Dinah Washington was the Queen of the Jukebox -- a voice that could sing blues, jazz, pop, r&b, and whatever else she felt like, because categories were for people with less range. Ruth Lee Jones from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, started singing gospel in Chicago churches and ended up one of the most versatile vocalists of the 20th century.
She recorded with Quincy Jones, Cannonball Adderley, Clifford Brown -- the jazz elite knew she was one of them, even when she was singing pop. What a Difference a Day Makes won a Grammy in 1959. She married eight times. She lived fast, spent freely, and drank like the night was borrowed. A voice that could be husky and intimate on a ballad and then belt the blues with enough force to reach the back row.
At 39, an accidental mix of diet pills and alcohol stopped her heart. The voice -- that shape-shifting, genre-defying instrument -- never stopped resonating. Put on This Bitter Earth. You'll understand. The Queen of the Jukebox still rules.
Dinah Washington -- Queen of the Jukebox. What a Difference a Day Makes. Eight marriages. The voice could do anything. Died at 39.