icons of the 2015 LGBT History Month.[153]
On 8 November 2022, Springfield was honoured with a Google Doodle to celebrate her life and career.[154]