BREAST CANCER CLAIMS POP LEGEND DUSTY AT 59

May 2024 · 3 minute read

Dusty Springfield, the husky-voiced, beehive-haired British pop singer behind such ’60s hits as “Son of a Preacher Man” and “Wishin’ and Hopin’,” has died of breast cancer. She was 59.

Springfield, who had been battling the disease since 1994, died at her home in Henley-on-Thames, England.

“She was one of the icons of the music industry,” said Paul Fenn, her agent. “She was one of the most talented female singers of this century.”

Springfield was known first as the lead singer of the folk group The Springfields and later for fusing British pop with American R&B and country. That culminated in her classic 1969 album, “Dusty in Memphis.”

She died only two weeks before she was slated to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“We take solace that she knew of her induction before her death,” Hall of Fame curator Jim Henke said in a statement.

Henke said Springfield “embodied the British pop chanteuse, mastered American soul music, and delivered a stunning run of classic hit singles.” And he called “Dusty in Memphis” “one of the best recordings of the rock era.”

Springfield was born Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien in London in 1939. In later years, she said she always felt like an “awful, fat, ugly middle-class kid.”

But at age 16, she told the Mail on Sunday newspaper, she looked at herself in the mirror and said, “Be miserable or become someone else.”

It worked.

She sang with several groups in England before making her first big splash after forming The Springfields with her brother Tom.

But her breakthrough came as a solo artist in 1963, with “I Only Want To Be With You.” More big hits followed – including “Wishin’ and Hopin'” and “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.”

Springfield became known for her glitzy gowns, bottle-blond beehive hairdo and smudgy eye makeup – a style many believe she adopted to hide her drug and alcohol use.

Professing herself “bored with Britain,” Springfield moved to Los Angeles in 1972, embarking on drink-and-drug binges and suffering from depression.

She confessed her bisexuality and devoted herself to animal rights and women’s tennis.

Seemingly forgotten, she revived her career in the late 1980s with a collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys. The single, “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” made it to No. 2 on the U.S. charts.

“It was a dream come true for us when [she] agreed to sing with us,” Pet Shop Boys Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe said in a statement. “Quite honestly, we were in awe of her.”

Springfield’s resurgence was sealed in the 1990s with the inclusion of “Preacher Man” on the “Pulp Fiction” soundtrack.

She continued recording, but in 1994, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had chemotherapy treatments.

She was found to be free of the disease in 1995, but the cancer returned the following year.

ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Fuhnp7j2xmaWxfl7%2BmrdKtZJyZnpiys3nCpZiipaNivbC8jKWcoJ2emXqlwdKtsGaZpGKCens%3D