Dinah Washington

Born August 29, 1924, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Dinah Washington (August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was a blues, R&B and jazz singer. Despite dying at the early age of 39, Washington became one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. She is a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

Washington was born Ruth Lee Jones in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Her family moved to Chicago while she was still a child. As a child in Chicago she played piano and directed her church choir. Her penetrating voice, excellent timing and crystal-clear enunciation added her own distinctive style to every piece she performed. While making extraordinary recordings in jazz, blues, R&B and light pop contexts, Washington refused to record gospel music despite her obvious talent in singing it. She believed it wrong to mix the secular and the spiritual, and after she had entered the nonreligious professional music world she refused to include gospel in her repertoire.

In 1943, she began recording for Keynote Records and released the 12-bar blues "Evil Gal Blues," her first hit. She then switched to her only other label, Chicago-based Mercury Records and from 1948 to 1955, she had numerous hits on the R&B charts. With "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" in 1959, Washington won a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Performance. The song was her first top-10 hit in the Pop charts, reaching #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, although most of her releases had reached the R & B Top Ten. Along with a string of other hits, she followed this with a new version of the 1952 hit for Nat "King" Cole, "Unforgettable," which also sold well, reaching #17 Pop.

In 1960, she teamed up with another successful Mercury artist, Brook Benton, for two back-to-back top-10 hit duets: "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)" (U.S. #5) and "A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall In Love)" (U.S. #7). Dinah scored a third R&B chart-topper the same year when her version of "This Bitter Earth" went all the way, also reaching #24 in the Hot 100. Her last major hit was "September In The Rain," which reached #23 in the U.S., #35 in the U.K., and #5 in the U.S. R&B chart. She died, aged 39, from an accidental overdose of prescription diet pills mixed with alcohol. Washington, who was 5'2" tall and had fought weight problems for most of her life, was dieting to lose weight before a New Year's Eve party.