From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Thu Aug 29, 2002  2:02 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Dinah Washington
 
DINAH WASHINGTON

Born Ruth Lee Jones, 29 August 1924, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Died 14 December 1963, Detroit, Michigan

Jazz/blues vocalist / pianist.
Dinah Washington was a singer whose gutsy style, unique phrasing,
gospel background and feeling for the blues transcended category.
Born in Alabama, she was raised on Chicago's south side. She joined
the church choir at age eight, won a talent contest at the Regal Theatre,
toured with The Sallie Martin Gospel Singers in 1940-41, changed her name
and sang with the Lionel Hampton band 1943-46. She first recorded for
the Keynote label in 1943, accompanied by a sextet from Hampton's band
and started touring solo in 1946. After a short stint with Apollo, she signed
with Mercury in 1948 and would score 45 R&B hits on that label until 1961.
Five of these hit the # 1 spot: "Am I Asking Too Much" (1948), "Baby Get
Lost" (1949 ; Decca's Milt Gabler had Billie Holiday record a cover), " This
Bitter Earth" (1960), "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)" and "A Rockin'
Good Way", the last two being 1960 duets with Brook Benton, which also
went Top 10 pop. Reportedly, she was teamed with Benton against her
wishes and the sessions were filled with tensions. Until then, Mercury had
refused to market her records to pop audiences. As a result, her only solo
Top 10 pop hit was "What A Difference A Day Makes" (1959). She switched
to Roulette in 1962, where she scored a few minor pop hits.
At the age of only 39, Dinah died of a common showbusiness accident,
mixing alcohol and pills. She was found unconscious by football player
Dick Lane, the last of her seven husbands.

Further reading: Jim Haskins, Queen of the Blues : a biography of Dinah
Washington. New York : Morrow, 1987.
For completists there is "The Complete Dinah Washington On Mercury
'48--61" in seven three-CD sets, but personally I prefer her recordings from
1943-46. A good overview of that period is the CD:
A Slick Chick (Indigo 14322). Released in 1997. 25 tracks.
Proper has just released an affordable 4-CD box-set ("The Queen Sings"),
covering her recording career up to 1951.