Dusty Springfield Was An Icon, But One Part Of Her Identity Is Overlooked
With her iconic beehive do and smoky eye makeup, Dusty Springfield was an impressive sight and sound in the 1960s. But behind the scenes, the singer was not always a fan of her own work. She was insanely driven to perform at her peak and would accept nothing short of perfection. Her character was marked by insecurity, too, and that wasn’t helped by the part of her life that she felt she had to keep hidden. And in later years, that secret part would torment her soul.
Melancholic madness
Fans who listened closely to Dusty's music could maybe have guessed that the star was always working through some deep-seated pain. Right from her very earliest recordings, Dusty — born Mary O’Brien in England — had a haunting quality to her voice. The star once said, “There is a sadness there in my voice. I was born with it. Sort of melancholy. Comes with being Irish-Scottish. Melancholy and mad at the same time.” That description could sum up her life, too.
Playing a man’s game
Some would even say that she was a madwoman in the studio while recording her classic hits. She certainly had a reputation for pushing her teams to the absolute limits in pursuit of the perfect pop track. This didn’t always please the men working for her — but, as she once said, these same men were earning money hand over fist after she delivered the results.
The peak of her powers
She didn’t make out so badly herself, of course. Her stand-out career years came at the end of the 1960s. The singer put out her classic hits “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” and “Son of a Preacher Man” in this period, and she was hosting multiple TV shows at the same time. But the success was hard-won — and it took a toll on her.
A hidden life
“She was one of the first female artists, at a very chauvinistic time, who knew what she wanted and went for it,” said Kiki Dee, who was a star in her own right. “She was a perfectionist. To see someone like that was quite an education.” But even though Dusty might have seemed as though she were living the perfect life, things were not always such a dream behind the scenes.
