Dinah Washington
Just as my favorite movies and television shows were “yesterday,” my favorite music and musicians were “yesterday,” as well. Why is it the best of so many things – especially in the world of entertainment – seem to have been from the past?
I can’t answer that question – at least not without spending a great deal of time on it and, frankly, I’d rather just listen to Dinah Washington on repeat and give my braincells a break.
in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. When she was a young girl, she moved with her family to Chicago. She began singing publicly in the 1940s and took on the name that she would make famous.
By 1959 she had earned a Grammy for her beautiful version of the song “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes.”
Tragically, the legendary singer led a tumultuous life, with a few too many demons for one lady to manage. She suffered from insomnia as well as fluctuating weight problems that I’m sure (given that she was in the entertainment business) was a great burden on her. A mixture of pills she was taking in 1963 (for both insomnia and weight) caused her death, which was ruled an accident.
The “Queen of the Blues” was only 39.
Below is her beautiful… haunting, even… performance of September in the Rain.