💋 “In Private”: How Dusty Springfield Found Herself Again (with a Little Help from the Pet Shop Boys)

The Twelve Inch 189 In Private (Dusty Springfield)

I didn’t really know Dusty Springfield until she turned up on the Pet Shop Boys’ hit “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” I recognised her name, of course, it often came up on the sixties music radio show I loved to listen to every Friday morning in the eighties, but that was about it.

It was only through that Pet Shop Boys track, and her brief return to the charts that followed, that I began exploring her catalogue. And what a discovery that was: a treasure trove of perfectly crafted pop and soul. Together with Dionne Warwick, she’s one of the two singers who truly defined the Bacharach & David songbook. I even have a playlist called “Dusty & Dionne” on my phone, their greatest sixties recordings side by side. Some Burt Bacharach songs appear twice: once sung by Dusty, once by Dionne. Choosing between them? Impossible.

Dusty Springfield’s place in British music can hardly be overstated. She was a remarkable vocalist with impeccable taste and an obsession for quality, qualities that make…