Anglo For Your Ear: Dusty Springfield’s “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself”

The gays have always loved Dusty; she conveyed heartache like few other female singers (possibly only Dionne Warwick, another famed Bacharach interpreter, was better). Pet Shop Boys paid their own gay-boy tribute to Springfield by recruiting her for the 1987 duet, “What Have I Done To Deserve This?,” which proved to be the biggest hit of her career in the U.S.

But the identification many gay men felt was more than just an emotional one: Dusty, who died in 1999, had been pretty open about her bisexuality during her life, even marrying her lesbian partner back in 1983. She was a brave woman both in her artistry and in her life.

Concluding my Pride Week celebration of British LGBT talent, I bring you 1964′s “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself,” written by Burt Bacharach and memorably butchered by Cameron Diaz in My Best Friend’s Wedding.

Download Dusty Springfield’s “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself”