- Born
- Died
- Birth nameMary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien
- Nicknames
- The White Queen of Soul
- The Queen of Blue-eyed soul
- Height5′ 3″ (1.60 m)
- Dusty Springfield has been acknowledged around the world as the best female soul singer that Britain ever produced. With her oddly erotic, throaty voice, she racked up a string of hits from the 1960s onwards. Born in London to Irish parents, Dusty grew up in and around London. Her early work included an all-girl trio, "The Lana Sisters" and, then, with her brother Tom Springfield (Dion O'Brien), The Springfields. Inspired by Phil Spector's "wall of sound", Dusty recorded her first pop song "I Only Want to Be with You" in 1963. It reached No. 4 in the charts and was the first song played on the new BBC TV pop show Top of the Pops (1964). The sixties brought a steady succession of top-ten hits and a lifestyle to match. However, Dusty used to campaign to get the little-known American soul singers a better audience in the United Kingdom which led to her own show The Sound of Motown (1965). In 1970, she moved to America and, although she attempted a few come-back tours, they never really worked. However, time in the studio did produce the seminal album, "Dusty in Memphis". A downward spiral of drugs and drink followed for most of the latter seventies but then she overcame these problems and, helped by lifelong fans "The Pet Shop Boys", came back with songs such as "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" and the album "Reputation". Cancer was diagnosed in 1994 and, although it was kept at bay for quite a while, it finally got her.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Crook <steve@brainstorm.co.uk>
- Dusty Springfield was an enormous cat lover. She left behind her twelve year old pet cat, Nicholas. She had suffered from drug and alcoholism during the seventies. She was the first person to bring the sound of Motown to England in her variety music show. She performed "Mockingbird" with Jimi Hendrix. She appeared as herself in An Audience with Dame Edna Everage (1980) in the eighties. The Pet Shop Boys were lifelong fans and wanted Dusty for their song, "What Have I Done to Deserve this?" in the eighties. Her album, "Dusty in Memphis", is considered by the music industry to be a very important album.- IMDb Mini Biography By: anonymous
- Blonde beehive hair and heavily mascara'd "panda" eyes
- Oddly erotic throaty voice
- Evening gowns
- Terminally ill at Royal Marsden Hospital in west London, with an aggressive type of breast cancer, was unable to attend a formal ceremony at Buckingham Palace to collect her awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), given for her "services to popular music". By a rare exception, the award was presented to the singer at the hospital at an intimate gathering. She died on the day that she would otherwise have collected her award from the Palace.
- Part of her ashes were buried at Henley, the rest were scattered by her brother, Tom Springfield at the Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland.
- Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
- Of Irish ancestry, and attended all-girls Catholic schools.
- Was the very first artist to record The Carpenters' 1970 hit "(They Long to Be) Close to You", recording the track back in 1964 and intending it to be a follow-up to her #3 UK hit "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself". However, it was held back from release, but eventually issued on her 1967 album "Where Am I Going?", with the beginning intro edited out of the final cut. One year later, Dionne Warwick tried her hand at covering the song, but her version proved unsuccessful. The original mix of Dusty's version has only recently been released, on the UK 2-CD compilation "Classics & Collectibles".
- Hell, have I been a hell-raiser!
- I couldn't stand to be thought of as a big butch lady. But I know that I'm as perfectly capable of being swayed by a girl as by a boy.
- A lot of people say I'm bent, and I've heard it so many times that I've almost learned to accept it.
- Basically I'm a drag queen myself.
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