Dusty Springfield

Dusty Springfield had the peroxide beehive, the panda-eyed makeup and the evening gowns, but what mattered was that husky, aching mezzo-soprano, a blue-eyed soul voice that could break your heart in a single held note. Born Mary O'Brien in West Hampstead in 1939, she sang in the Lana Sisters, then formed the folk-pop trio the Springfields with her brother Tom and Tim Feild, before going solo in late 1963 with the bright, bouncing "I Only Want to Be with You".

The run that followed was pure '60s drama: "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me", "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" and a stack of Bacharach and David songs she sang as if she'd lived every word. She presented Ready Steady Go! and hosted her own television series. Then came Dusty in Memphis, with "Son of a Preacher Man" slinking along on a lazy southern groove, the album her legend rests on; the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry in 2020.

The '70s and early '80s were lean, with albums that went nowhere. It took the Pet Shop Boys to bring her back, on "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" in 1987, and the old voice cut straight through the synths. She died in 1999, the same year she was made an OBE and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.