Who is Dusty Springfield?

Dusty Springfield was a professional singer with a career of over five decades of mezzo-soprano sound. During the 1960s peak, she ranked as one of the best British female performers. She had performed in genres like blue-eyed soul, pop, and dramatic ballads, with French chanson, country, and jazz. “Son of a Preacher Man(1969)” is one of her most loved songs.

Who are the parents of Dusty Springfield?

She was born on 16 April 1939 in West Hampstead in London to a music enthusiast family. Her birth name was Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien. She belonged to an Irish descendant. Her zodiac was Aries.

Her father’s name was Gerard Anthony “OB” O’Brien and her mother’s name was Catherine Anne “Kay” O’Brien. She had two brothers Tom Springfield and Tim Springfield.  Together with her brothers, during her early career, she formed the folk-pop vocal trio The Springfields.

She attended St Anne’s Convent School, Northfields, a traditional all-girl school. She had a middle-class upbringing but there were disturbances. Her father’s perfectionism and her mother’s frustrations resulted in frequent food-throwing incidents. Springfield and her brothers were both prone to food-throwing as grown-ups.

Detailing her early life, she was given the nickname “Dusty” and tomboy for playing football with boys in the street. At age 12, she sang Irving Berlin’s song “When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam” at a record shop in Ealing.