Anna King (December 9, 1937 – October 21, 2002) was an American soul and gospel singer who performed with both James Brown and Duke Ellington.
She was born Anna Dolores Williams in Philadelphia. Influenced by her minister grandmother, Anna started singing in church from the age of six years. When she was twelve she joined her first gospel group, Youth For Christ. Through her teens and early twenties she was involved with various gospel assemblies. It was when she was singing with the group, the True Light Gospel Singers, that Luther Dixon, Scepter-Wand records, who was scouting for a female singer to record, spotted her talent, and offered her a contract. It took a lot of persuading by Dixon for Anna to move over to secular singing, which in turn lead to her first recording and release in April 1961, 'In Between Tears' / 'So In Love With You', on Malibu 1020, distributed by Scepter-Wand.
On the strength of this first release she joined various Scepter-Wand package tours, which featured the likes of Chuck Jackson, and the Shirelles. Returning to the studio in 1962 she cut for Luther Dixon's Ludix label, 'You Don't Love Me Anymore' / 'The Big Change'. In 1963, she auditioned successfully to replace Tammy Montgomery (later known as Tammi Terrell) in James Brown's touring revue. As well as touring with Brown, she signed as a solo singer to Smash Records, and recorded a song written and produced by Brown, "If Somebody Told You", which reached number 67 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 10 on Cash Box's R&B chart, at the start of 1964.
Her next two singles were recorded at Bell Studios New York in January 1964. 'Baby Baby Baby', a duet with Bobby Byrd, which became an R&B smash, and the soul classic which rose to number 52 on the pop chart later that year. 'Make Up Your Mind', b/w 'If You Don't Think', was to be her last chart appearance. Following on from this was the highly acclaimed James Brown produced album, Back To Soul. Anna left the James Brown revue in late 1964 to go her own way, although still contracted to him, releasing just the two more Smash singles 'Come On Home'/'Sittin' In The Dark' and 'That's When I Cry' / 'Tennessee Waltz'.
Anna with Bobby Byrd
After releasing two more singles, King left the James Brown revue in late 1964, and recorded "Mama's Got a Bag of Her Own", an answer record to Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag". Released on the End label, it was written and produced by Ronald Moseley and Robert Bateman, but was not a hit and was to be her last secular recording. She then formed a band with another former member of Brown's revue, Sam Lathan, and toured for a year with other soul musicians, before retiring from the secular music business. However, in about 1966, she was contacted by Duke Ellington, who recruited her to sing at his concerts of sacred music.
After an eighteen month stint with Ellington, she joined up with the mighty gospel group the Brockington Choral Ensemble, and the group’s various out takes, where she went on to record, for amongst many labels, Arctic and Hob. Around 1976 Anna, after becoming a minister, basically gave up singing completely, apart from the odd performance, as God’s work, and preaching engagements became a full time occupation. She was still ministering up until her death, in Philadelphia on 21 October 2002, aged 64.
(Edited from Wikipedia & Tales From The Woods)