Black Music Spotlight: Celebrating Pioneer Anita Baker

As with every Black Music Month, UB is presenting artist spotlight features, to celebrate the legends!

Legendary Anita Baker is a multiple Grammy Award winner, composer, producer, mother and all-around superstar.

Anita Baker emerged in the 1980’s as one of the leading artists in the ‘quiet storm’ genre, distinguished by understated dynamics and relaxed tempos and rhythms.

As one of its most prominent female artists of the past four decades, her recordings have encompassed slow-groove contemporary R&B, soul, and smooth jazz while earning her a total of eight Grammy Awards, along with four platinum albums and two gold albums.

Anita Denise Baker was born on January 26th, 1958, in Toledo, Ohio. At the age of two, she abandoned by her mother and was placed in the care of her maternal grandparents in Detroit, Michigan.

Anita never knew her father and only saw her mother sporadically while living in the Motor City.

Anita Baker grew up in Detroit at the same time that Motown emerged as the leading black-owned record company in the world and the airwaves were filled with the latest hits of an impressive roster of female artists including The Supremes, Mary Wells, Martha & The Vandellas, The Marvelettes, and Brenda Holloway.

Like most of Motown’s stars, Anita’s earliest musical experience was singing in church as part of a gospel choir at her Baptist church.

The gospel music she heard and performed, at the age of twelve, was not only a source of great enjoyment but also an important influence on her singing career.

After her grandparents passed away when she was thirteen, Anita Baker was cared for by the members of her Baptist congregation.

As she grew into her teenage years, Anita Baker was exposed to a diverse range of music including jazz stylists like Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughn, and Diana Ross’ recordings of Billie Holiday songs from the motion picture “Lady Sings The Blues.”

Anita Baker’s mesmerizing voice first attracted national attention in 1975. That’s when then 17-year-old joined the Motor City group Chapter 8.

Formed by Derek Dirckson, Michael J. Powell and Detroit bandleader David Washington, and one of the city’s most popular funk bands.

Following an audition that included her stellar readings of the gospel classic “His Eye Is On The Sparrow” and the Rufus funk hit, “Smokin’ Room”, she joined the band.

After touring relentlessly for three years, Chapter 8 secured a national recording deal with the Ariola label in 1979.

The group recorded its self-titled debut, “Chapter 8” in 1979. Although the album was only a modest hit, peaking at #132, three singles were released from the album.

Unfortunately for Chapter 8, Ariola was bought out by Arista Records late in 1979. The Arista staff took over the label’s roster and, despite their chart successes, decided to drop Chapter 8 in 1980; somehow convinced that the group’s lead singer (Anita Baker) lacked “star potential.” Can you image? The nerve!

Discouraged, Anita Baker returned to Detroit in 1980 where she worked as a waitress before finding an administrative job at a Detroit law firm.

Two years later she was contacted by Otis Smith, a former associate at Ariola, who offered her a shot a solo career on his Beverly Glen label in Los Angeles, California.

After some persuasion by Smith, Anita Baker signed with the label in 1983 and recorded her first solo album, “The Songstress”, that same year. The album reached #12 on the R&B chart and even managed to crossover Billboard’s Pop Album chart.

The first single, “No More Tears”, a big ballad that showcased her beautiful, deep vocal, was a minor R&B hit at #49; but the next single, the jazzy and mellow “Angel” became her first big smash on urban radio, reaching #5, and created a great deal of buzz for the then unknown singer and her new record label.

Co-written by Anita Baker, the ballad revealed the singer’s talent for penning insightful lyrics about romance and relationships.

As a result, Beverly Glen released two more charting singles from “The Songstrees”, “You’re The Best Thing Yet” and “Feel The Need.”

Despite this early success, there were problems. Anita Baker complained that she hadn’t received any royalties from either the album or the singles. In addition, Beverly Glen delayed work on what was to be her follow-up album, resulting in Anita Baker’s desire to leave the label.

Otis Smith sued her in 1985 for breach of contract; but after the case went to court, Miss Anita Baker won the decision, allowing her to record for other labels.

She eventually signed with Elektra Records, part of the massive Warner Music Group, and began work on her second album. Her Elektra contract allowed her creative control, enabling Anita Baker to produce her own music.

