Lulu, Dusty Springfield, and the incomparable Cilla Black. The Brits knew a bird who could sing when they heard one.
Saw Lulu on a show a few years back. As a pop/rock/and blues singer she is vastly underrated.
If You Go Away is my favorite Dusty song. Dusty had a bunch of hits.
I’d never heard of Cilla Black. I’ve only heard a couple Lulu songs before.
Listen to the Cilla Black I linked. She’s a goddess.
I agree Lulu is vastly underrated. Her version of “Shout” is the best, and yes it IS better than the Isley Brothers. 
I also loved her 90s song “Independence.”
As for 60s Brits you forgot Petula Clark. She was good too
Saw Lulu on a Blues special and she has great, but the big surprise, to us yanks, was the amazing Tom Jones. I mean, who knew?
Well he seems (by my rough count) to have about 18 U.S. top forty hits, so I guess someone knew.
I agree about Lulu and Dusty. Not so sure about Cilla Black though.
Dusty had the better voice of course. In fact, I’m not sure there is a better even now. Came out of the English folk world and I don’t think she ever felt comfortable away from it. What a talent though.
Lulu disagrees but I always think she should have gone more towards a rock singer - a female Rodney Stewart, for example.
I think Cilla - bless her - had her finest moment with some fella called Bacharach. Checkout the young girl at the beginning steeling herself and just remembering to hide the Liverpool accent:
Bacharach flew over to oversee the original recording and tells how he almost had to bully the poor girl into giving it up, she’d never put anything like so much into a performance before.
Lulu is very underrated in regard to blues - check out her earliest stuff.
Cilla Black may not have had the best voice, but she had a lot of heart, and sang stuff that wasn’t considered to be “rock” per se, such as Alfie and You’re My World.
Dusty could do it all, and make it look so effortless.
Markxxx mentioned Petula Clark, and she had several chart hits.
Totally underrated in North America through lack of exposure: Sandie Shaw. Unfortunately, the clip of her singing *Always Something There to Remind Me *is a poor one, with an abbreviated version of the song, and the one of her singing *Long Live Love *is from a *Top of the Pops *rehearsal.
However, it was Mary Hopkin that truly had the voice of an angel, especially on her earlier stuff sung in Welsh. *Those Were the Days *was a huge chart success in '68, and just seemed to be on the radio everywhere.
Any of these ladies had American songstresses beat in the same timeframe. I mean, once you’ve heard Cilla Black at her best, the likes of Dionne Warwick and Cher pale in comparison.
Oh Yeah, that is excellent. 
She looks like Streisand in this clip.
I discovered Cilla Black almost by accident. I happened to hear her name mentioned in passing in a Brit rock 'n roll movie back in the '60s and decided to try to find out more about her and I was very impressed. Lulu, of course, introduced herself to the U.S. with To Sir With Love. Dusty Springfield was something of an extention of the British invasion ala The Beatles. You didn’t mention Shirley Bassie (sp). She had such a BIG voice…Wow. More blusie than rock 'n roll, though, I suppose, but such a wonderful voice.
Nice post.
If we’ve going back to Hopkins and folk roots then there’s no choice other than to get watery-eyed about the adorable Sandy Denny - the only non-band member to sing on a Led Zep track:
A fumbling demo from a young girl in 1967. Gawd bless you, luv.
Here is a clip of Shirley Bassey, who grew up in the very rough part of Cardiff called Tiger Bay. Of course she also sang the title music for three Bond films, Goldfinger Moonraker and Diamonds Are Forever.
I have Sandy Denny’s 3 disk box set. Who Knows Where Time Goes.
Great stuff. 
In that video she kicks Warwick’s ass from LA to Liverpool and back!
I’m a sucker for Autumn and, by extension, Autumn songs. Tom Rush’s Urge for Going is another one. Sandy (Wimbledon) wasn’t even from someplace with a proper Winter that Autumn precedes, but hers probably lasted longer than a week, unlike for people from New Hampshire (Rush) and Minnesota (me), so the sense of foreboding lasted longer, though ours usually starts on an unseasonably-chilly day in July, only to be burnt off a few days later.
The farcical disaster that was the original 1967 Casino Royale breaks mood for one exquisite scene in which the handsomest man in the world, Peter Sellers as James Bond, pursues in slow-motion the most beautiful woman in the world, Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd, while the background soundtrack is the most haunting jazz version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s The Look of Love," sung by Dusty Springfield in a tiny breathy lament for unfulfilled lovers everywhere. It’s possibly the best scene ever to come out of a bad movie.
You need the visuals to make it perfect and history has compounded the problem by releasing any number of variations of the original, even on Dusty Springfield box sets. This long version on YouTube seems to be the right one.
It’s jazz, remember, not rock or pop, so expect quietness rather than a song being belted out.
You can put more oomph into the song and maybe you should. YouTube has all sorts of treasures on it, and I found a duet with Dusty by Mireille Mathieu who blows her out of the water.
Kind of a roundabout way to re-discover someone: a couple years ago I was in Las Vegas. And our family decided to see this show of impersonators at the Imperial Palace (can’t remember the name of the show). There was Jay Leno hosting, and Tina Turner, and of course, Elvis was the closer. But there was this also this lady who had won the “Britain’s Got Talent” show (which landed her the Vegas gig) doing Dusty Springfield, and she just blew me away.
I was a bit young when Dusty was on the radio (“Son of a Preacher Man”), and pretty much only remembered her name (I had forgotten she did “The Look of Love” from “Casino Royale” - thanks Exapno). But through this impersonator, I gained a whole new appreciation for her. And when I got home I dug up a few old clips on YouTube. She really was all that.
Considering Cilla’s hometown, it was inevitable:
If you are going the folk route, then the purest voice would be Judy Collins - reminds me a little of Joan Baez - not quite so clinical though.
Of those mentioned, only Sandy Denny and perhaps Pet Clark would be capable of singing* A capella* as well as this.
Also note shes a pretty good guitarist as well, none of the previously mentioned would be able do the following,
If you want to move it on to go just a few years later then you’d be looking at Annie Haslam.
She’s got half a big band and half an orchestra behind her, so she doesn’t do too badly.
Having just looked at it again, the fella conducting looks interesting - he looks not at all dissimilar to a record producer of some repute who also was connected to another Liverpool act of the time . . . In fact, I’m convinced it’s him.
It’s also cute how she looks for reassurance from him close to the beginning, as well as bows to him (and presumably the band) - not the audience - at the end.
Same vid: