GREAT FEMALE SINGERS

Liza Minnelli

2012-01-10T15:58:00.000-08:00

Is it still necessary to introduce the fabulous Liza Minnelli?
Liza May Minnelli (born in 1946) is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli.
Already established as a nightclub singer and musical theatre actress, she first attracted critical acclaim for her dramatic performances in the movies The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970) and Arthur (1981). Minnelli rose to international stardom for her appearance as Sally Bowles in the 1972 film version of the Broadway musical Cabaret, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
While film projects such as Lucky Lady, A Matter of Time and New York, New York were less favorably received than her stage roles, Minnelli became one of the most versatile, highly regarded and best-selling entertainers in television, beginning with Liza with a Z in 1972, and on stage in the Broadway productions of Flora the Red Menace, The Act and The Rink. Minnelli also toured internationally and did shows such as Liza Minnelli: At Carnegie Hall, Frank, Liza & Sammy: The Ultimate Event, and Liza Live from Radio City Music Hall.
She starred in Liza's Back in 2002. In 2008/09, she performed the Broadway show Liza's at The Palace...! which earned a Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event.
Minnelli has won a total of three Tony Awards awards, including a Special Tony Award. She has also won an Oscar, an Emmy Award, two Golden Globes and a Grammy Legend Award for her contributions and influence in the recording field, along with many other honors and awards. She is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

Here are 2 great songs from her show Liza with a Z (1972), enjoy!

Diana Darvey

2012-01-10T14:53:00.000-08:00

Diana Magdalene Roloff (1945 – 2000), known professionally as Diana Darvey, was a British actress, singer and dancer, who is most famous for her appearances on The Benny Hill Show.
The daughter of a former Windmill Girl, Pamela Cooper, Diana was raised and educated in Bristol. Her father died when she was just two, and when she first entered show business she adopted the surname "Davey" from her mother's second husband (the "r" was added years later).

In 1962, Darvey made her first stage appearance as a pantomime dancer in Bath, and a year later became a Butlin's Redcoat. She then became part of a London ballet troupe which travelled Sweden, Germany and Spain. After the tour ended, Darvey settled in Spain, where she became a popular revista performer under famed Spanish impresario Colsada. Then for the next several years she appeared in musical theatre productions in and around Spain. It was during one such performance, in Madrid in the early 1970s, that she was "discovered" again, this time by British comedian Benny Hill. Attracted by her beauty, voice and talent, he was amazed to discover that she was actually British.

Darvey made her first appearance on The Benny Hill Show on 7 February 1974, and became an instant hit with fans. Her self-designed, often gravity-defying costumes became as famous as her show-stopping performances. While she sang such Continental music standards as "Sway", "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás" and "Perfidia" on the show, perhaps her most famous number was a four-song medley fronted by "It's Nice to Go Trav'lin'" (which Frank Sinatra recorded on his 1957 album Come Fly with Me), and also featuring a rendition of Maurice Chevalier's "Valentine". In the nearly four-minute number, which she sang in English, French and Spanish, Darvey wore a total of four costumes, including as a belly dancer. She was also known for the "Continental Cabaret" sketch which she performed with Hill and regular sidekick Jackie Wright, and which featured a gag involving the word "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious". In addition, she participated in other sketches, including as Hill's girlfriend in a gender-reverse parody of the 1956 film Baby Doll, repeating a sketch that Hill had performed in 1965 with Elaine Taylor.

In total, Darvey appeared on the show five times, the last being on 26 January 1977.

Darvey parlayed her popularity from The Benny Hill Show to appearances on the game show Quick on the Draw and the sitcom ...And Mother Makes Five, and a role in the 1975 film Carry On Behind. In the immediate years after her last Hill show appearance, Darvey travelled around the world with her cabaret act, in tandem with her then-husband, Terry Gittings (who had been a drummer in Georgie Fame's backing band). For a time in the early 1980s she was based in Miami Beach, Florida, where by then The Benny Hill Show had become famous in the United States through syndication. Their marriage ended in divorce a few years later, and Diana later ended up back in England where, at one point, she ran a pub in Bodicote, Oxfordshire.

In 1995, Darvey married for a second time, to Ralph Barker. She died five years later after a fall at her home, aged 54.

Here is one of her great numbers! Enjoy!

Rosita Fornés

2010-05-19T20:06:00.001-07:00

Here are two songs (a Cuban one and a French one) performed by the Cuban superdiva Rosita Fornés.
Rosita Fornés was born Rosalia Palet Bonavia in New York, USA, in 1923. She was taken to Cuba by her Catalonian-born parents when she was 2. Fornés first won critical acclaim as a singer after winning the best prize at a widely-known Cuban talent contest in 1938. From this moment on she became Cuba's most prolific, admired and maligned performer. She has been, throughout her brilliantly long career, the center of personal and political controversies. She is said to have been Che Guevarra's lover! Her visit to the US in May to September of 1996 generated in Miami the largest and most politically heated press coverage that any performer had produced ever in this city. She was, in her younger years and well into her sixties, regarded as a sex symbol, as the unchallenged blonde goddess of Cuban show business, although her true weapons in this field have been her spell-binding stage presence, her unbending professionalism and a beautifully melodious singing voice (her stage repertoire has included numerous full-length operettas and opera arias). In her twenties, already famous in Cuba, she traveled to Mexico where she became an overnight and lasting sensation. To this day, Rosita Fornés is received in Mexico as La Primera Vedette de America (The First Show-Woman of the Americas). In the fourties and fifties she toured extensively throughout Latin America, the US and Europe. In the latter part of the 1950's she became Spain's most popular stage diva, rivaling Spanish stars such as Celia Gámez and the younger Sarita Montiel. In Cuba, her sold-out theather performances and countless TV appearances have made Ms. Fornés this country's top female superstar. Rosita Fornés has received numerous artistic awards in Cuba and abroad. She remains today an active, commanding and venerated presence in the Cuban stage scene.
Enjoy the glamour and talent of Rosita Fornés, the Cuban Marilyn Monroe!

Liane

2009-07-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a great song ("Le Grisbi" – "Grisbi Blues"), from the famous French movie "Touchez pas au grisbi" ("Hands Off The Loot", 1954), performed by the glamorous Liane.
Liane, also known as Liane Augustin (born in Berlin, Germany, in 1928), was an acclaimed European cabaret singer, gaining fame for her performances in Vienna's intimate Boheme Bar. Her popularity resulted in regular radio concerts, a series of Vanguard recordings and appearances in international nightclubs. Liane's style is her own, although of course she suggests both Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich. Liane is here at her best, with the imaginative support of her regular collaborators, "The Boheme Bar Trio", consisting of pianist Michael Danzinger, Laszlo Gati playing guitar and accordion, and bassist Willi Fantel. Arrangements, mostly by Danzinger, are tasteful, gentle and appealing. Liane made a total of 11 LP albums for Vanguard. In addition, she was Polly Peachum in Vanguard's recording of Kurt Weill's "Three-Penny Opera" with a cast otherwise drawn from the Vienna State Opera, which won a Grand Prix du disque in 1957. She was chosen to represent Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest 1958 with the song "Die ganze Welt braucht Liebe" ("The Whole World Needs Love"). She died in 1978, in Vienna, and was memorialized on May 26, 2009 as a co-namesake with Marx Augustin of the Augustinplatz in Vienna, a public square bounded by the Neustiftgasse, Kirchengasse and Kellermanngasse.
Enjoy Liane's great style!

Kitty White

2009-07-06T09:29:00.001-07:00

Here is a famous song, performed in her inimitable style by the great Kitty White.
Kitty Jean Bilbrew (born in 1924) was a 1950s and 1960s jazz vocalist, and for years has been a nightclub favorite among audiences in Los Angeles, frequently singing sophisticated songs with well-traveled lyrics. Colorful, precise and imaginative, she has a remarkable voice that owes allegiance to no particular style. Aside from occasional side trips to San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago, and New York, Kitty White has always stayed pretty much on home base.
Her twin sister, Maudie Jeanette, also sang and briefly worked with Duke Ellington's revue, "Jump For Joy", but never pursued an active career. Their mother, known as A.C. Bilbrew, organized an all-black chorus that performed in the 1929 film "Hearts of Dixie"; A.C. later recorded the 1955 protest song "The Ballad of Emmett Till" for Dootone Records. Kitty picked up her catchy jazz name legitimately by marrying songwriter Eddie White in the 1940s.
She also sang many demo recordings for her friend, the prolific Los Angeles blues composer Jessie Mae Robinson, including "I Went to Your Wedding", a n° 1 hit for Patti Page in 1953.
Kitty White has worked in many films. She sang "The Lullaby Song" that accompanied the magical scene of the children floating down the Ohio River in a rowboat in the 1955 film "The Night of the Hunter", after being discovered in a small club by composer Walter Schumann, who wrote the song. Kitty sang "Crawfish" in Elvis Presley's 1958 film "King Creole"; thirty years later the track was remixed as a duet between her and Presley for a soundtrack album. She played the piano for Doris Day in "Pillow Talk" for the song "Roly Poly". And she voiced the song "Rather Have the Blues" for actress Mady Comfort in Robert Aldrich's 1955 cult film noir "Kiss Me Deadly", accompanied by pianist Earl Grant. She also sang the title theme of "The Magnificent Matador" in 1955.
In the early 1960s Kitty White recorded for EmArcy, the jazz division of Mercury Records.
Enjoy Kitty White's brilliant style (reminiscent at times of Eartha Kitt and Sylvia Copeland)!

Joyce Bryant

2009-06-13T09:35:00.001-07:00

Here are two famous songs performed in her inimitable style by the one and unique Joyce Bryant.
Joyce Bryant, "the Bronze Blond Bombshell", the four octave singer, aka the black Marilyn Monroe, "the Voice You'll Always Remember" and "the Belter", was born in Oakland, CA, but raised in San Francisco (the oldest of eight children). She moved to Los Angeles to live with cousins when she was in her late teens. An impromptu singalong in a Los Angeles club in the late 1940s was Bryant's first public performance. From there, she picked up other gigs and built a strong reputation.
Her act was outrageously sexy; she wore provocative, tight, backless, cleavage-revealing mermaid dresses that left little to imagine and they were so tight, she had to be carried off-stage. Supposedly, Bryant twisted so much she lost four pounds a performance. The blond hair probably inspired Etta James – who, like Bryant, was also raised in San Francisco and lived in Los Angeles – to copy the blond hair image later. Bryant's hair was naturally black, but not wanting to be upstaged by Josephine Baker at a club, she doused it with silver radiator paint, slithered into a tight silver dress: the Bronze Blond Bombshell and even Baker was impressed!
The gimmick and Bryant's elastic voice elevated the singer to heavyweight status. She was called one of the most beautiful black women in the world and regularly appeared in Afrocentric magazines like Jet. A Life magazine layout in 1953 depicted the sexy singer in provocative poses.
She recorded a series of 78s for OKeh Records with the Joe Reisman Orchestra around 1952.
As meteoric as her career took off, it landed even faster. The first phase of her career ended in 1955 when she denounced it for the church. She enrolled in a Seventh-Day Adventist College in Alabama and later became an evangelist. She returned to entertaining in the 1960s, finding work with touring foreign opera companies. She returned to the rocky club scene and sang on cruise ships; this time without the theatrics, blond hair, and tight dresses. Bryant was honored at the Arlington County Library in Arlington, VA, during Black History Month at an event hosted by jazz historian and WPFW radio host Jim Beyers (who calls her the Lost Diva). (From AMG.)
Enjoy Joyce Bryant's brilliant voice and beauty!

And here is a rare footage with Joyce Bryant!

Pat Bowie

2009-06-11T13:38:00.001-07:00

Here is a famous song by the little known but very impressive singer Pat Bowie.

Pat Bowie was a ballads, blues and pre-rock vocalist who made series of very good recordings in the 1960s. Her best was session with Charles McPherson.
Enjoy Pat Bowie' style and great voice (reminiscent of Freda Payne)!

Jackie Trent

2009-06-08T10:50:00.000-07:00

Here is a great song performed by the dynamic Jackie Trent.
Jackie Trent (born Yvonne Burgess in 1940, Newcastle-under-Lyme) is an English singer, songwriter, and actress. Her first stage appearance was as a ten-year-old ingenue in the pantomime "Babes In The Wood", but her primary interest was a career in pop music. Her first single, "Pick Up the Pieces", was released in 1962, but it was not until two record labels and three years later that she scored her first hit, "Where Are You Now?" written by Tony Hatch, who at that time was involved in a highly successful professional collaboration with Petula Clark. She married Hatch in 1967.
She recorded numerous singles and albums, both as a solo artist and in tandem with her husband. In addition to their compositions for Clark, over the years she and Hatch wrote a wealth of material for other artists, including Frank Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, Des O'Connor, