Dusty Springfield
 Born
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien in 1939, Dusty
Springfield was best known for her 1960s' hits Son of A
Preacher Man, I Only Want To Be With You and You
Don't Have To Say You Love Me.
Her early music career included a stint in The Lana Sisters and
a folk group (The Springfields) which she formed with her brother
Tom Field, but it was her decision to go solo in 1963 which really
put her on the music map.
Her beehive hairdo and panda eye make-up gave her an instantly
recognisable image on both sides of the Atlantic where she had a
string of top ten hits.
Her first single success came in 1964 with I Only Want To
Be With You which, with bands like The Beatles and The
Rolling Stones, led the British Invasion of the US pop charts in
the 1960's. She even fronted her own TV show for the BBC in 1966
and 1967.
Dusty decamped to Memphis in 1968, filled with the desire to
make adult soul music in the image of her heroes at Motown and
Stax. Her soulful voice, at once strident and vulnerable, set her
apart from contemporaries Sandie Shaw and Cilla Black, and earned
her the title "White Queen of Soul".
"There is a sadness there in my voice," Dusty said in
1973. "I don't know why, it didn't grow on me. I was born
with it. Comes with being Irish-Scottish. Automatically melancholy
and mad at the same time."
 In 1987 she enjoyed renewed success with the Pet Shop Boys' What
Have I Done To Deserve This? The single was a worldwide hit
and brought Dusty to a whole new generation of fans.
Bisexual
herself, she was adored by the gay community. In 1998 she was
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and she was awarded
an OBE in the 1999 New Year's Honours list.
Few singers could match the versatility of her voice. Powerful,
husky and evocative, it defied one to not to listen and earned
Dusty Springfield a well deserved place in rock history.
Yet she
was beset by a sense of inferiority to her black peers, such as
Aretha Franklin. These demons eventually drove her to alcoholism
and self-harm, tragically unable to appreciate the exquisite
beauty of her own talent.
Dusty Springfield died at her home in Henley-On-Thames on 2 March 1999 from breast cancer first
detected in 1994. She was 59.
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