Dusty Springfield part 2

Though Dusty spent much time in the States, "‘shooting in the woods" in the South and encountering the bass-player who’d "taught Elvis how to do karate," she started to unravel at the very moment she won her greatest success. By 1966, she was one of the most commercial artists in the world. She had a nose job at the London Clinic. She was constantly striving for perfection, and was always late because it took three hours to apply her make-up. Dusty often stretched the music business of the 60s to their limits - but she also stretched the limits of sanity in her personal misbehavior.

Dusty would send out for boxes of crockery, which she would then systematically smash against a wall. She tipped bags of flour over the band, punch bowls over her own head. She festooned a house with lavatory paper, flung food in restaurants, and threw all her furniture into the swimming pool. She had a fight with Buddy Rich and knocked off his wig. Dusty ended up in a secure ward at Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, New York, suffering from a ‘catatonic nervous breakdown’.

Springfield was never reported to be in a heterosexual relationship and this meant that the issue of her sexual orientation was raised frequently during her life. From mid-1966 to the early 1970s Springfield lived in a domestic partnership with fellow singer Norma Tanega.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Springfield became involved in several romantic relationships with women in Canada and the US that were not kept secret from the gay and lesbian community. From late 1972 to 1978, Springfield had an "off and on" domestic relationship with Faye Harris, a US photojournalist. In 1981 she had a six-month love affair with singer-musician Carole Pope of the rock band Rough Trade. During periods of psychological and professional instability, Springfield's involvement in some intimate relationships, influenced by addiction, resulted in episodes of personal injury.

During all this, she still found time to record great music. The second half of the 60s gave us some of her best songs.

Her first hit for 1966 was the sparkling Little by Little:

From 28 to 30 January 1965 Springfield took part in the Italian Song Festival in San Remo, and reached the semi-final, but failed to qualify for the final. During the competition, she heard the song Io Che Non Vivo (Senza Te) performed by one of its composers Pino Donaggio and separately by US country music singer Jody Miller. Its English version, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, featured lyrics newly written by Springfield's friend Vicki Wickham and her future manager, Simon Napier-Bell. It was released in May 1966 and reached #1 in the UK and #4 in the US, where it was also #35 on the Billboard Top 100 for 1966. It also made #2 in Australia and #4 in Canada and Ireland. The song, which Springfield called "good old schmaltz," was voted among the All Time Top 100 Songs by the listeners of BBC Radio 2 in 1999. It was a milestone in her career.

Goin' Back, the classic Gerry Goffin/Carole King song was her next hit (#10 UK, #24 Australia). The Byrds also had a great version out the following year. Here's Dusty's great version:

All I See Is You was a hit in the UK (#9), the US (#20), Canada (#15) and Australia (#31):

Her first single for 1967 was I'll Try Anything (#13 UK, #19 Canada, #38 Australia and #40 US):

Her next single Give Me Time was a lesser hit, but it's one of my favorites. It should've been bigger.

We now reach another milestone: The Look of Love was yet another Bacharach/David composition, graced by Dusty's perfect delivery. It appeared in the 1967 spoof James Bond film Casino Royale. It received a Best Song Oscar nomination but lost to an absolutely mediocre song called I Talk To The Animals. Unfortunately and quite inexplicably it wasn't a big hit. In 2008, however, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

1968 was another great year for Dusty: it began with a superb song, I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten, which was a big hit in the UK (#4) and Ireland (#6).

The B-side in the UK was No Stranger Am I, which was co-written by her then girlfriend Norma Tanega.

Also in 1968, Jimi Hendrix, appearing in her TV show It Must Be Dusty, accompanied her to a duet of Mockingbird:

The song that would be her last single for 1968 was also part of her best album and one of the best albums of all-time, Dusty In Memphis. The public weren't prepared for it however, so the album was a big commercial disappointment. Never mind, time was on its side... Son of a Preacher Man was a true classic and it is, if not her best, definitely among her top 3 best songs. It was a big hit all over (the Netherlands #4, Australia #6, the UK #9, the US #10, Canada and Ireland #11).

