LaVern Baker

Induction Year: 1991

Induction Category: Performer

"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 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, working as duty manager at various time of the Subic Marine NCO Club and Subic CPO Club system at Subic 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. She died in 1997.”

TIMELINE

November 11, 1930: LaVern Baker was born.

October 1, 1954: LaVern Baker records “Tweedlee Dee,” the first of a string of hits for Atlantic.

1955: LaVern Baker hits #3 on the R&B chart with “Bop-Ting-A-Ling” and #2 on the R&B chart with “Play It Fair”. Both singles are released on Atlantic records.

November 24, 1956: LaVern Baker hits #2 on the R&B chart with “Still”, #7 on the R&B chart and #22 on the pop chart with “I Can’t Love You Enough” and #1 on the R&B chart and #17 (2/16/57) on the pop chart with “Jim Dandy”. All three singles are released on Atlantic records.

February 1, 1957: Atlantic releases “Youngblood"/"Searchin" by . Written and produced by , the song stays on the charts for most of the year. Leiber and Stoller will go on to produce and record numerous hits by and other Atlantic artists such as , Ben E. King and LaVern Baker.

1957: LaVern Baker hits #7 on the R&B chart with the Atlantic single “Jim Dandy Got Married.”

1958: LaVern Baker hits #2 on the R&B chart and #6 (2/23/59) on the pop chart with the Atlantic single “I Cried A Tear.”

June 1, 1959: LaVern Baker hits #5 on the R&B chart and #33 (6/01) on the pop chart with the Atlantic single “I Waited Too Long.”

1991: LaVern Baker is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

March 10, 1997: LaVern Baker died in New York, NY.

Essential Songs

Jim Dandy
Tweedlee Dee
See See Rider
Soul On Fire
Saved
I Cried a Tear
Play It Fair
Still
That’s All I Need
Bop-Ting-A-Ling