Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien^{[note 1]} OBE (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was an English pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s.

With her distinctive sensual sound, she was an important blue-eyed soul singer, and at her peak was one of the most successful British female performers, with six top 20 singles on the United States Billboard Hot 100 and sixteen on the United Kingdom Singles Chart from 1963 to 1989.^[1]

She is a member of both the US Rock and Roll and UK Music Halls of Fame. International polls have named Springfield among the best female rock artists of all time. Her image, supported by a peroxide blonde beehive hairstyle, evening gowns, and heavy make-up, made her an icon of the Swinging Sixties.^[2]

Born in West London to an Irish Catholic family that enjoyed music, Springfield learned to sing at home.

In 1958 she joined her first professional group, The Lana Sisters, and two years later formed a pop-folk vocal trio, The Springfields, with her brother Tom.

Her solo career began in 1963 with the upbeat pop hit, "I Only Want to Be with You". Among the hits that followed were "Wishin' and Hopin'" (1964), "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" (1964), "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" (1966), and "Son of a Preacher Man" (1968).

As a fan of US pop music, she brought many little-known soul singers to the attention of a wider UK record-buying audience by hosting the first national TV performance of many top-selling Motown artists beginning in 1965.^[2]

Although never considered a Northern Soul artist in her own right, Springfield's efforts contributed a great deal to the formations of the genre as a result.

Partly due to these efforts, a year later she eventually became the best-selling female singer in the world, and topped a number of popularity polls, including Melody Maker's Best International Vocalist.^[3] She was the first UK singer to top the New Musical Express readers' poll for Female Singer.

To boost her credibility as a soul artist, Springfield went to Memphis, Tennessee, to record Dusty in Memphis, an album of pop and soul music, with the Atlantic Records main production team.

Released in 1969, it has been ranked among the greatest albums of all time by the US magazine Rolling Stone and in polls by VH1 artists, New Musical Express readers, and Channel 4 viewers.^[4]

 The album was also awarded a spot in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

After its release Springfield experienced a career slump for the next eighteen years. However, in collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys, she returned to the Top 20 of the UK and US charts in 1987 with "What Have I Done to Deserve This?"

Two years later, she had two other UK hits on her own with "Nothing Has Been Proved" and "In Private". Subsequently in the mid-1990s, due to the inclusion of "Son of a Preacher Man" on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, interest in her early output was revived.

Dusty Springfield You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

 

Lyrics:

You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

When I said I needed you

You said you would always stay

It wasn't me who changed but you

And now you've gone away

Don't you see
That now you've gone
And I'm left here on my own
That I have to follow you
And beg you to come home?

You don't have to say you love me
Just be close at hand
You don't have to stay forever
I will understand
Believe me, believe me
I can't help but love you
But believe me
I'll never tie you down

Left alone with just a memory
Life seems dead and so unreal
All that's left is loneliness
There's nothing left to feel

You don't have to say you love me
Just be close at hand
You don't have to stay forever
I will understand
Believe me, believe me

You don't have to say you love me
Just be close at hand
You don't have to stay forever
I will understand
Believe me, believe me, believe me
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

 

Early life (1939–1957)

 

Dusty Springfield was born as Mary O'Brien in West Hampstead, North London, England, on 16 April 1939,^[5] the second child of Gerard Anthony O'Brien (c. 1905–1979), called "OB", and Catherine (Ryle) O'Brien (c. 1900–1976), called "Kay".^[6]

Her older brother, Dionysius P. A. O'Brien (born 2 July 1934), was later known as Tom Springfield.^[7] Gerard, who had been raised in the British Raj, worked as a tax accountant and consultant.^[8]

Catherine came from a family in County Kerry, Ireland, which included a number of journalists.^[9]

Springfield was raised in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, until the early 1950s and later lived in the West London borough of Ealing.^[8]

 She attended St Anne's Convent School, Northfields – a traditional all-girl Catholic school. The comfortable middle class upbringing was disturbed by dysfunctional tendencies in the family; her father's perfectionism, and her mother's frustrations would sometimes result in food-throwing incidents.^[10]

Springfield and Tom were both prone to food-throwing as adults.^[8] She was given the nickname "Dusty" due to playing football with boys in the street and was described as a tomboy.^[11]

Springfield was raised in a music-loving family. Her father would tap out rhythms on the back of her hand and encourage her to guess the musical piece.^[12]

 She listened to a wide range of music including George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Glenn Miller.^[12][13][14]

A fan of American jazz and the vocalists Peggy Lee and Jo Stafford, she wished to sound like them. At the age of twelve, she made a recording of herself performing the Irving Berlin song "When the Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam" at a local record shop in Ealing.^[12][13][14]

^{Source: Wikipedia} 

 

 

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