In 1960’s Britain

One girl Pop singer towered over the rest

That girl was: Dusty Springfield

By 1964, while the Beatles stormed the pop world, another player on the pop music scene was already well known from her work with the Springfields. During the 1960’s Dusty Springfield was Britain’s top female popstar. Some have said that she was Britain’s finest female pop singer. It’s clear she wasn’t a dolly bird singer, unlike Lulu, Cilla, Sandie or Marianne. More important though was her ability with black musical forms. She forged her own path through the racial divide in music.

But Dusty Springfield might have seemed not quite real. In fact, she was invented by a shy, awkward Convent girl with a dream; a girl called Mary O’Brien This girl had two things on her side, an amazing singing voice and a driving ambition. Dusty Springfield was created by Mary O’Brien. She would often say ‘I made Dusty. I am Mary O’Brien but I made Dusty’ The heavy makeup she wore served as a mask to hide her insecurities. The whole package was put together, with impeccable taste, by Mary O’Brien –the hair, the shoes, the gestures, the mascara laden eyes.

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