The iconic ’60s songbirds we know and love
WORDS: ALISON JAMES
Sandie Shaw
Dubbed “the barefoot pop princess of the 1960s” due to her penchant for performing in her stockinged feet, Sandie was born Sandra Ann Goodrich in Dagenham in March 1947.
On leaving school, she started modelling and singing, and landed a record contract – and a name change – after signing with Adam Faith’s manager. In 1964, she recorded the Burt Bacharach-Hal David number (There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me which topped the UK charts in 1964, when Shaw was 17. Fourteen UK Top 40 hits in the 1960s followed, including two more No.1 hits – Long Live Love and Puppet On A String which won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967.
Shaw put her singing career on hold in the ’70s when she became a mother. She relaunched her recording career and her cover of The Smiths’ Hand in Glove was a hit in 1984. In 2010 she recorded the theme song for the British film Made In Dagenham. She is now retired.
Dusty Springfield
Born Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien in London in April 1939, she performed with The Lana Sisters and The Springfields before finding success as a solo artist.
She formed the latter group with her brother Tom and both took “Springfield” as a surname with Mary also adopting the name Dusty. However, she left the group in 1963 to launch a solo career. In 1963 I Only Want To Be With You reached No.4 in the UK followed by a string of UK and US hits. She recorded her landmark album Dusty in Memphis which included the smash hit 1969 single Son of a Preacher Man.
In 1987, she guested on the Pet Shop Boys’ single What Have I Done To Deserve This? and Springfield continued perform until she was diagnosed with cancer in the 1990s. Just before her death in 1999, she was made an OBE.
Helen Shapiro
While still a teenager in the early 1960s, Helen was already one of Britain’s most successful female singers.
With a voice described by All Music as possessing “the maturity and sensibilities of someone far beyond their teen years”, Shapiro recorded three 1961 UK chart toppers – You Don’t Know, Walkin’ Back to Happiness and Don’t Treat Me Like a Child when she was just 14. Her success continued in 1962 with hits including Tell Me What He Said and film appearances in Play It Cool and It’s Trad, Dad! In 1963, Helen toured with The Beatles as her support act.
When her pop career started to decline in the mid ‘60s, Shapiro turned to cabaret, touring the working men’s clubs of England’s north-east. She announced her retirement in 1972 but then branched out as a performer in musical theatre and jazz. She played the role of Nancy in the musical Oliver in