Anita Baker chose her old Chapter 8 band mate Michael J. Powell to produce her first Elektra album, even though label executives were less than pleased with her choice of him over more established producers.

“Rapture” was released in March 1986. The first single, “Watch Your Step” was an minor R&B hit at #23, but things really took off with the album’s second, “Sweet Love.”

It became her first Pop hit, peaking at #8 on Billboard’s Hot 100, as well as charting overseas in England, Ireland, The Netherlands, Canada, and Australia.

The album also launched three more hit singles: “Caught Up In The Rapture”, “No One In The World”, and “Same Ole Love (365 Days A Year).”

Scenes for the video that Anita Baker filmed in 1987 for “Same Ole Love” was shot at various locations in Detroit including Baker’s Keyboard Lounge (no relation) on Livernois Street in Detroit.

Throughout 1986 and 1987, Anita Baker promoted the “Rapture” album with her first solo tour, “A Night Of Rapture.”

The tour, in turn, produced the VHS (at the time) concert film also titled “A Night Of Rapture.”

By 1988, the album had sold over eight million copies worldwide, with five million of those sold in the U.S.

With Anita Baker as executive producer, the project captured the talent of the star and enraptured a cross-section of listeners.

Anita brought creative concepts to lead producer Michael Powell, and worked with him to convert the ideas to product. Besides overseeing the project, Anita co-wrote three of the songs on the album, “Sweet Love,” “Caught Up in the Rapture,” and the popular album track, “You Bring Me Joy.”

She won her first two Grammy Awards in 1987. The “Rapture” album earned her Best R&B Female Vocal Performance, and “Sweet Love” won as Best Rhythm & Blues Song.

Anita Baker followed those up in 1988 by going back to her roots and winning a Grammy in the Best Gospel Performance by a Duo, Group, Choir or Chorus category for her collaboration with The Winans on their song, “Ain’t No Need To Worry.”

After the mega-success of “Rapture,” many artists would rush back into the studio to record a follow-up.

Not Anita. “The record company gave me the deadline a year-and-a-half prior to the project, so the fact that I was late and had added pressure was my own fault. After being on the road for almost two years with the Rapture tour, I was happy to be home. I kept procrastinating. We were supposed to deliver this album in July. But we didn’t deliver until September 15. I wish that I could say that I was waiting until the time was right. but I’d be lying! I didn’t have what I wanted … but had I started earlier, it would have been a different case. Once word got out that I was in the studio, material flooded in,” Anita explained to Billboard.

Anita knew that the music industry and her fans expected great things from her next album. “People would see me on the street and say, ‘Okay Anita, we’re waiting for that album. ‘Hope it’s as good as Rapture. They were supportive, but never realized that they were adding pressure to that insecurity that is in all of us,” she commented.

To select the songs, Anita mulled over 200 works — rejecting most of them. It was then that she realized she had to gain a fresh approach. “I wanted to find songs that felt like ‘Watch Your Step’ or ‘You Bring Me Joy’. But you can’t find those type of songs every time you do an album. So I started getting away from the Rapture album and letting the merits of the new material come through.”

Although 15 songs eventually made it to cut, only eight made it to the album. Those eight, optimistic love songs reflecting a woman in love, differ from the majority of material on her last two albums.

“There wasn’t a conscious decision as to whether I was going to do a majority of positive as opposed to negative songs. There were some that spoke of long, lost love but they just didn’t hit me. I’m in a positive space. I’ve been engaged for 2 1/2 years and it hasn’t dwindled. It’s become stronger. Subconsciously that had something to do with it,” Anita elaborated.

“People say artists aren’t insecure. They think, ‘How can you sell five or ten million albums, win Grammys and be insecure?’ It’s not a question of feeling insecure about your past accomplishments. Those are results you can see. But can you do it again? Can you live up to all of the adjectives we tend to lean towards; words like best, better, and number one!”

Anita remained subdued in dress and demeanor, though some would like to change that. In a time of sequins and sexy styles, Anita remained the conservative songstress.

Her home-life was something Anita insisted on. To Anita, it was the best part of her life. “The best thing is that I am able to have a successful career and have a life at the same time. I fight for that life everyday. I am determined that if I want to interact with people, I will. I go shopping, jogging by the lake, trickortreating. I know artists that sell millions of albums yet never take time to have a life and are left holding on to nothing but gold records. That’s not going to happen to me,” she stated.

“Giving You The Best That I Got”, was released in October of 1988 and was another major success, reaching the coveted #1 spot on both the Billboard Pop and R&B charts.

The album also produced two #1 R&B singles, the title track and classic ballad “Just Because.”

Both singles also crossed over to become Top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, while a third single, “Lead Me Into Love”, became a Top 10 R&B hit.

The album resulted in three more Grammy Awards for Anita. She won Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for the “Giving You The Best That I Got” album and the title track won Best Rhythm & Blues Song at the 1989 ceremony.

She won another Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for “Just Because” at the 1990 Grammy Awards.

Anita Baker released her follow-up album “Compositions,” celebrating it’s 35th Anniversary this year. Originally released on July 3rd, 1990.

“When I started thinking about doing a new album the main thing I was concerned with was, ‘How do I do something different and yet maintain my style?’ What I came up with was the idea to change the way I recorded my music,” Anita stated at the time.

Serving again as executive producer and working once more with Michael J. Powell, Anita Baker decided to record most of her vocals ‘live‘ with a rhythm section – a technique more commonly used by singers in the ’60s and the early ’70s.

“Compositions” strongly reflected her creative growth as a consummate vocalist and songwriter. “Something happens when I work ‘live,’ and I wanted to capture the same energy on the album.”

Anita was involved in writing on seven of the new album’s nine cuts – thus the album title.

“Once we decided to record this way, we had to find the musicians who could do it,” she said to Billboard.

Working with such stalwart players as Nathan East, Greg Phillinganes, and Steve Ferrone, among others, Anita Baker shared that recording “Compositions” proved to be an exhilarating experience. “I’m the kind of person who’s very methodical and focused: I like to have everything planned out when I’m recording. For me, writing songs as we were working on the album was something I’d never done be- fore-it was risky. Songs like ‘No One To Blame,’ ‘Lonely,’ and ‘Perfect Love Affair’ were written while we were recording this record. But recording the way we did with me singing while the musicians were playing gave me a confidence I never knew I had.”

Anita Baker worked closely with Powell‘s assistant, Vernon Fails, who played and wrote material for each of her two prior albums. He “gave me some piano lessons! We did preproduction arrangements for the material right here in my living room.”

Anita Baker collaborated with Powell and Fails on three songs; with the late great Gerald LeVert and Marc Gordon on “Whatever It Takes“; with writer Joel Davis, who also wrote the her duet with Howard Hewett, “When Will It Be?“; and with Fails on the infectious “No One To Blame.”

“Seven of the nine songs are single worthy,” Anita stated. “‘Lonely’ and ‘Love You To The Letter’ are the exceptions.”

Anita Baker decided early on to make “Talk To Me” the first single “because it was one of the first things we did that I really liked.” “Talk To Me” was released 35 years ago this month.

“Soul Inspiration”, and “Fairy Tales” were released as singles as well, all three songs charted in Billboard’s R&B Top 20.

Anita Baker suffered a miscarriage in 1990. She was shattered by the loss of what would have been her first child, but her grueling touring schedule gave her little time to recover.

After arriving in Chicago for a concert to promote “Compositions”, Anita Baker broke down crying at the hotel. At her ex-husband’s urging, she cancelled the rest of the tour and returned home to recuperate and to take a well-deserved break from the business.

At the 1991 Grammy Awards, Anita Baker won Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for the “Compositions” album.

Anita Baker shot a popular Coke Coca Cola commercial in 1992.

After several months Anita Baker became pregnant again, only to lose the baby in a devastating second-trimester miscarriage. Doctors had to induce labor, and she later told People magazine, “I had to deliver what I knew was going to be a stillborn baby in the hospital ward with women who were delivering healthy babies. People don’t understand how painful miscarriage can be.”

Following a home pregnancy test that read positive in the summer of 1992, Anita Baker consulted a specialist in problem pregnancies who performed a cerclage, a procedure that secures the fetus by stitching the cervix. Anita‘s first son, Walter, was born in January 1993.

