Dusty Springfield would have turned 75 today
By Nick Levine
Today would have been the 75th birthday of Dusty Springfield.
The much-loved pop singer was born Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien in West Hampstead, London on April 16, 1939.
After a stint fronting folk trio the Springfields, she launched a solo career in 1963 and enjoyed a run of hits with songs including I Only Wanna Be With You, I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself and You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, which reached number one on the UK singles chart.
Her 1969 album Dusty in Memphis, which she recorded with the era’s top ensemble of US session musicians, was a flop upon its release but is now considered one of the greatest pop albums of all time. It yielded another of the singer’s signature hits, Son of a Preacher Man.
Springfield’s career faded in the 1970s as she battled drink and drug addiction, but she scored a major comeback hit in 1987 when she teamed up with the Pet Shop Boys for What Have I Done to Deserve This, which reached number two in both the UK and US.
She then notched up two more UK top 20 hits with the Pet Shop Boys-penned songs In Private and Nothing Has Been Proved.
Springfield released her final studio album, A Very Fine Love, in 1995. Following a battle with breast cancer, she died in Henley-on-Thames, Berkshire on March 2, 1999.
During a 1970 newspaper interview, Springfield famously said, “I know I’m perfectly as capable of being swayed by a girl as by a boy” – a bold statement for the era. She went on to have several long-term relationships with women.
Watch a classic TV performance of In Private below.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSqqolW78Oo[/youtube]