Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), better known by her stage name Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano voice, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, pop, and dramatic ballads, with French chanson, country, and jazz also in her repertoire. During her 1960s peak, she ranked among the most successful British 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), evening gowns, and stylised, gestural performances – made her an icon of the Swinging Sixties.
Born in West Hampstead in London to 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, she 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 achieved success in the United States with their cover of "Silver Threads and Golden Needles". Her 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 two releases which are 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 is featured on the 1968 pop and soul album Dusty in Memphis, one of Springfield's legacy-defining works. In March 2020, the US Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry, which preserves audio recordings considered to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Between 1964 and 1969, Springfield enjoyed success in her native United Kingdom with several singles which in America either failed to chart or were not released, among them being "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" (the biggest of her many Burt Bacharach/Hal 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, she 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 near the top of the charts, reaching No. 2 on both the UK Singles Chart and the Billboard Hot 100. The collaboration yielded two 1989 UK top 20 hits: "Nothing Has Been Proved" and "In Private". In 1990, Springfield charted with "Reputation" – the last of 25 UK top 40 hits in which she featured.
A fixture on British television, Springfield presented many episodes of the popular 1963–66 British TV music series Ready Steady Go! and, between 1966 and 1969, hosted her own series on the BBC and ITV. In 1966, she topped popularity polls, including Melody Makers "Best International Vocalist", and was the first UK singer to top the New Musical Express readers' poll for best female singer. She has been inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the UK Music Hall of Fame. Multiple critics and polls have lauded Springfield as one of the greatest female singers in popular music.
Early life
Springfield was born Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien on 16 April 1939 in West Hampstead,O'Brien, p. 3. the second child of Gerard Anthony 'OB' O'Brien (1904–1979) and Catherine Anne 'Kay' O'Brien (née Ryle; 1900–1974), both Irish immigrants. Springfield's elder brother, Dionysius Patrick O'Brien (2 July 1934 – 27 July 2022) was later known as Tom Springfield. Her father grew up in British India and worked as a tax accountant and consultant.Gulla, p. 357. Her mother came from an Irish family originally from Tralee, County Kerry, that included a number of journalists.Valentine and Wickham, p. 21.
Dusty Springfield grew up in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire living there until the early 1950s and later in Ealing in West London. She attended St Anne's Convent School in Northfields, a traditional all-girl Roman Catholic school in London. The comfortable middle-class upbringing was disturbed by dysfunctional tendencies in the family: her father's perfectionism and her mother's frustrations sometimes resulted in food-throwing incidents.Valentine and Wickham, p. 23. Springfield and her brother were both prone to food-throwing as adults. She was given the nickname "Dusty" because she played football with boys in the street; she was described as being a tomboy.Leeson, p. 14.
Springfield grew up in a music-loving family. Her father tapped out rhythms on the back of her hand and encouraged her to guess which musical piece had the beat. She listened to a wide range of music including George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Glenn Miller.Gulla, p. 358. A fan of American jazz and the vocalists Peggy Lee and Jo Stafford, she wished to sound like them. At age 12 she recorded herself performing the Irving Berlin song "When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabama" at a record shop in Ealing.
Career 1958–1963: Career beginnings
After leaving school, Springfield sang with Tom, her brother, in local folk clubs. They acquired George Cassidy as tenor saxophonist during this period, and toured in Ireland. In 1957, the pair worked together at holiday camps. The next year, Springfield responded to an advertisement in The Stage to join The Lana Sisters, an "established sister act", with Iris "Riss" Long (also known as Riss Lana or Riss Chantelle) and Lynne Abrams (a.k.a. Lynne Lana), who were not actually sisters. Springfield adopted the stage name "Shann Lana" and "cut her hair, lost the glasses, experimented with makeup (and) fashion", becoming one of the "sisters".Gulla, p. 359.
