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LaVern Baker

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Wikimp3 information about the music of LaVern Baker. On our website we have 70 albums and 70 collections of artist LaVern Baker. You can find useful information and download songs of this artist. We also know that LaVern Baker represents Pop genres.

Biography

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LaVern Baker was one of the sexiest divas gracing the mid-'50s rock & roll circuit, boasting a brashly seductive vocal delivery tailor-made for belting the catchy novelties "Tweedlee Dee," "Bop-Ting-a-Ling," and "Tra La La" for Atlantic Records during rock's first wave of prominence.

Born Delores Williams, she was singing at the Club DeLisa on Chicago's south side at age 17, decked out in raggedy attire and billed as "Little Miss Sharecropper" (the same handle that she made her recording debut under for RCA Victor with Eddie "Sugarman" Penigar's band in 1949). She changed her name briefly to Bea Baker when recording for OKeh in 1951 with Maurice King's Wolverines, then settled on the first name of LaVern when she joined Todd Rhodes' band as featured vocalist in 1952 (she fronted Rhodes' aggregation on the impassioned ballad "Trying" for Cincinnati's King Records).

LaVern signed with Atlantic as a solo in 1953, debuting with the incendiary "Soul on Fire." The coy, Latin-tempo "Tweedlee Dee" was a smash in 1955 on both the R&B and pop charts, although her impact on the latter was blunted when squeaky-clean Georgia Gibbs covered it for Mercury. An infuriated Baker filed suit over the whitewashing, but she lost. By that time, though, her star had ascended: Baker's "Bop-Ting-A-Ling," "Play It Fair," "Still," and the rocking "Jim Dandy" all vaulted into the R&B Top Ten over the next couple of years.

Baker's statuesque figure and charismatic persona made her a natural for TV and movies. She co-starred on the historic R&B revue segment on Ed Sullivan's TV program in November of 1955 and did memorable numbers in Alan Freed's rock movies Rock, Rock, Rock and Mr. Rock & Roll. Her Atlantic records remained popular throughout the decade: she hit big in 1958 with the ballad "I Cried a Tear," adopted a pseudo-sanctified bellow for the rousing Leiber & Stoller-penned gospel sendup "Saved" in 1960, and cut a Bessie Smith tribute album before leaving Atlantic in 1964. A brief stop at Brunswick Records (where she did a sassy duet with Jackie Wilson, "Think Twice") preceded a late-'60s jaunt to entertain the troops in Vietnam. She became seriously ill after the trip and was hospitalized, eventually settling far out of the limelight in the Philippines. She remained there for 22 years, running an NCO club on Subic Bay for the U.S. government.

Finally, in 1988, Baker returned stateside to star in Atlantic's 40th anniversary bash at New York's Madison Square Garden. That led to a soundtrack appearance in the film Dick Tracy, a starring role in the Broadway musical Black & Blue (replacing her ex-Atlantic labelmate Ruth Brown), a nice comeback disc for DRG (Woke Up This Mornin'), and a memorable appearance at the Chicago Blues Festival. Baker died on March 10, 1997.

Title: Barber

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Carousel

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Chirping Again

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Strike A New Path

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Game Of Marbles

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Fresh As Dew

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Flowering Time

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Share My Heart

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Live Through This

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Lonely Sounds

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: That Sounds Good

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Early Bloomers

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Guitar Town Music

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Keep In Sight

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Turn On The Knobs

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Mystic Moments

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Wonderful World

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Litter And Glitter

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Wallflower

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: All The Best

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Black Hair

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: If You Love Me

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues, Jazz

Title: Light Branched

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Above The Clouds

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Hear And Feel

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Quiescent Point

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Mysterious Stories

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Happy Reunion

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Enjoy Your Time

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Time Out Music

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Baby Get Lost

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Hip Hop/R&B

Title: Listen This Music

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: I Cried A Tear

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Rock

Title: In The Wild West

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Unusual Sounds

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Blue Night

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Flapping Wings

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Slow Motion

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Substitute

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Blues

Title: Follow Me

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Happy Sounds

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Blues

Title: Tweedle Dee

Artist: LaVern Baker

Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Soul, Rock

Collections

Title: Bawdy Burlesque

Genre: Lounge

Title: 100 Soul Hits

Genre: Rock

Title: Voodoo Jazz & Blues

Genre: Jazz

Title: Soul On Fire

Genre: Blues

Featuring albums

Title: Gospel Highs

Artist: Various Artists

Genre: Gospel

Title: Top Hits 50s

Artist: Various Artists

Genre: Pop

Title: Soul Blues

Artist: Various Artists

Genre: Blues

Title: A Svengali Of Pop: 62

Artist: Phil Spector

Genre: Pop

Genres