Dusty Springfield part 1

There were two voices that stood out in Britain in the 60s. One belonged to Welsh singer Tom Jones and the other to Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien, born in 1939 in London, the daughter of Irish immigrants. You may know her as Dusty Springfield.

Mary/Dusty was educated at a convent school. Her father was "overweight, bespectacled and balding," a tax adviser who refused to sit the accountancy exams because "he really wanted to be a concert pianist". He also never did any gardening, as "there could be snakes hiding in the undergrowth". Meantime, Dusty’s mother was continuously drunk and sat all day in cinemas.

It was a domestic atmosphere of "terrible tension and fuming rows". occasionally enlivened with food fights at the dinner table. Dusty’s father called her "stupid and ugly", so she scalded herself and self-harmed to prove she was alive and not thoroughly numb. "The feelings of inadequacy followed me through my life," she later admitted— and her solace was to listen to (and emulate) Carmen Miranda, Doris Day and Billie Holiday, who turned pain and a tortured personal history into art.

The nuns wanted Mary O’Brien to be a librarian. But the future Dusty was determined to rebel. She bleached her hair and turned herself into someone else. "I just suddenly decided, in one afternoon, to be this other person who was going to make it."

Her favorite in the family was her older brother Dionysius, who was later known as Tom Springfield. After finishing school, Dusty sang with Tom in local folk clubs and holiday camps. The following year Dusty responded to an advertisement to join The Lana Sisters, an "established sister act", with Iris 'Riss' Long (aka Riss Lana, Riss Chantelle) and Lynne Abrams (not actually sisters). She had changed her name to Shan, and "cut her hair, lost the glasses, experimented with makeup, fashion" to become one of the 'sisters'. As a member of the pop vocal trio, Springfield developed skills in harmonising and microphone technique and recorded, performed on TV, and played at live shows in the United Kingdom and at United States Air Force bases in continental Europe.

Here are The Lana Sisters with Dusty, in Ring A My Phone (1958):

Here they are with a cover of You Got What It Takes:

In 1960, Springfield left The Lana Sisters and formed a pop-folk trio, The Springfields, with brother Tom and Reshad Feild (both ex-The Kensington Squares), who was replaced by Mike Hurst in 1962. The trio chose their name while rehearsing in a field in Somerset in the springtime and took the stage names of Dusty, Tom, and Tim Springfield. Intending to make an authentic US album, the group travelled to Nashville, Tennessee, to record Folk Songs from the Hills. The local music that Springfield heard during this visit, in particular "Tell Him," helped turn her style from folk and country towards Pop music rooted in Rhythm and Blues.

Here are their first two singles from 1961, with their B-sides: Dear John / I  Done What They Told Me To and Breakaway (UK #31) / Good News:

Their third single, Bambino (also in 1961), made the UK Top 20 (#16):

Silver Threads and Golden Needles, in 1962, was their US breakout hit. It made #20 in the Hot 100. It's probably the first recording where Dusty's voice clearly reveals what was to follow.

Dear Hearts and Gentle People also made the Hot 100:

Also in 1962, Island Of Dreams made #5 in the UK:

The band was voted the "Top British Vocal Group" by the New Musical Express poll in 1961 and 1962.

Say I Won't Be There (1963) was their last Top 5 in the UK:

Dusty left the band after their final concert in October 1963. After the Springfields disbanded, Tom continued songwriting and producing for other artists, including Australian folk-pop group The Seekers' mid-1960s hits I'll Never Find Another You and The Carnival is Over (lyrics only), and he co-wrote their Georgy Girl. He also wrote additional tracks for Dusty and released his own solo material.

In November 1963 Springfield released her first solo single, I Only Want to Be with You. It was her first classic. It was produced by Johnny Franz in a manner similar to Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound," and included R&B features such as horn sections, backing singers, and double-tracked vocals, along with Pop music strings. The single made #4 in the UK, #6 in Australia, #7 in Ireland, #12 in the US and #21 in Canada.

The following year, the singer undertook a 29-date UK tour, followed by Australia and New Zealand. She was deported from South Africa, however, for "flatly refusing" to perform before segregated audiences. Brutish apartheid reminded her of the prejudice and ignorance shown to LGBT people. To their eternal shame, Max Bygraves and Derek Nimmo publicly criticised Dusty for her stand, complaining that she’d now "made it difficult" for British entertainers to go to the Cape and make big money. But racism was by no means confined to South Africa. At home and in America, Black artists rarely had their faces prominently shown on album covers.

Her first single for 1964 was yet another classic, Stay Awhile. It made #13 in the UK, #27 in Australia and #38 in the US.

Her biggest classic in 1964 was Wishin' and Hopin' (#2 Australia, #6 US, #9 Canada. It's a Bacharach/David composition and was only released as a single in America and Australia.

All Cried Out only just missed the US Top 40 (#41). It made #23 in Canada however.

My favorite of her early hits was another Bacharach/David composition, first recorded by Tommy Hunt in a session produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, called I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself. It made #3 in the UK, #5 in the Netherlands and #16 in Australia.

Even the B-side is a classic: here's My Colouring Book.

Her last hit in 1964 was Losing You. It made #9 in the UK, #36 in Canada, but was only a minor hit elsewhere.

Also in 1964, Springfield issued her debut album A Girl Called Dusty. The album reached No. 6 in the UK in May 1964 and included mostly cover versions of her favourite songs. Among them was Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa:

In the same year, she was voted the Top Female British Artist of the year in the New Musical Express poll, topping Lulu, Sandie Shaw, and Cilla Black. Springfield received the award again for the next three years.

During 1965, Springfield released three more UK Top 40 hits: Your Hurtin' Kinda Love, In the Middle of Nowhere, and the Carole King-penned Some of Your Lovin'. However, these were not included on her next UK album recorded with The Echoes, Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty, which was released in October 1965 and featured songs by Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley, Rod Argent, and Randy Newman, and a cover of the traditional Mexican song, La Bamba. The album peaked at No. 6 on the UK chart.

Here are her three hits from 1965. First, here's Your Hurtin' Kinda Love (#37 UK):

Yet another classic, In the Middle of Nowhere (#8 UK & Ireland):

You're probably tired of hearing the word classic by now, but honestly, it describes this song as well: Some of Your Lovin' (#8 UK).

From her 1965 album, here's Dusty doing something different with La Bamba:

One day is certainly not enough for Dusty. Tomorrow we'll catch up with her life and work from 1966 onwards. We'll also be discussing her sexuality.