Sugar Pie DeSanto: After 50 Years, ‘Go Going’ StrongPosted in Articles, Arts, Audio, Media Archive, United States, Women on 2013-09-23 03:41Z by Steven |
Sugar Pie DeSanto: After 50 Years, ‘Go Going’ Strong
Fresh Air from WHYY [Philadelphia]
National Public Radio
2010-07-29
Terry Gross, Host
Ed Ward, Rock Music Commentator
Ace Records
Sugar Pie DeSanto was born in Brooklyn in October 1935, and was christened Umpeleya Marsema Balinton. Her father was Filipino, her mother African-American. Her mother had been a concert pianist, but DeSanto says her father couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. He moved the family to San Francisco when Peliya, as they called her, was 4, and soon enough, the young girl discovered dancing and singing and made a fast friend with a neighbor named Jamesetta Hawkins, who was a member of a girl gang called the Lucky 20’s.
Hawkins wound up in jail for her gang activities, and when she got out, she formed a singing group with one of Peliya’s younger sisters. Peliya looked on in envy as Hawkins was discovered by bandleader Johnny Otis and re-christened Etta James. She started entering talent contests in San Francisco, and won so often, they told her to stop entering. At another talent contest in L.A., Otis saw her again and offered to record her. He made good on his offer, and gave her a stage name, too: Little Miss Sugar Pie…
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