Dusty - In The Words Of Others
Derek Wadsworth (in ‘The Independent’, 2006):
It was like putting a jigsaw together. Dusty would have made a great scientist, because she analysed every detail.. Dusty Springfield was a creation of Mary O'Brien. She was almost not like a real person. She put the whole package together - the hair, the shoes, the gestures - and she had impeccable taste. There's a saying that the true nature of art reveals itself only at the very highest level, and I think that was the way with Dusty.
Dusty takes your song and makes it sound 10 times better.
Annie J Randall, musicologist:
The Sounds of Motown was conceived and hosted by Springfield for the express purpose of igniting the careers of the Detroit singers in European markets. [It] embodied a rejection of racism and apartheid for an international audience [and was] undoubtedly as important as the endlessly analyzed social phenomena associated with the Beatles and the British Invasion.
Greil Marcus, journalist for Rolling Stone:
...a soft, sensual (voice) box that allowed her to combine syllables until they turned into pure cream.
Bruce Springsteen:
Man, she’s so fine..
Anne Murray:
The first time I heard Dusty Springfield sing, I became smitten with her voice. The times we have worked together over the years have been some of the most memorable in my life. She is a very special lady and my favorite singer of all time.
Dusty Springfield is one of the greatest singers and interpreters of song in our time. She not only sings the song - she lives the song. It's been an honor, a privilege and a treasure to have her perform so much of my work. I consider Dusty a partner in my songs and a friend in my life.
Norma Tanega:
Christian Ward:
With Dusty, you're never sure what you're getting. She can thrill something throwaway and sexist like “Wishin' and Hopin',” then she can come out with a fighting track like “You Don't Own Me.
Melissa Manchester:
Listening to Dusty brings back memories of my junior high school years. When she arrived on the scene, she really made a serious impact. No white woman had ever sounded like her. As a developing singer-songwriter, Dusty was one of the voices I would try to emulate-she has such a rich, soulful quality. Recording Home to Myself with her in 1974 was an incredibly rewarding experience. I believe it was the first time another artist had recorded one of my compositions and I was thrilled that I was hired to play the piano. I'm delighted [with] Dusty's performance of the song. She's one of the truly great singers.
Martha Reeves:
She’s into her music; it’s 100% of her life. Anything else is secondary.
Petula Clark:
The way that she looked was easy to impersonate, but the voice was impossible to imitate. Dusty was the perfect pop singer.
Dionne Warwick:
Barry Manilow:
Dusty Springfield possesses one of the most identifiable and soulful voices of our time. I was aware of her in my teens as she bagan to emerge with her unique sounding hits. But with the release of Dusty in Memphis, I became a life-long fan. When as a young singer-songwriter, I was told that she was about to cut the first song I had ever written, I Am Your child, I was thrilled beyond belief. When Dusty and Brooks Arthur requested I play for her, I was honoured. At the session in 1974, I remember that Dusty insisted I play the exact same accompaniment that I had played for my own version of I Am Your Child. I remember having to do a little math on the spot because my key was totally different than hers. She loved the song and my accompaniment, and I loved her for loving them!
Gerry Marsden, of Gerry and the Pacemakers:
Darlene Love:
We (Nancy Sinatra and I) met through her producer, Lee Hazlewood, whom we did dozens of sessions with including, early in 1968, a song called Sweet Ride for Dusty Springfield. I had always loved Dusty's voice and her ability to sing rhythm and blues songs, even though she was a pop singer from England. she didn't sound black, she just sung everything from her gut and always turned a mirror on a song's best intentions. We had never worked together before, and I'd heard all kinds of horror stories about her throwing teacups out of rage, berating musicians and generally being a scourge to everyone who crossed those panda eyes of hers.
But she couldn't have been nicer: in fact she had asked Lee to book us specifically because she was "in awe" of us! She was very hard on herself, and worked her lead over and over. But it was a real pleasure being around her, and my only regret is that we never got to work together again. She went back to England after that, and though she later moved to the States, our paths never crossed. But I'll always remember "Sweet Ride" as one of those truly magic moments in the studio, gone almost as soon as it occurred but playing in heavy rotation in my memory
Martha Reeves [on touring England]:
The next morning Mickey Stevenson came knocking at my door to tell me of some changes in the show scheduling for the day. As Mickey was standing in the doorway talking to me about some alterations in the show's lineup, he looked past me and spotted Dusty as she lay there with one of her big legs stuck out from under the comforter - fishnet stockings and all. For the rest of the day, all the men on the show kidded and teased me, as though something odd had transpired. I was amazed at just how others regarded our friendship, but I couldn't have cared less what anyone thought.
Martha Reeves [on The Sounds of Motown]:
Dusty allowed me to sing a duet with her on her big hit "Wishin' and Hopin'" with the Vandellas singing background. I could see Diane [Ross] in the wings eating her heart out because she hadn't been chosen to do it.
Pianist Bobby Woods, on the Dusty in Memphis sessions:
It was a kinda icky situation. I didn’t want too get to close to it. At that time people didn’t dare come out of the closet. In the country where I came from, if someone found out someone was homosexual you either got hung [sic] or ran out of town. It was that strong. I was a naïve Southern Baptist boy. I’m not judging her, that’s between her and the Almighty.
Jerry Wexler, Producer of Dusty in Memphis:
Neil Tennant:
She hadn't recorded for several years, but as soon as she arrived in the studio and began to sing, we knew that the greatest female singer Britain has ever produced was still on brilliant form. Quite honestly, we were in awe of her. Dusty was a tender, exhilarating and soulful singer; incredibly intelligent at phrasing a song, painstakingly building it up to a thrilling climax. She was also a warm and funny person.
Elton John:
To me she was as good as Aretha Franklin... and completely timeless... she was the greatest.
Bette Midler:
Elvis Costello:
The voice is . . . one of the greatest voices in pop music, without doubt. And I don’t think she’s ever really got credit for that because people concentrate on the icon aspect of it. You know, the hair and the eyelashes and the hand movements.
Rod McKuen:
Another of Johnny’s guests that week in 1970 was the inimitable Dusty Springfield. I’d met Dusty years before on my first trip to London, she her brother Tom and Tim Field then comprised a country-folk trio called "The Springfield’s." Now only a few years later we were big enough in our own rights to be guesting with Johnny Cash. What a heady time for both of us. After we finishing taping the Cash show, Dusty, Norma Tanega, Edward and I traveled back to LA together and had another week of craziness. We did the town, I showed her off to everyone, before she flew off to London and I headed out for a tour of Australia. Both vowing we’d see each other soon and certainly work together again. Boy, did we.
Of course these memories and so many others have crowded my head since Dusty’s death from breast cancer last week. I have been trying to write something meaningful about our personal and professional friendship that has spanned four decades. It’s been impossible. A letter about a TV show 29 years ago with Johnny & Dusty seems like yesterday. I’ve played and replayed tapes of my British TV series where Dusty was a special guest and "The Christmas in New England" special we did together; listened to her marvelous recording of "If You Go Away" and "Simple Gifts" and especially the duets we did on various shows. And, I’ve reread her letters and cables. So much of Dusty is there and so much is missing.
In the end I’ve put this task aside and will return to it another time. Dusty Springfield’s talent and intelligence are way beyond emotion. And I’m so filled with emotion and grief about Dusty’s too short life, and the love she radiated during it, that this is neither the time or place for a proper and deserved eulogy. One of a kind, indeed. Irreplaceable, you bet.. I love you Dusty and I always will.
Tom Jones:
There was only one Dusty Springfield. When she died, music lost a legend.
Lulu:
She was a real powerful force, and yet she was shy and vulnerable... to sing with that amount of passion takes courage... Dusty had such a great spirit that will never die.
Paul McCartney:
Dusty always had credibility. I was glad I had the chance to tell her how much I and the other Beatles had always thought of her. She was a great singer and a beautiful lady who will be missed by many.
Jools Holland:
Joss Stone:
I've never ever turned her off. I've never skipped a song.. . . When people say my name and her name in the same sentence, it's crazy! Dusty is amazing.
Carole King:
There is a hole in music where Dusty Springfield used to be.
Annie Lennox:
Now
Dusty is singing
Colouring
The drab evening
Once again.
In sparkle gown
Perfection
Spinning
Impossible
Arcs of vibrato
Through
Smouldering
Waves
Of Invisible
Sound.
Listen
Now
Dusty is singing.
