Size: 161,8 + 163,6 MB
Time: 69:47 + 70:37
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2017
Styles: R&B, blues, rock & roll
Art: Full
CD 1:
1. Lots And Lots Of Love (2:25)
2. Of Course I Do (2:53)
3. You'll Be Crying (2:59)
4. Miracles (2:47)
5. I'm In A Crying Mood (2:53)
6. Mine All Mine (2:16)
7. Harbor Lights (2:22)
8. I'll Never Be Free (2:22)
9. Romance In The Dark (3:02)
10. Everybody's Somebody's Fool (2:12)
11. How Long Will It Be (2:45)
12. Fool That I Am (2:22)
13. Jim Dandy (2:12)
14. Tra La La (2:12)
15. I Can't Love You Enough (2:40)
16. Get Up, Get Up (You Sleepy Head) (2:23)
17. That's All I Need (2:34)
18. Bop-Ting-A-Ling (3:06)
19. Tweedlee Dee (3:07)
20. Still (2:24)
21. Play It Fair (2:59)
22. Tomorrow Night (3:15)
23. That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) (2:56)
24. You Set My Soul On Fire (3:04)
25. My Happiness Forever (2:48)
26. How Can You Leave A Man Like This (2:37)
Tracks 1-12 from "LaVern" (1956), tracks 13-26 from "LaVern Baker (1957).
CD 2:
1. Gimme A Pigfoot (3:10)
2. Baby Doll (3:39)
3. On Revival Day (3:15)
4. Money Blues (2:53)
5. I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle (4:06)
6. Back Water Blues (4:43)
7. Empty Bed Blues (4:54)
8. There'll Be A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight (2:44)
9. Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out (3:58)
10. After You've Gone (3:11)
11. Young Woman's Blues (2:53)
12. Preaching The Blues (2:53)
13. I Cried A Tear (2:36)
14. If You Love Me (2:41)
15. You're Teasing Me (2:17)
16. Love Me Right (1:56)
17. Dix-A-Billy (1:53)
18. So High, So Low (2:07)
19. I Waited Too Long (2:34)
20. Why Baby Why (2:28)
21. Humpty Dumpty Heart (2:35)
22. It's So Fine (2:23)
23. Whipper Snapper (2:12)
24. St. Louis Blues (2:24)
Tracks 1-12 from "Sings Bessie Smith" (1958), tracks 13-24 from "Blues Ballads" (1959).
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. /Biography by Bill Dahl, AllMusic
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. /Biography by Bill Dahl, AllMusic
Four Classic Albums (2 CD) mc
Four Classic Albums (2 CD) zippy