From a musical family, Helen Humes learned to play trumpet and piano as a child, and made her first records for the OKeh label in 1927. After relocating to New York, she recorded with Harry James and, in 1938, joined Count Basie’s band, replacing Billie Holiday. In 1941, Humes relocated to the West Coast where she scored a hit in the emerging R&B field with "Be-Baba-Leba." By the '50s, despite another big hit with "Million Dollar Secret," her career was in the doldrums and she retired to care for ailing members of her family. In 1973, she came out of retirement to play with Basie at the Newport Jazz Festival, and Humes returned to full-time singing.