First Issue The Dinah Washington Story The Original Recordings Music Cd

Dinah Washington - First Issue The Dinah Washington Story The Original Recordings

See Larger Image

First Issue: The Dinah Washington Story (The Original Recordings)      Artist : Dinah Washington      List Price : $22.98 USD        Your Price : $22.98 USD      ProductGroup: Music      Release Date : 1993-06-22      Studio : Polygram Records      Label : Polygram Records      Avg. Customer Rating : (10 reviews)

Reviews Customer Reviews for First Issue The Dinah Washington Story The Original Recordings      great collection      Rating:      I'm new to this artist and found this collection wonderful! The sound quality is great and so is the variety of songs.     Customer Reviews for First Issue The Dinah Washington Story The Original Recordings Cd      In Her Heyday She Could Sing Anything      Rating:      Born Ruth Jones on August 29, 1924 in rural Tuscaloosa, Alabama, she moved to Chicago at an early age and, after winning an amateur contest in 1939, took the name Dinah Washington in the early Forties when she joined Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra. In 1944/45 she recorded on the Keynote label and made what was then known as the Harlem Hit Parade with Salty Papa Blues (# 10) and Evil Gal Blues (# 9) under the billing "Sextet with Dinah Washington" (the sextet was trumpeter Joe Morris, Rudy Rutherford on clarinet, Milt Buckner on piano, drummer Fred Radcliffe, Vernon King on bass and Arnette Cobbs on tenor sax). After a two year absence from the charts, she returned on Mercury in 1948 with The Rudy Martin Trio and the classic Fats Waller composition Ain't Misbehavin (# 6 on the Most Played Juke Box Race Records charts) - unfortunately not in this set. Thereafter Dinah was seldom off any charts (1957 being the sole exception) right through to the year of her death at age 39 (December 14, 1963), during which time she had just over 60 hits. In this compilation you get 23 of them, including a cover of a pure Country song, the Hank Snow classic I Don't Hurt Anymore which went to # 3 R&B in 1954 (she also took Hank Williams Cold, Cold Heart to # 3 R&B in 1951 but, alas, that too is missing). All of her biggest Mercury pop crossovers are here, however, including I Wanna Be Loved (# 5 R&B/# 22 pop in 1950 with the Teddy Stewart orchestra), What A Difference A Day Makes (# 4 R&B/# 8 pop), and Unforgettable (# 15 R&B/# 17 pop) - both in 1959, the 1960 duets with Brook Benton, Baby (You've Got What It Takes) and A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around And Fall In Love) which both went to # 1 R&B and nos. 5 and 7 respectively on the Billboard Pop Hot 100, my all-time favorite, the sad This Bitter Earth which peaked at # 1 R&B/# 24 Hot 100 in August 1960, Love Walked In (# 16 R&B/# 30 Hot 100 in November 1960), and 1961's lilting September In The Rain (# 5 R&B/# 23 Hot 100). After four more lower region pop hits in 1960/61, Dinah moved to Roulette Records in 1962 and that year added six Hot 100 entries, although only one made the Pop Top 40, and none scored on the R&B charts as her voice had lost much of its quality by this time. Dinah Washington is, simply put, one of the all-time greats, and this was acknowledged by the R&R Hall Of Fame, which inducted her in 1993 in the "early influence" category, the U.S. Postal Service who honored her that same year with a stamp (depicted on the CD cover), and the Blues Hall Of Fame in 2003. Inside this package you also get a wonderful booklet written by the noted music historian Chris Albertson which highlights her career and details of each of the 46 selections.