Born Ruth Jones in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in August 1924, was a blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been called as "The Queen of the Blues".
Changing her stage name to Dinah Washington, she joined Lionel Hampton band in 1943. She stayed with Hampton's band until 1946 and signed for Mercury Records as a solo singer. Her first record for Mercury, a version of Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin'", was a hit, starting a long string of success.
Between 1948 and 1955, she had 27 R&B top ten hits, making her one of the most popular and successful singers of the period.
Her hit recordings included blues, standards, novelties and pop covers. At the same time as her biggest popular success, she also recorded sessions with many leading jazz musicians, notably Clifford Brown on the 1954 live album Dinah Jams, and also recorded with Cannonball Adderley, Clark Terry, and Ben Webster.
In 1959, she had her first top ten pop hit, with a version of "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes", which made # 4 on the US pop chart.
An unintentional but lethal combination of alcohol and pills forever stilled Dinah Washington’s magnificent voice in Detroit on December 14, 1963. She was only thirty-nine.
"Embraceable You" is a popular song, with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The song was originally written in 1928 for an unpublished operetta named East is West.
It was eventually published in 1930 and included in the Broadway musical Girl Crazy. where it was performed by Ginger Rogers in a song and dance routine choreographed by Fred Astaire. This cover from Dinah was recorded in 1946.
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