Mickey & Sylvia

Mickey & Sylvia remain identified above all with a lone pop breakthrough, the 1957 single “Love Is Strange” that peaked at number 11. In reality the pair cut numerous vigorous fusions of R&B and rock & roll throughout the middle and late 1950s. A first-call session guitarist who appeared on countless dates for Atlantic, OKeh and other labels, Mickey Baker stood among the most accomplished players of early rock & roll. Working alongside Sylvia Robinson, who had studied guitar under him, he moved beyond routine accompaniment to deliver pioneering, incisive, spare and blues-rooted leads. Their vocal interplay was animated and at times teasing or impudent, conveying enough personality to offset a relative absence of vocal heft. The sides were uneven, yet the strongest ones wove blues, Bo Diddley rhythms, calypso accents and doo-wop harmonies into a beguiling whole.

The striking guitar figures on “Love Is Strange” prompted countless emulations. Afterward the duo placed a few additional substantial records on the R&B charts. Although they kept recording until 1965, they never returned to the pop Top 20. Baker subsequently released material under his own name and built a solid career as an American session musician living in France. Robinson surprised listeners by returning in 1973 with the number-three pre-disco hit “Pillow Talk” and later co-founded the trailblazing rap label Sugar Hill.