Videos: Back Women Cross Over

African-American women came into their own in the early 1960s as solo pop singers. Long pegged as jazz or R&B recording artists in the '50s or members of girl groups in the early '60s, African-American women began to cross over to the pop charts thanks largely to exposure on major record labels, runs at supper clubs and appearances on TV variety shows. Here are a bunch of newly uploaded videos I found of leading African-American female vocalists between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s:

Here's Dinah Washington on the West Coast's TV show Bandstand Revue in 1955...



Here's Lena Horne on The Frank Sinatra Timex Show in 1960...



Here's Dionne Warwick in Cannes in 1964...



Here's Aretha Franklin in 1964...



Here's Britain's Shirley Bassey in 1965...



And here's Nancy Wilson in TV's I Spy in 1966...