Track Listing

1. Evil Gal Blues
2. Blow Top Blues
3. West Side Baby
4. Long John Blues
5. Baby Get Lost
6. Trouble in Mind
7. Cold, Cold Heart
8. TV Is the Thing This Year
9. I'll Remember April
10. Teach Me Tonight
11. I Just Couldn't Stand It No More
12. I Could Write a Book
13. Blue Gardenia
14. What a Diff'rence a Day Made
15. Unforgettable
16. Baby (You've Got What It Takes)
17. This Bitter Earth
18. Mad About the Boy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73915 in Music
• Released on: 2000-06-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
From the late 1940s until her death in 1963, Dinah Washington was a dominant presence among the women who sang R&B, with an unequalled emotional power and a voice that mingled highs and lows, rough and smooth, like raw silk. While she often sang R&B, though, her mastery of the idiom drew on her ability to sing all its constituent parts and musical relations--blues, jazz, and pop. This hourlong survey of her Mercury recordings covers all the bases that she touched in her career. Beginning with a 1947 session with backing from Lionel Hampton, Washington's Finest Hour extends to the pop sessions that brought her greater successes more than a decade later, both alone and with fellow singer Brook Benton. Washington the blues singer is equally effective on the bawdy "Long John Blues" and the traditional lament "Trouble in Mind," while her jazz-rooted mastery of standards is apparent on such songs as "I'll Remember April" and the profound "Blue Gardenia." She could even cover a country song like Hank Williams's "Cold, Cold Heart" or the light pop of "Teach Me Tonight" and make it convincingly her own, while her version of "Unforgettable" can stand comparison with Nat "King" Cole's. This is a terrific introduction to one of the essential singers, whatever genre claims her. --Stuart Broomer

Customer Reviews

A Fine 60 Minutes with Dinah
Compiling a "Best of" CD of Dinah Washington is always difficult because she straddled so many different styles so well. This is a very good sampler and intro to what made her such a great artist. The CD spans just about the entirety of Dinah's career taking songs that range from her beginnings ("Evil Gal Blues") and all the way to her last days at Mercury ("Mad About the Boy") In between you get a good idea how Dinah evolved as a singer thru the years. Her raw and salty style is very much in evidence from her early blues hits ("Trouble in Mind" "Blow Top Blues"). The blues numbers are my favorites on this CD. Dinah really knew how to deliver these songs with just the right amount of punch and power. She became more drawn to pop singing thru the years and her style mellowed somewhat towards the latter part of her career as shown by her breakout pop hits in the late '50s ("What A Difference..." "Unforgettable"). I miss the raw power as she became more refined as a singer in attempting to crossover onto the white charts and gain a larger audience. Who could blame her, but she really shone in blues and R&B. Maybe she was trying to become the next Patti Page or Doris Day. This CD has a few extra tracks compared to other compilations of Dinah since it has to hit that 60-minute mark. Still, it's worth getting this for the blues numbers alone. Make an appointment with Dinah for an hour. It's worth it.

Versatility + Emotion = Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington was one of the most versatile singers of her era, and this collection proves it. On this disc, she shows us she is in her element dealing with such down home blues tunes as "West Side Baby" and "Long John Blues". However, she virtually does a 180 degree turn when she interprets such 50's standards as "Teach Me Tonight" and "I Could Write a Book" as if they were written just for her. Throughout all of this, she maintains that same power and emotion that characterized Dinah Washington. If not the "queen" of popular song, jazz, and blues, she was certainly a lady in waiting.

What a Diff'frence a Seer Makes..... ;)
Well folks, I finally made it home alive. I went out to the mall today dressed in my best holiday Seer's clothing. Red thermalite with white powder trim. Figured I'd take advantage of last minute deals. But people kept pushing me out of the way so, exhausted, I went to sit down at the expresso shop. Before I knew it, children from the ages between 2 to 7 were alternately thrown on my lap and I heard the rapid clicking of cameras! I think they thought I was Santa!! Just because I have a fat belly and a long, flowing white beard is no reason for them to make this mistake. Is it? Anyway- before I left I picked up extra "needed" items like hair dye and diet pills. Culture shock is so hard to take these days.
In any event, I am here to review the inimitable Dinah Washington. As always, your kind Seer is always on the look out for worthy music to report. Dinah is exceptional and, perhaps, one of the greatest blues singers of the last half-century. The selections here convey her considerable diversity, not only vocally, but with the various moods of the material. Another thing I should point out that whether the accompaniment is economical or fully orchestrated- Dinah remains the focal (vocal) point always. You cannot forget who's singing. No, not for one second.
First off, she sings with precision and clarity with a je ne sais quoi teardrop inflection that makes listening to her such a satisfying experience. There is so much here that she does so well - mixes heartache and loss along with sexual innuendo that it's all a cavalcade of rich emotion. For example, her bawdy takes on "Long John Blues" and "TV is the Thing This Year" are amazingly 2 sides of the same coin. Sass and rythmn are different but with the same noble goal in mind. "Teach Me Tonight" lightly harkens to that direction- but done with more tenderness.
Loss is another subject which Dinah is a master at. We get the ballad-like torch song "Cold, Cold Heart", and then the swing-strut of "I Just Couldn't Stand It No More". This lady is good - REAL GOOD! Some more stand-outs I should mention are "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" ( a beautiful ballad in every sense), "Unforgettable" (complete with strings and angelic back-up!), and, one of Metamorpho's favorites, "Baby, You Got What It Takes" ( a swingin' pop duet with Brook Benton). In short, this c.d. offers quite alot.
These songs span roughly 20 years of her recording career (1943-1961)and by no means am I suggesting that this is all you need by this remarkable artist. However, it is a good starting point to learn the range of composition and vocals that distinguish her over and above many others. She sang in an era that produced some of the greatest jazz and blues singers we've known. And, by my estimation, I don't believe that era can, or ever, be repeated. Get Dinah soon. Add a little class and spice to your collection.
Now you must excuse me for I must get ready for the big holiday. It's being held in the dining room named after my Aunt Jezebel who was a spinster. In her honor we made it into a panic room. Totally child-resistent my friends! ;)

"May the berry from the holly never fall under your feet and trip you"-
An olde spiritual saying I just made up -
Cheers! -- your own, Metamorpho