Tom Jones International

Hi: I hope you are each having a terrific holiday season. I know it’s a busy time of year so, unless there’s some great breaking news, I won’t be posting anything for a day or two. That’ll give you a chance to check out posts you may have missed over the last several days and to see the videos that have gone up. I am very fortunate because — as I’ve loved movies (films to you not from the USA) since I can remember, I’ve just started working as a reviewer and have been seeing lots. Since it’s “work,” I can even go to the movies during the day and not feel guilty. Anyway, if you’d like, check out the reviews here. I’ve seen just about all that are out (some haven’t been reviewed yet) and have been having a ball. Be sure to check back Thursday for a new post.

And, a day late, but a nonetheless happy belated birthday to one H. Matthews. Give yourself a gift for his b’day and order some of his extraordinary peanut brittle. Link is at bottom right. One buyer told me, “It’s so good, I bought it for my husband. I don’t like peanut brittle but I tasted it and, now, I can’t stop eating it!”

Born in England, Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien (April 16, 1939 – March 2, 1999) took the stage name Dusty Springfield when a band she was in with her brother and her friend was rehearsing in a field in Somerset in the spring. Her myriad hits include You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me, I Only Want To Be With You, You Don’t Own Me, The Look of Love, Son of a Preacher Man….. the list is seemingly endless. Her contribution to music netted her, among many other honors, an OBE.

In December 1964, Springfield was deported from South Africa after refusing to play for a segregated audience as was then the law there. And, like another British singer we know (who, a few years later refused to play for a segregated audience there), she was very heavily influenced by both American rock ‘n’ roll and Motown. Also like that singer, she experienced some relatively dry recording years but made a comeback in the late 1980s. In 1994 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and died in 1999. A mere 10 days after her death Dusty Springfield was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At her induction, Elton John said, “think she is the greatest white singer that there ever has been.”

Dusty Springfield had success on television, too. Here are three songs from Season 2, Episode 4 of her show, Dusty, that aired September 5, 1967,

In the clips, her guest Tom Jones performs Show Me and I’ll Never Fall In Love Again and Tom and Dusty sing Baby Baby

You can watch the it in the TJI.com Video Library.