Another beautiful track from the same album is Randy Newman's Just One Smile:

From the same album, Don't Forget About Me was her first single for 1969. It only managed to reach #64 in the US:

Breakfast in Bed fared even worse (US #91), but it's still a great single:

Her chart fortunes changed somehow with The Windmills Of Your Mind, her take on the classic Oscar-winning song from The Thomas Crown Affair. It made #21 in Canada, #31 in the US and #40 in Australia.

Her version of Tony Joe White's Willie & Laura Mae Jones wasn't a big hit. It's a good version nonetheless.

Am I the Same Girl? was another great single, yet it only managed to reach #43 in the UK. Dusty's popularity was on the decline.

Brand New Me, later covered by Aretha, fared somehow better. It made #24 in the US and #25 in Canada.

Here comes what is possibly my favorite Dusty Springfield song. Although I love the original by the Rascals and I like David Cassidy's later version, it was Dusty's version that burned a hole in my soul. Released in 1970, How Can I Be Sure? was minor hit (#25 in Australia and #36 in the UK).

Haunted wasn't a hit at all in 1971, but it's worth listening to:

The same can be said for her 1972 cover of Charles Aznavour's Yesterday When I Was Young:

Her commercial decline intensified her personal problems. The pills and vodka didn’t help. She wanted to feel safe - and never did. Sacked from The Talk of the Town, she was replaced by Bruce Forsyth. Asked to record a theme-song for a Bond movie, she couldn’t get it together and Carly Simon was hired instead. By 1985, Dusty was reduced to earning $500 a night miming to her old hits in West Hollywood gay bars. Battered and bruised, and with her front teeth knocked out in an altercation with her then lover, Teda Bracci, she was admitted to hospital yet again.

In 1987, a Pop duo we have already spotlighted came to the rescue: Dusty accepted an invitation from Pet Shop Boys to duet with their lead singer, Neil Tennant, on the single "What Have I Done to Deserve This?". Tennant cites Dusty in Memphis as one of his favorite albums, and he leapt at the suggestion of working with Dusty. She also appeared on the promotional video. The single rose to #2 on the US, the UK and Ireland. It made #1 in the Netherlands, #3 in Canada, #4 in Germany and #22 in Australia. Dusty was relevant once again.

At that same year, she also released Something in Your Eyes, a duet with Richard Carpenter.

In 1988 a new compilation, The Silver Collection, was issued. If you don't have any Dusty records, it's a very good place to start. She also released As Long As We Got Each Other, a duet with B.J. Thomas:

Springfield returned to the studio with the Pet Shop Boys, who produced her recording of their song Nothing Has Been Proved, commissioned for the soundtrack of the 1989 drama film, Scandal. Released as a single in February 1989, it gave Springfield her fifteenth UK Top 20 hit. (#16 in the UK, #10 in the Netherlands).

The follow-up, In Private, also produced by the Pet Shop Boys, was also a big hit (#4 in Germany, #8 in the Netherlands, #13 in Ireland, #14 in the UK and #14 in the US Adult Contemporary chart).

In the middle of 1994, Springfield was diagnosed with breast cancer. The last studio track Springfield recorded was George and Ira Gershwin's song Someone To Watch Over Me – in London in 1995 for an insurance company TV ad. It was included on Simply Dusty (2000), an anthology that she had helped plan. Her final live performance was on The Christmas With Michael Ball TV Special in December 1995.

Here's Someone To Watch Over Me:

And here she is in her last appearance with Michael Ball, singing Roll Away, the opening track of her last studio album and then Ain't No Mountain High Enough in a duet with Ball:

By mid-1996 the cancer had returned, and in spite of vigorous treatments she died in Henley-on-Thames on 2 March 1999. Her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, had been scheduled 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."

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 was a Catholic funeral, which took place in Oxfordshire, at the ancient parish church of St. Mary the Virgin, in Henley-on-Thames, where Springfield had lived during her last years. A marker dedicated to her memory was placed in the church graveyard. Springfield 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, County Clare, Ireland.