Dusty Springfield (1939 - 1999)

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Full Circle--The Life & Music of Dusty Springfield (1998)

Veteran British singer Dusty Springfield was all but forgotten when inclusion in Quentin Tarantino's savvy '60s soundscape to Pulp Fiction and a high-profile cameo on a Pet Shop Boys single helped resuscitate critical acclaim for her soulful yet velvety delivery. This affable '90s British documentary offers a broad view of the oddly self-effacing yet emotive stylist's career, and it's instructive viewing in the poignant aftermath of Springfield's March 1999 death from breast cancer, on the eve of prestigious British and American honors (an MBE and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, respectively).

American fans remember her primarily through a modest but indelible string of blue-eyed-soul singles from the mid-'60s, and from the brief but stunning late-decade "comeback" of Dusty in Memphis, still a hallowed soul album. But Full Circle regards the once and future Mary O'Brian from a homeland perspective, tracing her often eclectic path from her earliest home tape recordings through the earnest, rough-hewn pop folk of the Springfields (source of her stage name) and into the swinging '60s. Springfield's infatuation with Brill Building pop and epochal Motown soul shaped those early solo hits and led her to material from Carole King and, more crucially, Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

A bumper crop of vintage British television clips from her appearances on her own shows will offer retro-surfers a delirious array of wigs, eyelashes, and couture that may be cause enough for viewing. Yet Springfield's vocal poise and superb taste in songs is borne out on a more serious level by interviews with Martha Reeves (for whom she was an honorary Vandella, and whose best early Motown sides are triumphantly covered in vintage Springfield clips), Burt Bacharach, Elvis Costello, Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant, and producer Jerry Wexler.

Giving the hour-long documentary an irreverent spin are interviewers Jennifer Saunders (of Absolutely Fabulous) and Dawn French, who lampoon celebrity worship and reverent pop biographies. Music fans should be forewarned that the bulk of performances are from live television performances, suffering the lo-fi limitations of their source in old British air checks. But Dusty herself emerges as a winning, clear-eyed presence, making this a worthy valedictory. --Sam Sutherland

The Very Best Of Dusty Springfield Dusty Springfield

As a member of the British folk-rock trio the Springfields, Dusty Springfield was just another voice in the mix. With the group's breakup in 1963 and her subsequent solo career, Springfield transformed herself into a white soul singer able to belt out "Son of a Preacher Man" with all the authority of someone who had spent their life around such music. She could drop down for a ballad (Burt Bacharach/Hal David's "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself") with equal grace and ease. This collection features her simple pop hits ("I Only Want to Be with You," "Wishin' and Hopin'") and hits the obvious spots, distilling her career down to 20 effective, illustrative cuts. --Rob O'Connor

Anthology   Dusty Springfield

Dusty Springfield is a pop singer in the sense that she's sung anything she wanted to, or that the market could grasp, over a 35-year-plus career. Unlike the often unconvincing genre hopping of a Cher, however, Springfield's shifts in style have always been of a piece: the apocalyptic balladry of "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," the wistful Goffin-King "Goin' Back," the sultry soul of "Son of a Preacher Man," or the drama of her duet with the Pet Shop Boys, "What Have I Done to Deserve This?"--these are all Springfield's songs. This three-CD box set surveys all her changes, with promises of more to come that were sadly never fulfilled. --Rickey Wright

Woman of Repute:  Dusty Springfield

A Tribute Site.

Excerpt:

Rock World magazine lists her as one of the twelve First Women of Rock; Rolling Stone declares her "Britain's best ever pop-singer." In the '60s, Cliff Richard dubbed her "the white negress," while Ma  Bygraves called her "a trouble-maker." 

All such labels inevitably fail to capture the unique essence of British singer Dusty Springfield, who, for nearly forty years, reigned as one of the world's finest female vocalists...

Dusty Springfield:  The White Lady of Soul

Dusty Springfield remains the UK's greatest female singer - ever!

Dusty Springfield

From ubl.artistdirect.com

Excerpt:

Britain's greatest pop diva, Dusty Springfield was also the finest white soul singer of her era, a performer of remarkable emotional resonance whose body of work spans the decades and their attendant musical transformations with a consistency and purity unmatched by any of her contemporaries; though a camp icon of glamorous excess in her towering beehive hairdo and panda-eye black mascara, the sultry intimacy and heartbreaking urgency of Springfield's voice transcended image and fashion, embracing everything from lushly-orchestrated pop to gritty R&B to disco with unparalleled sophistication and depth. She was born Mary O'Brien on April 16, 1939 and raised on an eclectic diet of classical music and jazz, coming to worship Peggy Lee; after completing her schooling she joined the Lana Sisters, a pop vocal trio which issued a few singles on Fontana before dissolving. In 1960, upon teaming with her brother Dion and his friend Tim Feild in the folk trio the Springfields, O'Brien adopted the stage name Dusty Springfield; thanks to a series of hits including "Breakaway," "Bambino" and "Say I Won't Be There," the group was soon the U.K.'s best-selling act...

Dusty Springfield

From The Knitting Circle

Excerpt:

In 1975 she made a veiled indication, in an interview with Ray Coleman published in the London Evening Standard, that she was bisexual by saying that her 'affections were as easily swayed by a woman as a man'. In fact biographies published after her death made it clear that all of her close long-term relationships and most of her short-term relationships were with women. However, during her life Dusty Springfield was reluctant to talk about her sexuality.

After the revelation about her sexuality she moved to Los Angeles and tried to fit into the suburban life in Laurel Canyon. For a few years her recording was intermittent. She spent a lot of time with her friends such as Billy Jean King and campaigned for animal rights. She also succumbed to alcohol abuse and pill taking, and even tried to commit suicide...

Some Dusty Springfield Fan and Tribute Sites:

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