Just seven months later, Anita Baker discovered she was pregnant again. Thanks to a second cerclage procedure, her second son, Edward was born in 1994.

Anita Baker finished recording her “Rhythm Of Love” album while she was pregnant with her second child.

Released that same year, it became her third #1 Billboard R&B album and peaked at #3 on the Billboard Pop chart.

The singles, “Body And Soul” and “I Apologize”, were Top 10 R&B hits.

In 1996, Anita Baker received the honor of a Hollywood Walk of Fame star, on October 13th.

Anita Baker won her eighth Grammy at the 1996 awards show for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for “I Apologize.”

The “Rhythm Of Love” album eventually sold over two million copies, and Anita Baker toured tirelessly for 11 months behind the album.

She was unhappy, however, with Elektra’s promotion of “Rhythm Of Love” and sought to be transferred to another label associated with the Warner Music Group after the tour was completed.

This led to her eventual signing with Atlantic Records in 1996.

Rather than jumping back into recording, Anita Baker took a long hiatus to take care of her two sons and did not return to the studio until 2000.

Unfortunately, the recordings that Anita Baker made during this period at her studio were ruined by random popping noises from the rented 24-track machine from the Dreamline division of Zomba, resulting in Anita Baker filing a lawsuit in federal court against the company in 2001.

Due to label restructuring, Anita Baker was let go from Atlantic in 2001 without releasing any material for the label.

In 2002, Rhino Records released “The Best Of Anita Baker.”

Anita Baker returned to live performances and in 2004 signed with Blue Note Records.

Her initial release for the label, “My Everything”, was her first collection of new material in ten years.

Despite the decade-long period, “My Everything” became her 4th #1 R&B album and was also a solid hit on the Billboard Pop chart, peaking at #3.

In late 2005, Anita Baker released the gold holiday album, “Christmas Fantasy” and won a Grammy nomination the following year for the song, “Christmas Time Is Here.”

Starting in 2007, she embarked on a successful two-year concert tour titled “An Evening with Anita Baker.”

After a long absence, Anita Baker released a cover of the Tyrese hit, “Lately” in August 2012.

“Lately” got off to a strong start, in preparing for her return, Anita Baker sought to bridge her analog background with today’s digital age. “The digital realm can take your personal expression and make it become what others want to hear from you,” Anita Baker stated during an interview at the Capitol Records. “I don’t want to be one of those artists lamenting, ‘Back in my day …’ There’s a lot to respect about current days, and walking with my contemporaries. I had to figure out how to be of the day and not lose myself.”

The song made headlines when it was played on every single hour of the hour throughout the day on Clear-Channel and urban contemporary radio, making her the first artist to make this kind of a single debut and demonstrating once again her enduring popularity with the listening public.

A Top 5 hit after only three weeks, the Underdogs-produced track debuted at #10— and was her highest-bowing single since 1994’s “Body & Soul” at #15.

The single was to be the formal introduction to her seventh studio album, “Only Forever” via Blue Note.

At the time Anita stated of it’s release; “It was just time.” Who was transitioning into the role of empty nester, when her sons headed to college. “I want to connect with my fans. They’ve been so supportive.”

The set was to include all Anita Baker penned or co-penned songs, like the romantic anthem “Unconditionally Yours,” she later teased on Twitter in 2023. The Anita Baker-penned song speaks on unconditional surrender in a relationship. “I lay down my sword, This victory is yours. I fight you no more. Baby, please remember that I love to surrender to you.”

In addition to frequent collaborator Barry Eastmond, previously on deck for 1994’s “Rhythm of Love” and 2004’s “My Everything,” Anita Baker recruited bassist and Fourplay member Nathan East as well as production duo the Underdogs.

“Only Forever” skillfully weaved new school and traditional textures, sidestepping the forced and contrived patterns that frequently hinder established artists.

Hopefully one day, the album will see the light of day.

In 2018 BET gave Anita Baker a much deserved Lifetime Achievement Award at the BET Awards.

2021 was a great year for Miss Anita Baker, she retained her masters for her Elektra recordings.

Her mantel is filled with Grammys, Soul Train, NAACP Image, Billboard and Rolling Stone Awards and she has been heralded as one of the great stylists of our time.

We celebrate Anita Baker this Black Music Month and Forever!

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