Dusty Springfield: The Big Time

Dusty's training ground was as part of a female trio called The Lana Sisters. She responded to an advertisement for a third member to join an “established sister act” and was accepted. Here she developed the art of harmonising, learned microphone technique, recorded, did some television and played live both in the UK and at American Air Bases.

Cover of The Springfields Story

By the time that Dusty was to become part of The Springfields, she was the only member that had ever sung on stage.

The Springfields name, according to David Evans in A Collage Biography of Dusty Springfield, comes from the fact that in the Spring they would rehearse in the fields!

Dusty reflected on her time in The Springfields as a time of jolly and loud singing that wasn't always in tune. The Springfields were successful on both sides of the Atlantic, recording commercial folk music. Dusty herself describes The Springfields as a group that were:

“pseudo everything”

The group worked a niche that they had discovered was marketable for people that were cheerful and, as Dusty again puts it:

“jumped around a lot”

The years of jumping around in her bedroom à la Cyd Charisse had found adult expression, and the jollity of The Springfields appeared to work.

But by 1962 Dusty was becoming restless. During a trip to America she heard The Exciters singing Tell Him and was gripped by what she described as:

Dusty on the beach

“The most exciting thing I had ever heard, the attack in it!”

The Springfields were becoming increasingly caught between the tensions of pop and folk and Dusty finally left the trio in 1963.

Dusty was now free to explore her love of American Black music and her first solo single in 1963, I Only Want To Be With You achieved gold status in the UK, as well as being a major hit in the USA, and began to reveal the link between soul and pop that Dusty was to make her own.

The first album A Girl Called Dusty revealed the R&B love affair that Dusty enjoyed, producing a raw sound that enabled deeper exploration that singles unashamedly aimed at the commercial market perhaps could not provide.

Hits flowed from here on in, the follow up single Stay Awhile peaked at number 13 and the third single I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself hit number 3, with only The Rolling Stones and The Beatles beating her to the top spot.

Dusty was on a roller coaster of success, and from 1963 to 1969 she made the UK chart seventeen times, scoring ten Top Ten singles, her biggest being You Don't Have To Say You Love Me which hit the number one spot in 1966, (number 4 in the USA) and remained on the UK chart for thirteen weeks.

Dusty with Tom Jones and The Beatles September 13, 1966

However the heavy touring and publicity appearances necessary for this level of success were taking a toll on her health, producing bouts of laryngitis that followed Dusty at times of stress throughout her career.

Dusty in white jacket

The album work that accompanied the hit singles demonstrated that Dusty's musical leanings were towards the R&B sound, and that she had a voice that was almost too black to be white. She was a white woman who sang black music, indeed Cliff Richard somewhat dubiously labelled her “The White Negress”.

Albums such as A Girl Called Dusty (1964), Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty (1965), Where Am I Going (1967) and Dusty Definitely (1968) all reveal an artist at work, evolving, experimenting and developing. Dusty continued this evolutionary process throughout her career.

Dusty's huge recording success in the 1960's was coupled with exhausting tours, where she would always find time to sign autographs for fans.

Ready Steady Go!

She gave outstanding international performances, such as at The Fox Theatre, Brooklyn, where she met her Motown idols and cemented personal friendships with many of them. Such was her love of and devotion to the sound of Motown that Dusty became a European pioneer, hosting the Ready Steady Go Motown Special on UK television.

Dusty would leap onto the stage, providing a full range of her material, from her up-tempo numbers through to her heart rending ballads. Dusty's performances were always intimate moments with her audience, she would pour her heart out in her songs and they returned the favour by singing along and an enduring relationship was established.

Dusty said that this relationship and audience response would lift her performance, something that she described as:

“ ...a wonderful feeling”

Throughout the sixties Dusty was honoured with numerous awards. The New Musical Express voted her the Top World Female Artist on more than one occasion, and she celebrated this with a dazzling performance at the NME Poll Winners concert at Wembly Pool (right). She earned credibility as an artist and performer that was to remain with her for the rest of her career, being adored by her fans and respected and admired by her peers.

Dusty at the NME Poll Winners concert

Qusty meets Queen Elizabeth II but has eyes for Tom Jones

On May 14, 1968, Dusty appeared at the Royal Variety Performance at The London Palladium in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll.

Here Dusty is pictured with Tom Jones and Queen Elizabeth ll. Interesting to note that Dusty's eyes are on Tom and not the Queen!

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