Anita Baker

Detroit

Anita Baker was born in Toledo, Ohio, on 26 January 1958 and raised in Detroit. By sixteen she was singing R&B in the city's nightclubs, and after one performance the bandleader David Washington gave her a card to audition for the funk band Chapter 8. Michael J. Powell, who started the band in 1974, was a founder alongside Washington, and Baker sang lead on its self-titled 1979 album for Ariola. When Ariola was bought out by Arista, Chapter 8 was dropped. Baker went back to Detroit and worked as a waitress and a receptionist until 1982, when Otis Smith, a former Ariola associate, persuaded her to go solo on his Beverly Glen label.

The Songstress came out in May 1983. Its single Angel reached number five on the R&B chart, and Elektra later bought the rights and reissued the album.

Rapture

Baker signed with Elektra in 1985, on terms that let her keep creative control and produce her own music. Rapture was released on 20 March 1986. She chose her old Chapter 8 colleague Powell, who produced seven of its eight tracks, and she served as executive producer. The BBC's Daryl Easlea wrote that Baker had wanted to make a jazz album and Powell a soul one, and that the tension ended in a successful compromise. She paid for recording costs beyond Elektra's budget herself, and the album was made in a couple of months at Yamaha R&D Studio in Glendale, California.

Sales were slow at first, and Watch Your Step was a moderate soul hit. Sweet Love reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 in Britain. Caught Up in the Rapture followed, and the album took in a cover of Mystery, a song by Rod Temperton that The Manhattan Transfer had recorded. Rapture reached number 11 on the Billboard 200 and number 13 in the United Kingdom, won two Grammys at the 1987 ceremony, and has sold over eight million copies worldwide, five million of them in the United States. In February 1987 Baker told the writer David Nathan she had expected a gold album, not a platinum one. She toured behind it on her first headlining tour, the Rapture Tour, through 1986 and 1987.

Giving You the Best

The follow-up, Giving You the Best That I Got, appeared in October 1988 and reached number one on the Billboard 200. Its title song, Giving You the Best That I Got, reached number three on the Hot 100 and topped the R&B and adult contemporary charts. She spent three months on tour with Luther Vandross. Compositions followed in 1990 with Baker more involved in the writing and production and more jazz in the mix. It was her last album with Powell, and after the touring ended in 1991 she took a break.

Rhythm of Love (1994) was not produced by Powell, and its single I Apologize won her an eighth Grammy. In 1996 she moved to Atlantic, which let her go in November 2001 without releasing anything of hers. She signed with Blue Note in March 2004, and its My Everything reached number four on the Billboard 200 that September.

Standing

Baker confirmed her retirement in January 2017 and came out of it in 2018. In September 2021 she announced that a dispute with Elektra over the rights to her master recordings had been settled and that she owned her masters. Rolling Stone placed her at number 92 on its 2023 list of the 200 greatest singers of all time. It ranked Rapture number 36 among the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s in 1989 and number 404 on its 2020 list of 500 greatest albums. CBC Music's Amanda Parris called Rapture one of the milestones of the quiet storm subgenre, a style of smooth, romantic R&B that took its name from a Smokey Robinson album. Mary J. Blige recalled telling Baker at the 2007 Grammys how much she meant to her, and Baker answering that she was glad Blige had picked up the ball where she left off.