From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Nov 11, 2002  6:17 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Annisteen Allen
 
ANNISTEEN ALLEN (By Jean-Marc Pezet)

Born Ernestine Letitia Allen, 11 November 1920, Champaign, Illinois
Died 10 August 1992, Harlem, New York City, New York

Annisteen Allen started her career in the mid-1940's when she joined the
Lucky Millinder Ochestra, having been recommended to Millinder by Louis
Jordan. Millinder had been recording for Decca for several years, but at the
time of Ernestine's arrival had agreed to record incognito for Syd Nathan's
fledging Queen label. These clandestine recording sessions took place
between December 1945 and April 1946 and were issued under sidemen's
names, such as "Bullmoose Jackson and his Buffalo Bearcats", "Panama
Francis and his Miamians", ""Sam Taylor and his Alabama Swingsters" or
"Annisteen Allen and her Home Town Boys". Ernestine's name change to
Annisteen, a name she kept until her first LP release in 1961 on Tru-Sound,
seems to be connected with the name of Millinder's birthplace, Anniston,
Alabama.
Annisteen recorded around 25 sides with Millinder's Ochestra for Decca,
Queen/King, and RCA Victor and began recording in her own right for King's
Federal subsidiary in 1951, producing two fine up-tempo jump blues, "Hard
To Get Along" and "Lies Lies Lies" along with two fine blues ballads, "Too
Long" and "Cloudy Day Blues". In 1953, Annisteen was transferred to the
parent King label, for whom she recorded two excellent sessions backed
by the Big John Greer band, featuring notably Mickey Baker on guitar.
It was on King that she scored her only chart entry (# 8 R&B), "Baby I'm
Doin' It", an answer song to the chart-topping "Baby Don't Do It" by the
Five Royales. She left King in 1954 to join Capitol, where she recorded
11 sides, notably "Fujiyama Mama", which was successfully covered by
Wanda Jackson in 1957, making a rock'n'roll classic out of this song in
the process.
She went on to rejoin Decca for 8 sides in 1956/57 and recorded, back with
Millinder, for Todd and Warwick in 1959 and 1960. A single appeared on
Wig in the early 1960s and she reverted back to Ernestine for her first (and
last) LP, mostly composed of standards for Tru-Sound, issued in 1961.

Not much has been re-issued by Annisteen in our digital age (maybe Gilles
Petard at Classics could start an Annisteen Allen Chronological series with
the pre 1952 recordings?).

Two LPs are worthwhile to find:
- "Give It Up" Official 6051 (1989) with lliner notes by Dave Penny (that I
used for this bio - thanks) - features Queen/King/Federal sides 1945-1953.
- "Fujiyama Mama" French Capitol 1566291 ((1986), the eleven 1954 Capitol
sides (if you can find a copy!)