Mike Gill, who worked with the singer for nearly 32 years, first as her press agent and then looking after her back catalogue, said: "We're all terrifically sad this morning. She was very warm and great fun to be with. Her's was the greatest voice ever produced by a female in this country and she could never be impersonated. She was a total and utter perfectionist, which on occasions gave her a bad reputation, but 99% of the time she got it absolutely right. She championed a new type of music in the early Sixties when she brought Tamla Motown to Britain, which is something that has always been seriously overlooked."

After she found out she had cancer when she was in Nashville [in 1994 recording her album A Very Fine Love], she came back and became almost a recluse. But she was a great fighter. "Even before the illness she was one of the most stubborn people I have met in my life, but her attitude to the cancer was 'I'm going to beat this'." The doctors were amazed by her resilience to the disease.

Mr Gill has been working on a tribute four-CD box set during her final months, which is set to be released towards the end of the year. "It was done with Dusty's full knowledge and her blessing when she knew she was dying. She said 'Tell Mike to get things organised. I want to go out with a bit of style'. She was a real one-off. There are no Dusty clones. Nobody could sing the way she could. She was like Ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holliday. Dusty ranks alongside all those people. It was an intimate voice with wonderful pathos. Carole King once said that when she heard Dusty's version of her song "Goin' Back" she wept when she heard it. Nobody could better it. She did another King song "Some of Your Lovin'" and Dusty perceived that as her finest vocal performance ever."

A spokeswoman for fellow 1960s pop star Lulu, who was a friend of Dusty for some 30 years, said she was "very sad" at the news. She said: "I have just spoken to Lulu, and she just said that she is obviously very sad, but at the same time, relieved that she is no longer suffering." The spokeswoman added that Lulu had remained in contact with Miss Springfield in the months up to her death.

Three long-serving BBC Radio 2 presenters paid tribute to her as one of the best singers the country has ever produced. Ken Bruce called her "possibly the finest female soul voice to come out of Britain". He added: "She was much underrated in this country but highly appreciated in the US where she was right up there with the Motown greats." Fellow DJ Johnnie Walker said: "She really was one of the great British singers. She could do anything from a beautiful ballad to making a really good soul record like Dusty In Memphis. It is very sad that we have lost her. She will be greatly missed." Brian Matthew said of the singer: "She was always as demanding of herself as of those around her that she worked with. She will be very sadly missed, I know."

Singer Jane McDonald, who came to prominence in fly-on-the-wall documentart The Cruise, said she was "really gutted" to hear the news. She called the singer, many of whose numbers she performs in her show, "one of the great". Miss McDonald added: "Dusty was just a unique performer. I have all her records and love performing her songs."

Chat show host and singer Des O'Connor said: "Dusty was unique. She had an absolutely distinctive voice and was one of the best singers Britain has ever produced. It is a sad, sad loss to the music world. She appeared on the show many times over the years and was always fun and totally professional."

Fellow Sixties recording star Cilla Black, a friend for many years, said from her home today: "She was an incredible artist. I'm very sad and deeply shocked." The Blind Date host worked with Dusty in 1993 for the single "Heart and Soul" from Cilla's Through the Years album.

Nightclub boss Peter Stringfellow, who once signed Dusty to his Hippodrome label, said he was very sad to hear of her death. Their relationship was not a long one and she released just one single, "Sometimes Like Butterflies," for him in 1985. "In my opinion, hers was the original Girl Power. She was a very strong character throughout her career and no-one pushed her around," he said. "If you were ever to give out a crown for the Queen of Pop in Great Britain, it would be to her."

Chart duo The Pet Shop Boys, whose collaborations with Dusty gave the star her last taste of singles chart success, said they had been proud to work with Britain's "greatest female singer". In a statement Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe said: "It was a dream come true for us when Dusty Springfield agreed to sing with us on the song "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" She hadn't recorded for several years but as soon as she arrived in the studio and began to sing, we knew that the greatest female singer Britain has ever produced was still on brilliant form. Quite honestly, we were in awe of her. Dusty was a tender, exhilarating and soulful singer, incredibly intelligent at phrasing a song, painstakingly building it up to a thrilling climax. She was also a warm and funny person.

'What do you want me to sing like?,' she asked on that first day we met. 'You', we replied, and she seemed quite surprised. We are proud to have been a small part of her fabulous career," added Lowe and Tennant, who also penned the singles "In Private" and "Nothing Has Been Proved" for her - the latter used on the soundtrack to the film Scandal.

Delyth Morgan, chief executive of the research charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: "Dusty was the pop icon of her generation and brought pleasure to millions of music lovers around the world. She will be sadly missed. She said it was a tragedy that her last years were spent receiving treatment which left her exhausted. This highlights the very great need for research to find less debilitating and more effective treatments for breast cancer. We owe it to Dusty and all those other thousands of women who are battling this devastating disease to continue to raise money for this vital research so that one day breast cancer can be eradicated."

Sir Elton John heard the news in America, where he is on tour. "I thought that Dusty was the best white British female singer to come along at the time. To me, she was as good a singer as Aretha Franklin in her own way, and completely timeless," Sir Elton said.

Fellow Sixties singer Sandie Shaw said: "I am deeply upset to hear of Dusty's death." she added: "In the Sixties we were both rivals and friends, sharing a really unique experience." Sandie went on: "We were the first pop divas and the first emergence of Girl Power. I feel privileged to have been a contemporary of this feisty and talented woman."

Dusty's manager Vicki Wickham said she remembers her as: "A lively, silly person, always good for a giggle and the best source of reference. She knew every bit player in every film. You could call up and say 'Who the hell was that person?' and she would know. On music she was the same. She always knew who wrote, who produced or who sang everything. Her geography was brilliant too. If a country had been renamed for a fifth time she knew all about it. She could read a map well too, and she was a good person to be lost with. There are too many things I'll miss about her, like all those little chats."

They met in 1963 when Ms Wickham was the producer of Sixties pop show Ready, Steady, GO! and had been friends ever since. She became her manager when her career was revived by the Pet Shop Boys. Ms Wickham paid tribute to Dusty's will to live and also the efforts of doctors to make her comfortable. "It seems strange that someone who was so ill was in good spirits, but she really was. She was not bed-ridden until the very last few days. She was able to do things for herself. She was a fighter and fought right up until the end. The legacy of her music is a magnificent collection and will live on. She was very proud of it, worked very hard and the results speak for themselves."

Gennaro Castaldo, of music retailer HMV, said "Dusty's death is a tragedy and music fans around the world will mourn her passing. "However, as the outstanding female performer of her generation, she has left a rich legacy of classic songs that will ensure our memory of her will never fade. Dusty was unique - a true heroine of British soul music." Mr Castaldo said he expected the sad news to boost sales of her back catalogue. "All of a sudden people will find they miss her - particularly when there are TV and radio tributes - and the only way they can relate to it is by owning a part of her through her music. In the past when stars have died we found it was the greatest hits collections which seem to sum people up best, and it is the compilations which will go back into the charts."

BB2 is preparing a half-hour tribute show Dusty at the BBC which is to be screened at 7:30 pm tomorrow featuring archive footage of her performances.

Press Association Newsfile,
March 4, 1999