Dusty Springfield

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• Genre: Blue-Eyed Soul
• Hometown: London
• Dusty Springfield Website

About

During the British pop invasion on Yank shores, Dusty Springfield kept Swinging London alive with the sounds of American Soul and Vocal Pop. Like a tea-sipping combination of Peggy Lee and Dionne Warwick, she brought some much needed class to the pimply pop masses. Her voice, a husky but subdued instrument, purred rather than roared -- her love of R&B filtered through her British reserve like light going through a diamond. This approach worked perfectly on material written by her favorite teen drama tunesmith teams, Goffin/King and Bacharach/David. Going stateside, she recorded the sublime Dusty in Memphis with Aretha Franklin's production team. Instead of being a down-home gritfest, it contains her most glistening, uptown material. The perfect summation of a career.

- Nick Dedina