I’ve never heard of Sugar Pie DeSanto before, and I’ll be surprised if anyone here has come across her music. But she deserves wider appreciation.
Born to a Filipino father and an African-American concert pianist mother, Umpeylia Marcema Balinton was given her stage name as well as her recording debut by rhythm and blues legend Johnny Otis.
He dubbed her “Little Miss Sugar Pie” in 1955, and not because she had a sweet tooth or liked to bake – but because she was so tiny. She stood just four foot eleven high (or low), wore a size three shoe and weighed 85 pounds, or six stone – but was no half-pint in terms of talent or the size of her voice.
Although typecast as a blues singer, she also takes care of business on the soul end of things and is a convincing jazz vocal stylist as well.
As if that were not enough, she was also a “hilarious” comedienne, a show-stopping dancer, and a superb songwriter whose compositions have been recorded by Fontella Bass, Billy Stewart, Little Milton, Bobby McClure, Minnie Riperton, Jesse James, the Dells and the Whispers.
Johnny Otis discovered her performing at one of the regular talent shows at the Ellis Theater in San Francisco’s Fillmore District on the night she walked away with first prize, and promptly offered her a contract to cut her first record in LA, taking her on tour with his Johnny Otis Revue.
From the late ’50s onward she performed regularly at R&B havens including the Apollo in New York, where she made such an impression on James Brown that the Godfather of Soul invited her to become part of the James Brown Revue for two years in 1959 and 1960.
In 1960, DeSanto rose to national prominence when her single I Want to Know, recorded with her husband Pee Wee Kingsley shortly before their marriage ended, reached number four on the R&B chart.
DeSanto moved to Chicago and signed with Chess Records in 1962 as a recording artist and writer. Among her recordings for Chess were Slip-in Mules (an “answer song” to High Heel Sneakers), Use What You Got, Soulful Dress (her biggest hit for Chess), and I Don’t Wanna Fuss.
She came to Europe in 1964 as part of the American Folk Blues Festival tour and her lively performances, including wild dancing and standing back flips, were widely appreciated.
In 1965, DeSanto, under the name Peylia Parham, began a new writing collaboration with Shena DeMell, penning a Top Ten hit – Do I Make Myself Clear – which DeSanto sang as a duet with Etta James, followed by another duet, In The Basement.
She eventually moved back to the Bay Area, settling in Oakland, and died in 2006 while attempting to extinguish a fire that destroyed her apartment there.