DINAH THE GREAT

In her piece on Yvette Freeman’s salute to the great Dinah Washington (“What a Difference a Play Makes,” June 16), Susan King refers to Washington as “the first female African American artist to cross over from rhythm & blues to the all-white pop charts with 1959’s ‘What a Difference a Day Makes.’ ” There are a few errors in that statement.

The pop charts weren’t all-white in the late ‘50s; dozens of black artists made the Top 40. Ruth Brown and LaVern Baker, the true queens of R&B;, shared several pop hits between them, and Baker’s “I Cried a Tear” entered the Top 10 months before Washington got there.

Washington’s first major crossover single, “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” (note the contraction), with its full orchestra and chorus, could hardly be called R&B.; She thought of herself as a blues- or jazz-flavored pop singer. She had made her first visit to Billboard’s pop chart in 1950 with “I Wanna Be Loved” (No. 22), then returned four years later with “Teach Me Tonight” (No. 23)--both pure pop ballads sung in Washington’s inimitable bluesy style.

JIM DAWSON

Hollywood