Mickey Baker - Telegraph Starting as a duo on the Rainbow record label, their first few recordings met with little success. Their fortunes changed when they signed with RCA's Groove label and recorded No Good Lover, described as "a wild, upbeat, two-guitar and washboard rocker." But it was their second recording for Groove, Love is Strange, that became a smash hit and propelled them to national stardom. Mickey Baker was born McHouston Baker on October 15 1925 in Louisville, Kentucky, and spent much of his childhood in orphanages. By the age of 16 he had moved to New York City, where he took a series of menial jobs before becoming a full-time pool hustler. Although at 19 he enrolled at the New York School of Music to study the guitar, he soon dropped out, taught himself to play, and in 1949 formed his own jazz combo, turning to R&B when he realised that the emerging genre offered more opportunities. During the early 1950s he played as a session man on numerous recordings, his guitar bolstering hits for The Drifters (Money Honey and Such a Night), Ruth Brown (Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean) and Big Maybelle (Whole Lot of Shakin" Going On). He also released a clutch of singles under his own name, and recorded a Latin jazz-inflected solo album, Guitar Mambo. Although Mickey and Sylvia never repeated the chart-topping success they had with Love is Strange, they did have two more minor hits, There Oughta Be A Law (1957) and Baby You're So Fine (1961). They also played guitar on Ike and Tina Turner's 1961 hit It's Gonna Work Out Fine, which rose to No 2 in the R&B charts. They split up in the same year, but continued to record together sporadically until the mid-1960s. Sylvia Robinson, as she had become on her marriage to Joe Robinson, had a huge hit with Pillow Talk (1973), and later helped to create the Sugar Hill rap label. Baker recorded his finest solo album, the all-instrumental The Wildest Guitar, in 1959. In the 1960s he moved to France, making solo records and working as a session guitarist with several French pop performers, including the rock singer Ronnie Bird, Françoise Hardy and Sylvie Vartan. He also wrote a number of bestselling guitar instruction books, among them Jazz Guitar. Mickey Baker, who was married six times, was ranked by Rolling Stone magazine at No 53 in its 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Mickey Baker, born October 15 1925, died November 27 2012