The Bells for Baby Washington’s Birthday
🎂Baby Washington, (aka Justine Washington) born November 13, 1940 in Bamberg, South Carolina — but was raised in Harlem, New York. She is one of the Rock & Roll superstars performing during the 1960s and 1970s. Sixteen of her recordings garnered a place on the Billboard Magazine‘s Top 100 “R&B” chart. Her memorable 1960s recordings “The Time” and “That’s How Heartaches Are Made” and The Bells landed in the Top 40 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
A little history from an Old Schooler: I remember, from my teen years in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, listening to Baby Washington’s hit singles at our neighborhood candy store (Thompkins Avenue, between Gates Avenue and Quincey Street). For 5 cents, 45 rpm records could be played on a Jukebox. It’s also interesting and important to remember there existed separate radio stations and hit lists for African-American Rock & Rollers or R&B performers. Mainstream music stations played little or no R&B music. Motown was the game changer with the Supremes. R&B music, at that time, was primarily, in New York City, played on stations WWRL, WLIB and WBLS — Frankie Crocker, Vaughn Harper & Kenny “Spider” Webb were the popular DJs on this station.
For you old Schoolers, go ahead and remember the good old days — sing The Bells along Baby Washington.
Baby Washington is still performing in the eastern United States and on cruise ships.
Urko Dorronsoro, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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