A Biography Of Dusty Springfield

Dusty was born Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien in North London, England in 1939. She was raised as a good Catholic girl in the Irish onclave in West Hampstead and was schooled at the local convent. Propheticly, when asked by a Nun what she wanted to do when she left school, she replied, "I want to sing the blues!"

Her first group was a teenage girl trio they called 'The Lana Sisters' (after Lana Turner? Or maybe the 'Superman' comic-book blonde bombshell Lana Lane!) Then with her two brothers, Tom and Tim, she became one of 'The Springfields'. They scored several chart hits including a #1 with the beautiful 'Island Of Dreams'. Then Dusty went solo because she wanted to sing 'soul' not 'folk music'.

Her first hit is still one of her most popular, the swinging, Motownish, 'I Only wanna Be With You'. She was a HUGE fan of Motown and was a major force behind getting Motown launched in the UK. She promoted two 'Motown Revues' here. Then when she was given her own weekly prime-time TV show she nearly always sang some Motown songs and often had Motown stars as guests.

She always suffered severe stage fright and it was apparently (and ironically) one of 'The Temptations' who suggested she try a stiff drink before going onstage. Mick Jagger once asked her out, but she said she was "too terrified" to go.

She had an unpredented 16 chart hits in 7 years! In total she had 25 hit singles!

Following adverse publicity to her revelation that she had enjoyed sex with men *and* women, (I recall a report of her pushing a cake into the face of an intrusive reporter) plus her continuing dislike for the pressures and trappings of 'fame', she declared herself "bored with Britain" and decided to move to Los Angeles, where after recording 'Cameo' she basically 'retired'. She subsequently became rather bored in America too and suffered not only from too much alcohol, but also dabbled in drugs and began to over eat.

Since the 60's she had been not just an icon of Brit Pop but an icon to the gay community because of her style and glamour. She was idolised by drag queens and drama queens alike! She was Neil Tennant's favorite singer too and he lured her back into the studio to record two new 'classic' tracks, 'What Have I Done To Deserve This' and the title track for the film 'Scandal', 'Nothing Has Been Proved'. These tracks did not utilise her full range, but were still massive worldwide hits.

Dusty was diagnosed with breast cancer was diagnosed in 1994 shortly after she recorded her most recent album, “A Very Fine Love.” She underwent extensive chemotherapy until 1995, when she was diagnosed as being clear of the disease. But the cancer returned the following year. After the first diagnosis, she told The Mail on Sunday newspaper in January, ‘I shed about three tears in the hallway and then said, ‘Let’s have lunch.’ My brother came, the neighbors who brought me to town, my secretary, my accountant. I had a really good time — don’t know why. That’s the spirit of my family, as if to say, ‘Oh, to hell with it.’ “It was only when I came home one night and saw my cat lying asleep that I thought, ‘Who’s going to look after you?’ It was as if somebody had run a train through me. I wept and wept and wept because then I realized: It is you. It’s you. Yes, it might kill you.”

Dusty Springfield died on March the 2nd, 1999