Dusty Springfield
Around the time that the Beatles were leading a British invasion, Dusty Springfield was combining the British pop sensibility with the new American sound. Born in 1939, Dusty’s real name was Mary O’Brien. After a brief stint with the Lana Sisters, Dusty joined her brother Dion and his friend, Tim Field, to form the Springfields. They were doing well enough to come to the U.S. with their hit, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", and to record in Nashville, where Dusty heard the American sound firsthand. She soon left the Springfields and struck out on her own in 1963, following the Beatles as the second British native to have an American hit, "I Only Want to be With You." It wasn’t the beehive hair or the thick mascara that won audiences - it was her voice which could get low-down and gravelly and then quickly switch to capture high notes of clarity and beauty. With the tunes of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Dusty made hits of "Wishin’ and Hopin’", "Anyone Who Had a Heart", "I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself", and "Look of Love" (remember the original Casino Royale?), and she topped the charts with "You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me" and the classic, "Son of a Preacher Man." In 1987, Dusty came back to the top of the international charts at the invitation of the Pet Shop Boys singing the female lead on their "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" Amongst many distinctions in her career, Dusty was deported from South Africa in 1964 for refusing to perform in front of audiences that had been segregated by race. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just ten days after her death in 1999.
