Dinah Washington

 Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones (August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963)

Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of "Queen of the Blues". She was a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Influenced by other female singers such as Billie Holiday, Washington began to take an interest in blues music and started playing in local clubs in Chicago. At the age of 18, Washington joined Lionel Hampton’s band and a year later she also signed with Keynote Records, releasing her first hit “Evil Gal Blues” under the name Dinah Washington. Washington was never to record any of her gospel music, despite her obvious talent for it, believing that the secular world of professional music should be kept apart from the spiritual. Washington’s penetrating and heartfelt voice ensured her success and, having moved to Mercury Records in 1948, she enjoyed a string of hits of the R&B charts, including “Baby Get Lost” (No. 1, 1949) and “Trouble in Mind” (No. 4, 1952). In 1959, she released “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes,” which some in the blues world criticized as being too commercial. Despite this, the song was a huge success in both the R&B and Pop charts in America and won Washington a Grammy Award.

By 1962, however, Washington’s record sales were falling, and despite a move to Roulette Records, she never again topped the charts. However, she left a strong legacy behind her, influencing artists such as Aretha Franklin and paving the way for African-American singers in the commercial popular music market. Washington’s private life was sometimes tumultuous; she was married seven times, divorced six, and battled both weight problems and addiction to diet pills all her life. She died at the age of 39 on December 14, 1963 in Chicago due to an accidental overdose of prescription sleeping pills. Washington is interred at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.