The Queen

I'm delighted to hear Dinah Washington's music featured on a commercial for Doubletree Hotels. She's singing a catchy tune called Relax, Max.

I grew up listening to Dinah Washington; she was my father's favorite female vocalist after Sarah Vaughan, and Pop often took off our Motown and Chess and Stax records to hear his music. Her impeccable diction - you could understand every word - was even better than that of Nat "King" Cole (remember how Sherman Helmsley, playing George Jefferson, used to wildly exaggerate his enunciation in an imitation of Cole?), and her singing voice sounded like a natural extension of her speaking voice. She made it look and sound so easy.

The full-figured Ms. Washington was reportedly dieting for a New Year's Party when she took sleeping pills on an empty stomach (possibly washing them down with a glass of bourbon), which ended her life on December 14, 1963. She was just 39 years old.

She could be flamboyant and outrageous. At the time of her death she was married to her eighth husband. She took her bestowed nickname "Queen of the Blues" seriously, so much that she once declared to a London audience, "There's only one earth, one sky, and one queen. Queen Elizabeth is an impostor." The audience applauded wildly.

Of course, just a few years after Dinah's death, Aretha Franklin was decreed to be the Queen of Soul. (Aretha, apparently miffed by an introduction of Tina Turner as "The Queen" at this year's Grammys, has given herself a new title, the Empress of Music, borrowing from Bessie Smith, who was the "Empress of the Blues.") My father agreed with Dinah . . . that there was only one queen.

Now, whenever I see a Doubletree Hotel, I'll think of that song first, and of those great cookies they make second.

I'll be back to the blog next week. Have a great weekend, and as Dinah would say, stay cool, fool.