LaVern Baker was a singer with a rich, booming and seductive voice and charismatic personality who blended jazz and R&B musical forms into Rock & Roll.
Delores Baker was born in Chicago, Illionois in 1929, in a family with show business connections. In 1946 she began singing in Chicago clubs as "Little Miss Sharecropper" and made her first recording under that name in 1949. She began singing with Todd Rhodes and his band under the name LaVerne Baker in 1952.
LaVern Baker's first hit was "Tweedle Dee" in 1955, which reach #13 on the pop charts. With her group The Gliders she then released a series of hits including "Bob-Ting-A-Ling", "Play It Fair" and "Still". Her 1956 song "Jim Dandy" reached #17 on the pop charts, followed by more hits including "I Cried A Tear", Niel Sedaka's "I Waited Too Long" and "See See Rider" in 1963. Many of her songs were covered with greater success by white artists, following the custom of the times.
LaVerne Baker also worked on TV and appeared in the films "Rock, Rock, Rock" and "Mr. Rock & Roll". In the late 1960s, after a serious illness, she settled down as entertainment director for the Marine Corps NCO nightclub at Subic Bay in the Philippines, where she stayed for almost 20 years.
Returning to the USA, she had some minor successes before retiring for good. LaVern Baker died in 1997 aged 67.
Jim Dandy Got Married
Playing The Game Of Love
LinksVh1.com bio of LaVern Baker
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