Dusty Springfield

Induction Year: 1999

Induction Category: Performer

Inductee: Dusty Springfield (vocals; born 4/16/39, died 3/2/99)

One of the finest pop-soul vocalists ever, Dusty Springfield was blessed with a powerful, smoky voice that ran the emotional gamut from cool sophistication to simmering passion. Over the course of a long, episodic career, she tackled adult pop, Memphis R&B and Motown-style soul, traditional folk and country, and contemporary dance music. She’s been called “one of the five mighty pop divas of the Sixties"-the others being , Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and Martha Reeves-and no less an authority than Berry Gordy credits her for helping the Motown sound take root in the U.K. Moreover, Springfield forcefully asserted herself as an artist and personality at a time when women were generally not given much leeway in the music industry. In 1964, she became Britain’s most popular female vocalist, and her popularity proved durable, as she enjoyed hits in four successive decades.

Born Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien, she took the professional name Dusty Springfield after joining her brother’s band, the Springfields. A folk-oriented trio, they were Britain’s top-selling group in 1961 and enjoyed an American hit in 1962 ("Silver Threads and Golden Needles") 15 months before ’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” ignited the British Invasion. Drawn to rhythm & blues, Dusty left the Springfields in 1963 to launch a solo career. What she achieved was nothing less than a reinvention of British soul music. Her approach had little to do with guitar-driven rock and roll. She gravitated toward Motown’s orchestrated pop-soul, albeit filtered through the cool, poised vocal approach that reflected her British background. Smitten by the soulful sounds coming out of Detroit, Springfield actually introduced the British public to Motown’s caravan of stars as the host of a 1965 TV special.

Springfield immediately connected as a solo artist with “I Only Want to Be With You” (1964), which made her the second British act after to score a stateside pop hit. She became known as a British interpreter of American songwriters like Randy Newman, Jerry Ragavoy, , and Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Several of her most memorable hits, including “Wishin’ and Hopin’” and “The Look of Love,” were written by the latter duo.  Her biggest U.S. hit came in 1966 with the heavily orchestrated “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me,” an Italian song rewritten with English lyrics.

Springfield switched American labels from Phillips to Atlantic in 1968. The move yielded the masterful Dusty in Memphis, which played more to her R&B leanings than any previous album. The Atlantic Records production team of , Arif Mardin and Tom Dowd matched the British vocalist with some of the South’s finest session musicians. Springfield tackled a wide range of material by some of her favorite songwriters, including four songs by . The album included such soulful tracks as “Son of a Preacher Man,” which returned Springfield to the Top Ten, and “Breakfast in Bed.” While the album only reached #99, it has grown in stature over the years and was reissued in a deluxe, expanded edition by Rhino in 1999.

In another adventurous move, Atlantic paired Springfield with the rising Philly-soul production-songwriting team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff on 1970’s A Brand New Me. Thereafter, the Seventies were generally quiet years for Springfield, who moved from London to Los Angeles and recorded only sporadically. Springfield made a comeback came in 1987 when Britain’s Pet Shop Boys enlisted her to sing on “What Have I Done to Deserve This,” a dance-floor favorite that reached #2 in the U.S. They also produced her 1990 album, Reputation. “Son of a Preacher Man” saw a revival of popularity with its inclusion on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. Springfield’s last studio album, A Very Fine Love (1995), returned her to the folk and country genres where she’d begun 35 years earlier with the Springfields. A career-spanning three-CD retrospective, The Dusty Springfield Anthology, was released in 1997.

Springfield died of breast cancer-with which she’d first been diagnosed in 1994-on March 2, 1999, six weeks before her 60th birthday.

TIMELINE

April 16, 1939: Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien (a.k.a. Dusty Springfield) is born in London.

September 1, 1962: The Springfields, a British folk trio that includes Dusty and brother Tom Springfield, has a Top Twenty hit in the U.S. with “Silver Threads and Golden Needles.”

October 11, 1963: The Springfields perform their farewell concert in London. Nine days later, Dusty Springfield debuts onstage as a solo artist.

November 21, 1963: Dusty Springfield’s first solo hit, “I Only Want to Be With You,” enters the British chart, ultimately reaching #4. It is also the first song to be played on the BBC’s new pop-music show, Top of the Pops. The song rises to #12 in America early in 1964.

February 15, 1964: Dusty Springfield reaches #12 with “I Only Want To Be With You”.

April 21, 1965: Dusty Springfield hosts a British TV special entitled “The Sound of Motown.” She duets with Martha Reeves (of ) on “Wishin’ and Hopin’,” an American hit for Dusty Springfield the previous year.

July 16, 1966: “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me,” Dusty Springfield’s biggest American hit, peaks at #4.

January 17, 1969: ‘Dusty in Memphis’, Dusty Springfield’s acknowledged masterpiece, is released on Atlantic Records.

January 18, 1969: Dusty Springfield reaches # 10 with “Son of a Preacher Man”.

August 1, 1987: Longtime fans the Pet Shop Boys enlist Dusty Springfield to duet on “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” It reaches #2 in both the U.S. and U.K.

1989: Pet Shop Boys Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe write and produce two more Top Twenty U.K. hits for Dusty Springfield: “Nothing Has Been Proved” (#16) and “In Private” (#14)

July 1, 1990: Dusty Springfield’s comeback continues with the album ‘Reputation’, which reaches #18 on the British chart.

July 8, 1995: ‘A Very Fine Love,’ recorded in Nashville by Dusty Springfield, is released.

March 2, 1999: Dusty Springfield dies of breast cancer on the day she was scheduled to receive the Order of the British Empire (OBE) from the queen of England and two weeks before her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

March 15, 1999: Dusty Springfield is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the fourteenth annual induction dinner.

Essential Songs

Son of a Preacher Man
I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself
You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me
I Only Want to Be With You
The Look of Love
Some of Your Lovin’
Breakfast in Bed
A Brand New Me
Wishin’ and Hopin’
What Have I Done to Deserve This?

Recommended Reading

The Dusty Springfield Anthology
Dusty Springfield. Mercury Records, 1997. (Note: The booklet included with this box set contains biographical and discographical information.)