As a member of the pop vocal trio, Dusty Springfield developed skills in harmonizing and microphone technique; she recorded, performed on television, and played at live shows in the United Kingdom and at United States Air Force bases in continental Europe. In 1960, she left the Lana Sisters and formed a folk-pop trio, The Springfields, with Tom and Reshad Feild (both had been in The Kensington Squares), the latter of whom Mike Hurst replaced in 1962. The trio chose their name while rehearsing in a field in Somerset in the springtime and took the stage names Dusty, Tom, and Tim Springfield.Valentine and Wickham, p. Intending to make an authentic US album, the group travelled to Nashville to record Folk Songs from the Hills. The music Springfield heard during their visit – but particularly the Exciters' "Tell Him", while in New York City – influenced her shift from folk and country towards pop rooted in rhythm and blues. The band was voted the Top British Vocal Group in a New Musical Express poll in 1961 and 1962, although their two biggest hits were in 1963, "Island of Dreams" and "Say I Won't Be There", both peaking at number five within five weeks of each other. The group appeared on the hip ITV music series Ready Steady Go!, which Springfield often presented in the earlier days of its run.Gulla, p. 360.
Dusty left the band after their final concert in October 1963. After the break-up of the Springfields, Tom continued songwriting and producing for other artists, notably Australian folk-pop group The Seekers, producing, writing, and/or co-writing their four defining mid-1960s hits: "I'll Never Find Another You", "A World of Our Own", "The Carnival is Over", and "Georgy Girl". He also wrote additional songs for Dusty – most famously her 1964 UK hit "Losing You", with Clive Westlake – and released his own solo material.
1963–1966: Early solo career
Dusty Springfield released her first solo single, "I Only Want to Be with You", co-written and arranged by Ivor Raymonde, in November 1963. The record was produced by Johnny Franz in a manner similar to Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound"; it included rhythm-and-blues features like horn sections, backing singers, and double-tracked vocals along with strings, recalling Springfield's influences such as the Exciters and the Shirelles. In January 1964, the single peaked at no. 4 on the UK charts during a lengthy (for the time) 18-week run. In December 1963, New York disc jockey "Dandy" Dan Daniel of WMCA nominated the single as a "Sure Shot" pick of records not yet charted, preceding Beatlemania. The single debuted on Billboard's Hot 100 on the chart dated 25 January 1964, a week after the debut of the Beatles' first hit "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and in the same week as the debut of "She Loves You", positioning Springfield at the forefront of the British Invasion. "I Only Want to Be with You" peaked at no. 12 during its ten-week chart run, and ranked 48 in the year-end Top 100 of New York radio station WABC. The BBC's 1964–2006 weekly chart-based music programme Top of the Pops debuted on 1 January 1964, with "I Only Want to Be with You" as the show's kick-off record. The single was certified gold in the UK, and its B-side, "Once Upon a Time", was written by Springfield.
Springfield's debut solo album A Girl Called Dusty – featuring mostly covers of her favourite songs – was released on 17 April 1964 in the UK (but not in America). Tracks included "Mama Said", "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes", "You Don't Own Me", and "Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa". In May 1964, the album reached no. 6 in the UK – one of only two of her Top Ten non-hits albums. After "I Only Want to Be with You", she had five more singles chart in 1964, with just "Stay Awhile" registering as a transatlantic success (UK no. 13/US no. 38). Its B-side, "Somethin' Special", was written by Springfield, later described as "a first-rate Springfield original" by AllMusic's Richie Unterberger. She was quoted as saying "I don't really see myself as a songwriter. I don't really like writing... I just don't get any good ideas and the ones I do get are pinched from other records. The only reason I write is for the money – oh mercenary creature!" The highest-charting of Springfield's 1964 releases were both Burt Bacharach-Hal David songs: "Wishin' and Hopin'" – a US no. 6 hit which featured on A Girl Called Dusty – and "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself", which in July peaked at no. 3 on the UK singles chart (behind the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" and the Rolling Stones' "It's All Over Now"). The dramatic and emotive "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" set the standard for much of her later material. In the autumn of 1964, Springfield peaked at no. 41 in the United States with "All Cried Out", but in her native Britain she hit big with "Losing You" (UK no. 9/US no. 91), which peaked in December – the same month in which the singer's tour of South Africa, with her group The Echoes, was terminated following a controversial performance before an integrated audience at a theatre near Cape Town, in defiance of the government's segregation policy. Springfield was deported.Gulla, p. 368. Her contract specifically excluded segregated performances, making her one of the first British artists to do so. In the same year, she was voted the year's top British Female Singer in the New Musical Express readers' poll, ahead of Lulu, Sandie Shaw, and Cilla Black. Springfield received the award again for the next three years.