Yvonne Baker obit

Music Artist Yvonne Baker Has Died

She was not on the list.

It was with the Cavaliers, a vocal group in which she was the only female voice, that Yvonne Mills made a name for herself in the mid-1950s on the Philadelphia R&B scene. Signed by Atco and renamed the Sensations, the ensemble had a few hits (a version of the standard Yes sir that's my baby, Please Mr. disc jockey). After a short hiatus at the end of the decade, the time it took for Yvonne Mills to become Yvonne Baker, the group was back in 1961, this time with Argo and quickly found success with Music, music, music and then Let me in, a composition by Baker that allowed the Sensations to reach number two on the R&B chart and number four on the Hot 100. Unable to repeat the feat, the band broke up and Baker embarked on a solo career that saw her record a few singles until the end of the decade (for Jamie and Modern in particular), some of which gained popularity on the northern soul scene.

The Sensations were an American doo-wop group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The group formed in 1954 under the name the Cavaliers, soon after changing to the Sensations. The group scored two hits on the US R&B chart in 1956 with the Atco Records singles "Yes Sir That's My Baby" (#15) and "Please Mr. Disc Jockey" (#13). By 1957 they were managed by Kae Williams. The group disbanded soon afterwards, and lead singer Yvonne Mills married and started a family.

In 1961, bass singer Alphonso Howell persuaded Yvonne Mills Baker that the group should re-form, and they won a contract with Chess Records subsidiary label Argo. They soon had a hit with a version of "Music, Music, Music", which reached #12 on the R&B chart and #54 on the Billboard Hot 100. A few months later, they released the tune "Let Me In". It was their biggest success, peaking at #2 R&B and #4 on the Hot 100. However, later releases were less successful and the group broke up.

Yvonne Baker later started a solo career, recording a number of tracks that achieved cult status among Northern soul fans, most notably "You Didn’t Say a Word" on Parkway Records in 1966.

Alphonso Howell died on May 7, 1998, at the age of 61. Sam Armstrong died on July 11, 2017. Yvonne Mills Baker died on May 3, 2020.