45. Dusty Springfield — A Girl Called Dusty (1964)

Big hair don’t care

1. What a joyful album, giving us a start to the genre of blue-eyed soul. Dusty kills it on the motown and soul tunes here; she doesn’t feel the need to change or soften these covers, instead leaning into their edginess.
2. There really aren’t any duds here. The album starts with a safe and strong cover of The Shirelles’ “Mama Said,” before launching into the darker feminist tune “You Don’t Own Me,” then building through to the pure joy of the “When The Lovelight”. It’s an incredibly well sequenced album, covering a lot of ground in its 30 minutes.
3. Listening to this album you really appreciate Dusty Springfield as the progenitor of modern white lady British soul like Adele and Amy Winehouse — especially the latter. Everything from the sound to the look (the big beehive hair) clearly got its start with Springfield. But the nice thing is reading about how she also helped black Motown artists reach a broader audience by introducing them to the UK — giving back in her way to the genre that propelled her forward.

One Essential Song:

Listen on Spotify: