Tina Dixon was an American R&B singer, actress and comedian. She became a featured singer in swing bandleader

Jimmie Lunceford James Melvin Lunceford (June 6, 1902 – July 12, 1947) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader in the swing era. Early life Lunceford was born on a farm in the Evergreen community, west of the Tombigbee River, near Fulton, Mis ...

's band early in her career and recorded for

Excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of ...

, and King Records in the 1940s. By the 1970s, Dixon was making x-rated party records as Auntie Tina Dixon.

Life and career

Born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, Dixon began her singing career at the age of 18. Her first gig was at the Club Ballyhoo in Detroit and eventually she performed at the

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a not ...

in Harlem. In 1939, Dixon married tap dancer

Leon Collins Leon Collins (February 7, 1922 - April 16, 1985) was an American tap dancer. Collins was born Leandre Kollins in Chicago, Illinois to a father of West Indian descent. He began tap dancing at an early age, but he wanted to be a prizefighter. As ...

in Detroit. In 1942, they moved to New York City where Dixon was billed to perform with the

orchestra. Dixon helped land her husband a spot in the show when the opening act called out sick, resulting in a five-year contract for Collins. They with his band at theaters and nightclubs. She appeared at the Tic Toc Club in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

; Cafe Zanzibar in New York; Club Bali in Washington, D.C.. Dixon was managed by Harold F. Oxley ho_also_managed_Jimmie_Lunceford_and_Mabel_Scott.html" ;"title="Mabel_Scott.html" ;"title="ho also managed Jimmie Lunceford and Mabel Scott">ho also managed Jimmie Lunceford and Mabel Scott">Mabel_Scott.html" ;"title="ho also managed Jimmie Lunceford and Mabel Scott">ho also managed Jimmie Lunceford and Mabel Scott Dixon also appeared on television, made color movie shorts for Pathe, and performed at army and navy camps. In June 1945, Dixon recorded "E-Bob-O-Le-Bob" with Jimmie Lunceford for Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) Jubilee (radio program), Jubilee. AFRS recordings were made by African-American artists to showcase their music to the United States Armed Forces and allied nations; they weren't meant for commercial release. Dixon is credited as the songwriter for the record, but shortly after, singer

Helen Humes Helen Humes (June 23, 1913 – September 9, 1981) was an American singer. Humes was a teenage blues singer, a vocalist with Count Basie's band, a saucy R&B diva, and a mature interpreter of the classic popular song. Early life She was born on ...

released the song under the title "Be-Baba-Leba" (

Philo Philo of Alexandria (; grc, Φίλων, Phílōn; he, יְדִידְיָה, Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Philo's deplo ...

106). Humes is credited as the songwriter on her record which became a hit single although Dixon had been performing it on her act since 1942. Later in 1945, Dixon recorded "E-Bob-O-Le-Bob" with the Flennoy Trio. The copyright controversy was noted in ''Billboard'' (January 26, 1946), when Humes' version was hot on the chart:

Charlie Barnet Charles Daly Barnet (October 26, 1913 – September 4, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. His major recordings were "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", "In a Mizz", and "Southland Shuffle ...
has secured exclusive publishing rights for his Indigo pub outfit to the swing novelty tune.... Barnet closed deal for ''Be-Baba-Leba'' with Harold Oxley, the agent, who controlled original copyright of the tune introduced in the first place by Tina Dixon, whom Oxley manages. Dixon also made recording of tune for Excelsior label. Her side, however, came out after the Humes version for Philo. Barnet dickered with Helen Humes on tune for a while until he learned that her recorded version followed Dixon's featuring of the song in night clubs, therefore making Dixon's a prior copyright.

Dixon never achieved chart success, but she continued performing and befriending other entertainers, including comedian

Redd Foxx John Elroy Sanford (December 9, 1922 – October 11, 1991), better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Foxx gained success with his raunchy nightclub act before and during the civil rights movement. ...

. In 1975, she appeared on his hit television series ''

Sanford & Son ''Sanford and Son'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on the NBC television network from January 14, 1972, to March 25, 1977. It was based on the British sitcom ''Steptoe and Son'', which initially aired on BBC One in the United ...

.'' By then she was known as Auntie Tina Dixon and she released two raunchy comedy albums, ''Take It Out Of This!'' and ''Calling All Freaks'' on

Laff Records Laff Records was a small American independent record label specializing in comedy and party records originating on the West Coast of the United States during the 1970s. Amongst their artists were Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, LaWanda Page, George Ca ...

. Dixon had a role in the 1977 film ''Big Time''.

Discography

Singles

*1945: The Flennoy Trio – "E-Bob-O-Le-Bob" (

130) *1947: Tina Dixon & Lady Blue Allstar – "Don't You Know I Want To Love You" / "Hello Baby" (

205) *1949: Tina Dixon And Gene Nero Sextet – "Walk That Walk, Daddy-O" / "Parrot Bar Boogie" (

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

4257) *1950: Tina Dixon And Gene Nero Sextet – "Blow Mr. Be-Bop" (King 4332)

Albums

* ''Take It Out Of This!'' (

) * ''Calling All Freaks'' (Laff Records)

Album appearances

* 1985: ''Those Great Blues Girls From The 40's'' (

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

) * 2002: ''Fine Fine Baby: King's Queens – King's Blues Gals Of The '40s'' (

Westside Records Demon Music Group (DMG) is a record company owned by BBC Studios that is mainly concerned with back-catalogue rights and re-issuing recordings as compilations on physical media (CDs and vinyl) via supermarkets and specialist stores. History DM ...

)

References

External links

Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop
on Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebooks
Tina Dixon
on

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

Spontaneous Lunacy:Tina Dixon
on Spontaneous Lunacy {{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, Tina American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters American women jazz singers American jazz singers Singers from Detroit Actresses from Detroit African-American female comedians American women comedians African-American actresses American film actresses 20th-century American comedians 20th-century American actresses Aladdin Records artists King Records artists 20th-century African-American women singers Singer-songwriters from Michigan