The Peculiar Truth about Dusty Springfield

• She was a 1960s music star with a string of classic pop hits - “I Only Want To Be With You,” “Wishin’ and Hopin’,” “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me,” “The Look of Love,” and “Son of a Preacher Man.” Known as Dusty Springfield, her powerful voice and stylish looks propelled her to the top of the charts, especially in her native England. The general public adored her.

• They didn’t know that the woman who sang about boy-girl romance was gay.

• Her birth name was Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien, and she was raised in a dysfunctional Catholic family. Her mother was a rampaging alcoholic, and her Irish father was a physically and verbally abusive perfectionist. As a result, Dusty was inherently shy, often put herself down, and engaged in self-harm.

• One day, the brunette tomboy transformed into a gorgeous blonde. Schoolmates couldn’t believe the teenager was the same girl.

• She and her brother Dion excelled at music thanks to their father, and they developed a folk act. They were called the Springfields, and they achieved popularity in the UK from 1960-63.

• Mary O’Brien created a new stage persona. Taking on her childhood nickname, Dusty Springfield was born.

• She loved American-style rhythm and blues and Motown music, especially Aretha Franklin, and wanted to emulate those sounds. So she went solo to record songs written by Carol King, Burt Bacharach, and other songwriters. Her songs became international hits and she was a star.

• One of her trademark looks was heavy black eyeliner. Dusty’s eyesight was so poor that she initially didn’t realize she was laying it on so thick, but it became her signature style. It also provided a kind of mask to hide behind in public.

• The same was true of her bouffant-style wigs. She had three favorites to which she gave names: Sandie, Cilla, and Lulu. The makeup and hairpieces boosted her self-esteem and transformed her from Mary O’Brien into Dusty.

• As a performer, she rehearsed excessively to the annoyance of musicians and producers, perhaps influenced by her perfectionist father. She garnered a reputation for being difficult to work with.

• She could be forthright, too. In 1964, she was deported from South Africa for refusing to perform to a segregated audience.

• 1968: To fulfill her dream of singing American rhythm and blues, she traveled to Tennessee, home base of Elvis Presley as well as the Memphis soul sound, to record an album titled Dusty in Memphis. That produced one of her most memorable hits, “Son of a Preacher Man,” a tune originally written for her idol Aretha Franklin. Unfortunately, the album - arguably her best - failed to catch on. Not yet 30 years old and with the Sixties coming to an end, her career began to fizzle and fade.

• Dusty shunned personal publicity and hated the British tabloids. She had secrets.

• Being gay was not socially acceptable in that era. It could end careers. Yet Dusty had a longtime female companion, Norma Tenega, whom she lived with for years. Dusty eventually alluded to her bisexuality in a 1971 interview. That admission was only partially true; she wasn’t known to have any relationships with men. The interview had little impact.

• Dusty slid into depression, alcoholism, and drug use. In 1972, she left Norma for Los Angeles, all alone in a new country. Not the best move. No one in the LA music industry could resuscitate her career, and she went broke. She engaged in self-harm and fell further into alcoholism.

• Dusty had a series of romantic relationships, all very private and all with women. One was with a rough former convict - thoroughly the opposite of the girl-next-door persona Dusty Springfield had cultivated as a pop star in the early Sixties.

• Dusty eventually got sober and lived a quieter life.

• 1987: British synth duo Pet Shop Boys revived her career with the single “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” That renewed interest in her earlier hits, and she was back on her feet again.

• In 1999 she died after a four-year battle with breast cancer.

• Despite being a symbol of 1960s beehive hairdos and girlie romance, or maybe because of it, she became a gay icon.