Dusty springfield gay
Who was Dusty Springfield? Inside life and 'volatile' relationship with lesbian lover
Today's Google Doodle subject Mary O'Brien OBE, known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was an English award-winning singer who was known for her hits including of Son of a Preacher Man and Spooky
Google Doodle is celebrating the life and career of singer Dusty Springfield.
Dusty Springfield was an English 'pop blue-eyed soul' singer from West Hampstead, London.
Her career boomed during the s and she ranked among the most successful British female performers on both sides of the Atlantic.
She was also known for her iconic peroxide blonde 'beehive' hairstyle, heavy makeup and evening gowns.
But how did Dusty Springfield's career begin and what was her sexual orientation?
Here's everything you need to know.
How did Dusty Springfield's career begin?
Dusty was an icon of the swinging '60s but her career did not begin as a solo singer.
She first found fame as part of The Springfields alongside her bro
In the s, Britain was a world of psychedelia, mods, rockers, thigh-grazing miniskirts, street protest, and sexual liberation. London, in particular, had thrown off the gloom of post-Second World War austerity, and was ready to embrace a new beginning filled with color, optimism, and culture. And if anyone was ready to unravel societal norms, it was British musical legend and emergent queer icon Dusty Springfield. But, for a long occasion, Springfield had to wait for the world to catch up to her.
Born Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien to Irish immigrants in , Springfield was a plain, albeit tomboyish noun who earned the name ‘Dusty’ playing football with the boys on the street outside the family home in Ealing. Growing up, family life was fraught: her mother was an alcoholic with a tendency to throw diet, while her abusive father repeatedly told young Springfield that she was brainless and ugly. Meanwhile, at her Catholic all-girls school, the nuns predicted that the shy miss was destined to become a librarian.
Though Springfield’s childhood had been soundtracked by fuming row
Dusty Springfield
Born in London in , she may have been Mary O&#;Brien to her parents, but to the recover of the world she was Dusty Springfield. Famous for her blonde beehive, black eye make-up and amazing soul voice, she was also one of the first pop stars to acknowledge to messing around in the bedroom with the alike sex.
Having survived a convent school education, Mary O&#;Brien was working in a department store when she joined the all-female trio the Lana Sisters. In she and her brother Dion assumed the names Dusty and Tom Springfield, and began three years of chart success as The Springfields.
In , their parents Catherine and Gerard O&#;Brien, moved to 11 Wilbury Road in Hove. The following year Dusty launched her solo career, and released I Only Wanna Be With You. Not only did it arrive number 4 in the charts, but it was the first record to be played on Top of the Pops! Anyone into pop trivia will be fascinated to learn that the melody was written by song-writer Ivor Raymonde whilst on holiday at West Witterings near Bognor Regis. Wow!
So… was Dusty Springfield gay?
Dusty visit
Dusty Springfield
She was born in West Hampstead and raised in High Wycombe and then in Ealing.[1] She was was described as a tomboy, and got the nickname "Dusty" for playing football with boys in the street.[2]
In she joined the singing group the Lana Sisters. In she formed The Springfields with her brother Tom, and another singer, Tim Field, and she and Tom adopted "Springfield" as their stage surname. The Springfields disbanded in , and Dusty then had a number of hits as a solo artist, including "I only want to be with you" () and "you don't have to say you cherish me" ().
She said of herself:
- ""I was deeply influenced by adj singers from the early s. I liked everybody at Motown and most of the Stax artists. I really wanted to be Mavis Staples. What they shared in common was a kind of noun I didn't