WHAT A DIFF'RENCE A DAY MAKES - Dinah Washington

YEAR: 1959

LABEL: Mercury/Verve

TRACK LISTING: I Remember You, I Thought About You, That's All There Is To That, I Won't Cry Anymore, I'm Thru With Love, Cry Me A River, What A Diff'rence A Day Made, Nothing in the World, Manhattan, Time After Time, It's Magic, A Sunday Kind of Love

BONUS TRACKS: Time After Time (First Version), Come On Home, It Could Happen To You, Studio Dialogue

IMPRESSIONS: Dinah Washington is on my Mount Rushmore of vocalists along with Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. "Here's the New Dinah Washington!" That's what the original 1959 liner notes to this album said. And that's kinda true since this is definitely more of a pop album and it resulted in tons of radio play as well as a Grammy for the NOT title track -- you'll notice the song is called "What A Diff'rence A Day Made" while the album title uses the word "Makes". Any road, this album features rather sweet strings a la the albums Nat King Cole or Ray Charles would've been turning out. However, Dinah's "tart tone" (as nicely referred to by itunes concerning her voice) manages to cut through the slightly saccharine strings and maintain the singing quality and emotional truth for which Dinah was renowned. Along with the epoch-making Grammy winning song, Dinah's "I Remember You" is probably my favourite rendition by ANYBODY of that standard. Another really nice touch from the 2000 Verve extended cd release, the final track on the cd features studio dialogue which ends just before the first track "I Remember You" begins; so if you set up your cd player so that the album starts over with track one when it reaches the end of the cd, you get a seemless segue right back into the album. Totally circular, babe!

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: I Remember You, I Thought About You, That's All There Is To That, I Won't Cry Anymore, What A Diff'rence A Day Made, Manhattan, Time After Time, A Sunday Kind of Love, Time After Time (First Version), Come On Home, It Could Happen To You, Studio Dialogue

FACT SHEET: WHAT A DIFF'RENCE A DAY MAKES is Dinah Washington's 14th album. The album was arranged by Belford Henricks. The song "What A Diff'rence A Day Made" won the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording.