72 THENEWYORKER,FEBRUARY8, 2021
POP MUSIC
OLD SOUL
Revisiting the sounds of Dusty Springfield.
BYAMANDAPETRUSICH
I
n 1968, the British pop singer Dusty
Springfield signed to Atlantic Records
and began working with the producer
Jerry Wexler on “Dusty in Memphis,”
her fifth solo album and the first she
made in the United States. Springfield,
who was already a star in the U.K., wore
her hair in a voluminous blond bouffant,
wreathed her eyes in heavy mascara, and
sang in a tender mezzo-soprano. Her
voice was effortless, yet there was some-
thing warm and vulnerable at the cen-
ter of each note. “Dusty in Memphis” is
now considered a creative apex for “blue-
eyed soul”—the teasing sobriquet, coined
in the nineteen-sixties, given to Black
music performed by white singers—but
sales of the album were measly at first,
and Springfield made just one other re-
cord for Atlantic, “A Brand New Me,”
in 1970, before leaving the label. A new
compilation, “Dusty Springfield: The
Complete Atlantic Singles 1968-1971,”
collects the original, mono mixes of all
twenty-four tracks that Springfield re-
corded during what was arguably the
richest stretch of her career.
Springfield was born Mary O’Brien
in Hampstead, London, in 1939. In 1960,
she changed her name and joined the
Springfields, a vocal trio that included
her older brother, Tom. “If you’re seven-
teen years old and you’re called Mary
Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien,
and you don’t like who you are, you’re
going to find a mask, or a front,”
Springfield later said. The Springfields’
début LP, “Kinda Folksy!,” was full of
polite, resolutely cheerful folk standards.
Springfield released “I Only Want to Be
with You,” her first solo single, in 1963.
Her performance is exuberant, far more
indebted to Motown’s girl groups than
to the folk revival. I find it almost im-
possible to feel bad while it’s playing.
The song appeared on the Billboard Hot
100 for ten weeks. Springfield had ar-
rived at a style—soulful, rhythmic, Amer-
ican—that worked for her.
From then on, Springfield was stead-
fast in boosting Motown musicians. In
1965, she hosted a special Motown-themed
episode of the U.K. musical variety show
“Ready Steady Go!” and invited the
Temptations, the Supremes, the Mira-
cles, and Stevie Wonder to make their
first appearance before a sizable British
audience. It’s possible to piece together
most of the episode online. Springfield
wears a mod, floor-length dress and oc-
casionally seems giddy. “You should see
them move,” she says, incredulous, as she
introduces the Temptations. At one point,
Springfield and Martha Reeves duet on
“Wishin’ and Hopin’,” a track on Spring-
field’s début album, “A Girl Called Dusty,”
from 1964. If you’ve grown accustomed
to watching oppressively choreographed
television appearances, what Springfield
and Reeves do will feel especially joyful
and free.
Springfield followed the melody and
was not inclined toward vibrato or im-
provisation, which meant that she could
make even oversized compositions feel
intimate. Her delivery was coy. “Being
good isn’t always easy, no matter how
hard I try,” she sings on “Son-of-a
Preacher Man,” a single from “Dusty in
Memphis.” It’s easy to witness a per-
former such as Aretha Franklin—still
the greatest soul singer of all time—and
hear only her vigor and potency. It’s far
more difficult to perceive Franklin’s con-
trol, economy, and grace. In 1969, the
critic Greil Marcus reviewed “Dusty in
Memphis” for Rolling Stone. “Most white
female singers in today’s music are still
searching for music they can call their
own,” he wrote. “Dusty is not search-
ing—she just shows up.”
I
n 1999, Jerry Wexler wrote an essay for
the Oxford American about meeting
Springfield. He had invited her to his
home on Long Island to choose the tracks
for what became “Dusty in Memphis,”
and played her seventy or eighty acetate
demos. “Most of the day, and well into DAVID MAGNUS / SHUTTERSTOCK
Springfield could make even the most oversized compositions feel intimate.
