Three Decades Of Artistry

Dinah Washington was arguably the first Queen of Soul, having gained herself the soubriquet ‘The Queen’ in music circles of the early 1950s through the volume of hit records and performance notices achieved in the first decade of her career. She rose from the clubs and bars of Southside Chicago in the mid-1940s to enjoy a wealth of hit singles – some 40 reaching the Billboard R&B charts through the 1950s as Mercury Records reaped the value of her talent with almost as many albums.

It wasn’t until 1959 that Dinah scored her first major Hot 100 hit, with ‘What A Diff’rence A Day Makes’, a turning point which also brought about hit duets with label-mate Brook Benton. With the new decade came a move to Roulette Records, where producer Henry Glover, as well as recording her on classy ballads and standards, invigorated her sound, turning back to the blues, whilst remaining at the forefront of the emergent soul market. Just as her career was about to reach new heights, galvanised by a new and diverse style, on the evening of December 14, 1963, Dinah took several sleeping pills after a heavy drinking session and didn’t make it to the next morning.

Soul music writer and broadcaster Clive Richardson presents Original Queen of Soul, an overview of the recording career of Dinah Washington, which also serves to commemorate the 50th anniversary of her death. The 80 tracks include hard-to-find club-blues recordings from the 1940s, album tracks and singles in a range of styles and moods from the 1950s, and a selection of her later work under the guidance of Henry Glover from the early 1960s.

The 3CD set features many of her hits including ‘Baby Get Lost’ (R&B #1 1949), ‘Cold, Cold Heart’ (R&B #3 1951), ‘I Don’t Hurt Anymore’ (R&B #3 1954), ‘What A Diff’rence A Day Makes’ (R&B #4, Pop #8 1959), ‘Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)’ (R&B #1, Pop #5 1960), ‘A Rockin’ Good Way’ (R&B #1, Pop #7 1960) and ‘September In The Rain’ (R&B #5, Pop #23 1961). Among the eminent bandleaders and arrangers collaborating with her are Lionel Hampton, Lucky Thompson, Cootie Williams, Jimmy Cobb, Hal Mooney and Quincy Jones.

‘What A Diff’rence A Day Makes’ was nominated the Best Rhythm & Blues Performance at the Grammy awards in 1959, and posthumously she has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (as an early influence). Her celebrated version of ‘Mad About The Boy’ was a UK hit following its use in a Levi’s commercial in 1992. Accompanied by an illustrated 20pp booklet annotated by Clive, Original Queen of Soul is a fitting tribute to the talent and career of the first Queen of Soul.