'A Girl Called Dusty'

This album -- a really good album -- is a perfect opportunity to consider a hypothetical:

What if The Beatles never existed?

A Girl Called Dusty was released in the United Kingdom in April 1964, just two months after The Beatles notched "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" as their first No. 1 in the United States and "invaded" the states in February through an East Coast tour and two appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show.

I'd like to think that Springfield's record was being pressed at this time, packaged and being prepared for distribution. Dusty, herself, was probably playing some gigs or maybe getting ready for a tour of some kind to support the record. She'd be deported from South Africa in December for playing an integrated audience.

A Girl Called Dusty was never released in the United States. I don't know if that has anything to do with The Beatles or anything like that. I do wonder if record companies and artists held back projects to see if there was true staying power with the Fab Four. Months later, she would release a reworked album with a different name to the United States.

Had the Beatles broken up in Hamburg in 1960, things might have changed a lot. What would The Rolling Stones be without the Beatles? No yin to their yang. There are a dozen different groups -- like Gerry and the Pacemakers -- that could have used 10 percent of The Beatles' notoriety, even if another 10 bands got a piece of the popularity pie. Maybe Dusty Springfield's career goes in a different direction. Nobody will ever know.