Dusty Springfield

While Bassey continues to make regular appearances, her best-known contemporary, Dusty Springfield, died in 1999, aged 59. The smoky-voiced English torch singer began her career in 1961 with her folk-pop trio, the Springfields, and ended with her 1995 album, 'A Very Fine Love'. She enjoyed most of her major hits in the 1960s when she was considered the British equivalent of Dionne Warwick, citing Peggy Lee as one of her strongest influences; she recorded only intermittently after the early 1970s.

Promoted as a British answer to Peter, Paul and Mary, the Springfields had a popular British television show and scored several English hits before breaking through in the United States with a Top 20 single, 'Silver Threads and Golden Needles'.

While visiting New York, Springfield recalled many years later, she heard the Exciters' brash, aggressive song 'Tell Him' coming out of a Broadway record store and decided that she wanted to go pop. 'I was deeply influenced by black singers from the early 1960s,' she said. 'I liked everybody at Motown and most of the Stax artists…What they shared in common was a kind of strength I didn't hear on English radio.'

Springfield subsequently broke up her group and signed as a soloist with Philips Records. Her first single for the label, 'I Only Want to Be With You', established her new direction; with her teased beehive hairdo and kohl-blackened eyes she was a 1960s pop icon. From 1964 to 1967, when she left Philips, 11 of her singles hit the American pop charts. 'Son of a Preacher Man', a song that Aretha Franklin had rejected but later recorded, became Springfield's first single for Atlantic Records and was featured on her Atlantic debut, 'Dusty in Memphis', which is regarded as a pop masterpiece.

These powerful vocalists continue to inspire contemporary British divas such as Annie Lennox, Kate Bush and Charlotte Church. But it will be in their own particular mould that their voices will continue to evolve and enchant international audiences.