1967
I HAD TO KNOW MY WAY AROUND * DELLA REESE * STATESIDE 2128 * UK
Della Reese, who's real name is Deloreese Patricia Early, started out singing Gospel and although she has built her career on singing Jazz, Blues, and ballads, has always maintained her Gospel associations. She had her first big hit And That Reminds Me on Jubilee records in the early 1950. Her style is very much associated with the likes of Dina Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughn. The above, issued by ABC Paramount in the US, a hard core song with trenchant lyrics, is a mixture of her familiar Bluesy Jazz style and Soul, she also cut an excellent Soul version of Who Is She And What Is She To You in the mid1970s.