THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

171-Dusty Springfield-You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.

1966-Number 1 single.

Best Bit-At 1.08. It was while performing at the 1965 Sanremo Festival that Dusty Springfield first heard this songs melody. She must have thought to herself ‘Mamma Mia, canzone fantastica.’

Dusty Springfield was born Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien on April 16th, 1939, in West Hampstead, London, England, she died of breast cancer on March 2nd, 1999, at the age of 59. She acquired the nickname ‘Dusty’ as a child for playing football with the boys in the street, where she was described as a tomboy. Springfield’s adult image of being a peroxide blonde with a bouffant/beehive hairstyle, heavy makeup, and evening gowns, made her one of the best remembered icons of the ‘Swinging Sixties.’ She was pigeon holed by the music press as a singer of ‘Blue Eyed Soul,’ which is the term used for a white person who performs R&B, and Soul Music. Such was Springfield’s impact on ‘Black’ music in Britain that she is credited in helping popularise the music of ‘Motown,’ and the ‘Northern Soul’ scene, even so not directly involved with either.

Dusty Springfield (see also best songs 882) started her musical career in 1958 as member of ‘The Lana Sisters,’ with whom she released eight non charting singles between 1958-1960. She then joined forces with her brother Tom Springfield, (see also best songs 609) and Tim Field (1934-2016) to form the Folk/Pop group The Springfields, with whom she achieved five UK top 40 singles, and also one in America, before setting out on a solo career in 1963. Dusty Springfield recorded 21 solo studio Albums between 1964-1994, and 69 singles, with this song charting the highest in the UK when making Number 1, while in America on Billboard her 1987 collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys (see also best songs 871 and 378) on ‘What Have I Done to Deserve This?’ charted highest, when reaching Number 2.

In 1965 Dusty Springfield was performing at the annual Sanremo Festival, in Liguria, Italy, where she heard the song ‘Lo che non vivo (senza te’) being performed by one it’s writers Pino Donaggio, and although Springfield didn’t understand the lyrics, she instantly realised the songs hit potential. She had the songs instrumental track recorded, and when back in Britain she approached her friends Vicki Wickham, who was the producer of the Pop music show ‘Ready Steady Go,’ and Simon Napier-Bell (see also best songs 361) who at that time was the manager of The Yardbirds, and the two of them set about writing the English lyrics.

‘You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me’ has been recorded on numerous occasions, and in several different languages, and is reconned to have sold in excess of 80 million copies worldwide. In the UK the song has been a hit on three other occasions, in 1971 Elvis Presley took his version to Number 9, while in 1976 the group ‘Guys ‘N’ Dolls’ reached Number 6, and in 1995 a recording by Denise Welch made Number 23.

‘When I said I needed you, you said you would always stay. It wasn’t me who changed but you, and now you’ve gone away.’