1960
BUMBLE BEE * LAVERN BAKER * LONDON ATLANTIC 9252 * UK
She was born Delores Baker November 1929, like many of her contemporaries she began her singing career in church, in 1946, at age 17, she turned professional, singing in a Chicago night club as Little Miss Sharecropper. Her family moved from Chicago to Detroit the next year where she married Eugene Williams, she continued doing night club work and occasionally wrote and performed under the new name Deloris Williams. In 1948 she is thought to have her first recordings for Columbia, although none were released, it wasn't until 1953 after recording for various labels that she, as Lavern Baker, cut her first record Soul On Fire for Atlantic, with whom she stayed until 1965.
See also Tomorrow Night and Jim Dandy