Dusty Springfield - how could we forget that timeless ethereal voice.

No one can listen to Dusty Springfield and fail to be touched by that timeless ethereal voice. Singers of Dusty’s calibre only come along once in a lifetime. Dusty Springfield was simply the greatest female pop singer Britain has ever produced.

Dusty Springfield was an iconic presence in the 60’s. With her dark panda-eye make-up, bouffont hair-do, and beautiful gowns, she was revered on both sides of the Atlantic and nicknamed the White Queen of Soul. Her uniquely sensual voice seduced, teased and captivated audiences all over the world.

Due to press intrusion into her private life, and a need to find a new challenge, Dusty left these shores in the early 70’s for America. Dusty herself said that America was both good and bad for her, and she had to go through it to get where she was today (1987) when she successfully made her come back to the UK collaborating with the Pet Shop Boys. At last someone knew what to do with Dusty, how to package her voice.

Upon returning from America, Dusty spent a year in the Netherlands before relocating fully to the UK. It was a question of where she could take her cats, and quarantine laws didn’t allow them to come to the UK without a six month stay in quarantine. Dusty being a cat lover was unable to face this, so she moved first to the Netherlands and was able to commute to the UK when required.

She first recorded What Have I Done to Deserve This in 1987 with the Pet Shop Boys.  It charted and went to Number 2 in the UK and America and was a big hit all around the world. Dusty was back, and back on top.  Dusty was Coming Home Again.

In the late 80’s/early 90’s, she went on to further record another brilliant album ‘Reputation’ in collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys, from which four of the songs featured in the film Scandal.  The disco-like In Private being the most popular, the haunting Arrested By You, Nothing Has Been Proved, and Reputation all charted. Dusty was finally back and stamping her mark on the pop scene once again. 

Her wilderness years in American now well and truly behind her Dusty was back recording, and doing what she did best, singing. Dusty continued to record into the 90’s, but became ill. She bravely fought breast cancer, and thought she had overcome it, but her illness returned. She passed away on 2^nd March 1999, shortly before her 60th birthday. Dusty’s ashes were partly scattered in the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, and partly in Henley where she spent her final days.

Dusty has left a legacy of some 300 songs. And although she is no longer with us, her dazzling voice will be kept alive by her many fans worldwide, and will never depart, and she will live on through her legion of fans and admirers.