Dusty invented Blue-Eyed Soul!
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien got her stage name Dusty Springfield by combining her childhood nickname Dusty with the name of her second band, The Springfields.
“Dusty” is the nickname she was given for playing football with the boys in the streets of London, effectively describing her as a tomboy.
Growing up in the 50s, listening to the radio and records by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, and singers like Peggy Lee, Dusty was set to embrace the 60s R&B sound that was emerging from America.
This was clearly on her mind as she left her first band, The Springfields which was more of a folk act. In 1963, she had her eyes firmly set on a more American sound, influenced by artists on record labels Atlantic, Chess, and Motown, as well as Phil Spector’s production techniques.
Her first single, I Only Want To Be With You, was produced by Johnny Franz who aimed to replicate Phil Spector’s famed “Wall Of Sound” techniques. The single peaked at #4 in the U.K. charts and sold over one million copies.
The following year, she released her debut album A Girl Called Dusty which was mainly a covers album.
Dusty was big on singing other people’s tunes and the same year she released Burt Bacharach’s I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself. This single peaked at #3 and would set the tone for what was to come.
In 1966, Dusty had her first #1 with You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me, a song she heard in Italian, and had the words rewritten by her friend Vicky Wickham and future manager, Simon Napier-Ball.
During this time, Dusty was also presenting a TV show called The Sound Of Motown on British TV, effectively promoting artists like Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, and Mary Wells to a U.K. audience.
In 1968, Dusty released Dusty In Memphis, an album that had the iconic Son Of A Preacher Man on it. In 1970, it earned Springfield a nomination Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Being a white middle-class girl from London, Dusty promoted and borrowed from the American 60s R&B/Soul genre. In doing so, she became known as a Blue-Eyed Soul artist, a genre she pioneered alongside the Righteous Brothers.
Dusty Springfield tunes | Related pages
The Look Of Love
| C#m7 | C#7sus4 | G#m7 | G#m7 |
The look of love is in your eyes.
| Amaj7 | A6 | G#7sus4 | G#7 |
The look your heart can’t disguise.
Son Of A Preacher Man
| E E6 | A E E6 |
Billy Ray was a preacher’s son and when his daddy would visit he’d come along.
| E E6 | B B6 |
When they gathered around and started talkin’, that’s when Billy would take me walkin’,
Spooky
| Am7 | D13 | Am7 | D13 |
In the cool of the evening when everything is getting kind of groovy.
| Am7 | D13 | Am7 | D13 |
You call me up and ask me would I like to go with you and see a movie.
Take Another Little Piece Of My Heart
| D G | A G | D G | A G |
Didn’t I make you feel, like you were the only man?
| D G | A Bbdim7 |
Didn’t I give you everything a woman possibly can?
Take Another Little Piece Of My Heart chords.
Dusty Springfield on the web
