Dusty Springfield fun facts:In 1968 Dusty Springfield was being produced by Atlantic Records A&R man Jerry Wexler for album sessions in Memphis, during which she mentioned to Wexler that her bass player had just joined a new group that was looking for a break. Based on that recommendation alone, Wexler signed the group to the Atlantic label for a contract worth more than $200,000, the largest of its kind at the time, without ever having heard a single note of their music.
The bass player in question was John Paul Jones, who had played bass and done string arrangements for her 1968 album Dusty...Definitely, her last with England's Philips label, and the group in question was of course Led Zeppelin.
Dusty made a few unwise career decisions in later years:
In the early 1970s, she was the first to be offered the song Killing Me Softly; she declined, and it was made famous by Roberta Flack instead.
Elton John had sung backup on some of her earlier recordings and asked her to record a duet with him. Her management got into a row with Elton's management, and the recording never happened. Instead, Elton recorded with Kiki Dee, and their duet Don't Go Breaking My Heart was a huge #1.
In the late 70s she was offered a James Bond theme, but turned it down; the song went to Carly Simon instead, whose version of Nobody Does It Better for the film The Spy Who Loved Me was another huge and memorable hit.
Dusty eventually returned to chart success in the late 80s with the help of the Pet Shop Boys: [
www.youtube.com]