Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on August 29, 1924, the "Queen of Jukeboxes" Ruth Lee Jones was born. She acquired a love for music at an early age and started to win talent contests at the age of 14, singing everything from gospel to pop in local circuits. Embarking on a solo career in 1946, Dinah worked between 1948 and 1961 and made over 400 sides with the Mercury label, recordings that reveal her diversity and popular acclaim. In 1949 she scored number one on the Billboard Charts with "Baby Get Lost." Notorious for her offstage brashness and erratic behavior, Washington spent these years struggling to maintain a successful music career while overcoming the affects of numerous marriages and sporadic crash dieting. Washington left behind a vast body of work containing powerfully moving performances and accompaniment by some the finest jazz and studio musicians of the period. Often backed by modernist jazzmen, she nevertheless remained uninfluenced by the scat stylings of bebop. Today Washington's voice accompanies commercials and film soundtracks including her songs "Blue Gardenia" and "Soft Winds." She inspired many great singers after her because of her talent to mix genres to make great crossover music. She accidentally overdosed on a mix of prescription medication at the age of 39 on December 14, 1963. She will forever be remembered as the empress of the torch song and one to help cross-over African American music.
Dinah Washington, pioneer in music.
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