Thursday music corner: Jazz vocalist Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones in Alabama in 1924, moved to Chicago as a child and won talent shows in her teenage years. Playing the same regular Chicago club gig as Billie Holiday, she took on a more distinctive stage name suggested by the club owner, and was headhunted by Lionel Hampton for his band. Recording from the mid-1940s, Washington had chart hits from 1944 and her public acclaim grew through the 1950s. She released dozens of solo albums, and five of her singles topped the US R&B charts: Am I Asking Too Much (1948), Baby Get Lost (1949), Baby (You've Got What It Takes) and A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around And Fall In Love) (both with Brook Benton, 1960), and This Bitter Earth (1960). She died in in Detroit in 1963, aged 39.
What a Diff'rence a Day Makes was written in 1934 by Mexican songwriter María Grever, and an English version was released in the same year by both Harry Roy & his Orchestra, and the Dorsey Brothers featuring Bob Crosby (younger brother of Bing). Washington's 1959 version appeared as the title track on her tenth studio album. The single won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
Dinah Washington - What a Diff'rence a Day Makes (1959)
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