45s.com -- Recording Artist Information: LaVern Baker

Date Born	November 21, 1929
Location	Chicago, Illinois
Deceased	March 10, 1997 - heart problems
Music	R& B singer
Charted Pop/Rock Hits	20
Period Active	January 15, 1955 to 1966
Biggest Hits	"I Cried A Tear," "Tweedle Dee," and "Jim Dandy."
Music List and Data	Search Music List
Notable Information	Inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame in 1991.
Other Names	Born Delores Williams
Other Web Sites

LaVern Baker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.  The following information was obtained from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

A versatile vocalist, LaVern Baker (born Delores Williams) proved capable of melding blues, jazz and R&B styles in a way that made possible the emergence of a new idiom: rock and roll. During her time at Atlantic Records (1953-62), Baker cut half a dozen singles that rose to high positions on both the pop and R&B charts, including "Tweedle Dee" and "Jim Dandy." The niece of blues singer Memphis Minnie, Baker was blessed with a powerful voice, which she put to use as a teenager singing in nightclubs under the stage name Little Miss Sharecropper. She recorded under that and other pseudonyms (including Bea Baker), finally adopting the name LaVern Baker while singing for Todd Rhodes and His Orchestra. Her recording career swung into high gear with her signing to Atlantic in 1953.

Coming at a time when jazz singing was swiftly evolving into an earthier, more down-home and emotionally fervent style known as rhythm & blues, Baker proved to be one of the key vocalists who furthered that transition. As an R&B pioneer, Baker suffered from the segregationist impulses of the larger culture by having her songs "covered" by a white singer, Georgia Gibbs, whose sanitized versions greatly outsold Baker's own. Because mainstream white pop stations were reluctant to play "race records," artists like Baker and Little Richard lost considerable airplay, sales and income from the cover syndrome. Baker, however, continued to record for Atlantic until such barriers came down, and she enjoyed considerable success, particularly on the R&B charts, all the way through her fiery 1962 recording of "See See Rider."

After leaving Atlantic, Baker continued to record and tour until 1969. She thereupon embarked on nearly two decades of exile from her U.S. homeland, running a nightclub at Subec Bay in the Philippines (where she'd wound up receiving treatment after acquiring pneumonia while entertaining the troops in Vietnam). In 1990, she was among the first eight recipients of a Career Achievement Award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation. That same year, Baker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.