Denise LaSalle is an American blues and R&B / Soul / Disco singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born 16 July 1939 in LeFlore County, Mississippi, USA. Denise Craig has never really been considered a "disco artist." She has always credited herself as a blues artist. Growing up in tiny Belzoni, music was an integral part of her life from an early age. ...show more

Denise LaSalle is an American blues and R&B / Soul / Disco singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born 16 July 1939 in LeFlore County, Mississippi, USA. Denise Craig has never really been considered a "disco artist." She has always credited herself as a blues artist. Growing up in tiny Belzoni, music was an integral part of her life from an early age.

The youngest daughter of eight children born to Nathaniel and Nancy Allen, Denise learned to sing at an early age by listening to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio. She spent her early years (from age seven to thirteen) in Belzoni, Mississippi, then moved to Chicago to live with her oldest brother. Denise was determined to get an education, and she attended night school to earn her G.E.D. She was an avid reader, and her dream was to make her contribution to the literary world as a fiction writer.

She did sell stories to "True Confessions" and "Tan" magazines at age fifteen, but after eight of her manuscripts were rejected, she decided to try writing poems and songs instead. Raised as a Baptist, she sang in the Zion Temple choir for many years. She joined a female gospel singing group, The Sacred Five, and performed throughout metropolitan Chicago until 1961. She held a variety of jobs before her recording and performing career was launched, including pants presser at a dry cleaners, cake decorator/bakery clerk and nightclub hostess at Mix's Lounge in Chicago. ...show less