Learning Dusty Springfield was white

#10 in an occasional series of repressed 70's memories that turn out to be true.

I don't really have a story to go with this memory. It's not the Fall of Saigon -- now that's a story -- or the job interview by phone where I was told "we were hoping to hire a boy" (and to be precise that was 1982), but it is a realization many people admit they stumbled onto. One fella I knew stumbled onto it in the 1990s.

Shouldn't Dusty Springfield look like this?

that is our adorable Dana Owens...aka The Queen

For heaven's sake, her name is Dusty. She's with the son of a "preacher man." "Dusty In Memphis," right? Why is she dressed like Karen Carpenter? Were she and Tammy Wynette separated at birth?

In a world populated by Joss Stone, Susan Tedeschi, even Norah Jones (Ravi Shankar? really? well I don't what the hell then...) the wonder of Dusty Springfield may be lost to us. But there was a night -- some Dean Martin, King Special, Sonny & Cher Show night -- when my world was completely rocked.

Like seeing this guy on Hee Haw.

It ain't your parent's hit parade anymore.