- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- With “I Only Want to be with You”, Dusty Springfield became the second act during the British Invasion (after the Beatles) to have a hit record in the U.S.
The Greatest Music
Ever Recorded!
Dusty Springfield – Dusty Springfield’s Golden Hits (1966): Dusty Springfield is one of the greatest white soul singers of all time and was an unexpected treat for America via the British Invasion; even though a lot of us (including me) didn’t realize immediately that she was English. While other women were making music in the U.K. in the 1960’s – Cilla Black comes to mind, and there was an early all-female rock band from Liverpool called the Liverbirds – only Dusty Springfield had a significant presence on the U.S. record charts. In 1960, Dusty Springfield (born Mary O’Brien) began performing with a folk trio called the Springfields that included her brother Dion O’Brien along with Tim Feild. The two O’Brien’s took new stage names for the group, with Mary becoming Dusty Springfield and Dion becoming Tom Springfield.
Along with numerous hit songs in their native England, in 1962 – 18 months before the Beatles launched the British Invasion – the Springfields had a surprising #20 U.S. hit with “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”. This was evidently the first hit version of the song; while Wanda Jackson originally recorded “Silver Threads and Golden Needles” in 1956, that rendition was not released as a single. When the Springfields tried to capitalize on their American success by going to Nashville to record their album Folk Songs from the Hills (1963), Dusty Springfield discovered soul music, and that would become her passion for the remainder of her career; so Dusty Springfield left the Springfields to become a solo artist. Her first single “I Only Want to be with You” has a bold and captivating sound; the record reached the Top 5 in the U.K. and nearly made the Top 10 in the U.S. In fact, with “I Only Want to be with You”, Dusty Springfield became the second act during the British Invasion (after the Beatles) to have a major hit record in the U.S. Many hit singles followed for Dusty Springfield, including several songs written by the U.S. songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, such as “Wishin’ and Hopin’ ” and “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself”. While Dionne Warwick is best known for recording Bacharach/David songs, Dusty Springfield has been called the second best interpreter of their material. By the end of 1964, Dusty Springfield was perhaps the biggest solo act in the U.K., and she was named Best Female Vocalist for four consecutive years by the foremost British music magazine New Musical Express. Dusty Springfield continued her string of hit records and then surpassed herself with the chilling ballad “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” (1966), followed by another unrequited love classic, “All I See Is You”. Dusty Springfield’s Golden Hits covers most of Dusty Springfield’s early classics while omitting some of her later hits like “The Look of Love” and also “Son of a Preacher Man” that comes from her greatest album, Dusty in Memphis (1969). Dusty Springfield’s Golden Hits is an essential group of songs that all still sound fantastic more than a half-century later. In 1987, Dusty Springfield collaborated with Pet Shop Boys on “What Have I Done to Deserve This?”, a #2 hit in both the U.S. and the U.K. that introduced Dusty Springfield to a new generation of fans. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of Pet Shop Boys produced some tracks for her album Reputation (1990) that became Dusty Springfield’s best-selling album since her 1960’s heyday. Dusty Springfield was admitted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just 10 days after she died of breast cancer in 1999.