Anita Baker. BET Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient 2018
Anita Baker.
BET Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient 2018What is your favourite Anita Baker song?
You better watch your step. You’ll fall and hurt yourself one day. Baby listen……..
Baker released her debut solo album, The Songstress, in 1983.[1] The album produced four singles: “No More Tears” and its B-side, “Will You Be Mine”, “Angel” and “You’re the Best Thing Yet”. “Angel” became Baker’s first top ten single, reaching number five on the R&B charts in late 1983. “You’re the Best Thing Yet” followed it in the R&B top 40 early the following year. Despite this early success, Baker later complained that she hadn’t received any royalties from the work. In addition, the label delayed work on Baker’s follow-up of The Songstress. By 1984, after two years, Baker sought to leave the label but was sued by Smith for breach of contract in 1985. After months in court debating the matter, it was concluded that Baker should be allowed to record for other labels, winning the case against Smith. Baker then signed with the Warner Music Group-associated Elektra Records label in 1985 and began working on her next album. Her Elektra contract allowed the singer to have creative control and produce her own music, something she wasn’t allowed to do at Beverly Glen. Baker used her old Chapter 8 bandmate, songwriter and producer Michael J. Powell on her first Elektra album, though label execs were initially unhappy with her choice of Powell over more established producers.[citation needed]
In March 1986, Baker released her second album, Rapture. While sales were initially slow following the release of the album’s debut single, “Watch Your Step”, Elektra released the mid-tempo ballad, “Sweet Love“, which became her first pop hit, reaching number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and also reaching the UK Top 20. The album eventually launched three further hit singles, including “Caught Up in the Rapture“, “No One in the World” and “Same Ole Love (365 Days a Year)“. Throughout 1986 and 1987, Baker promoted the album by touring, headlining her first tour, The Rapture Tour, a show from which was later released on home video as A Night of Rapture. By 1988, the album had sold over 8 million copies worldwide, 5 million of which were sold in the United States alone. The album resulted in Baker’s winning two Grammy Awards at the 1987 ceremony. In 1987, Baker collaborated with The Winans on their song, “Ain’t No Need to Worry“, which gave Baker a third Grammy, this time in the Best Soul Gospel Performance by a Duo or Group, Choir or Chorus category.
Baker’s follow-up, Giving You the Best That I Got, was released in October 1988 and immediately became a success, topping the Billboard 200 and selling 5 million copies worldwide, 3 million of which sold alone in the United States. The title track reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the R&B and adult contemporary charts, becoming her most successful charted single.[11] The follow-up, “Just Because“, reached the top 20 on the pop chart, while a third single, “Lead Me Into Love”, became a top ten R&B hit. The album resulted in three more Grammy Awards for the singer. In 1990, Baker released Compositions, which had Baker more involved in the songwriting and production process and the first in which she began incorporating more jazz elements than in previous albums. The album launched the singles “Talk to Me“, “Soul Inspiration” and “Fairy Tales“, and eventually sold over a million copies. After the end of the album’s touring and promotion schedule in 1991, Baker took a break from the business when she settled down with her husband at the time, later having two children together. Also in 1991, Elektra re-issued Baker’s first album, The Songstress, after buying rights to the album. It has sold more than 300,000 copies since its release.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Baker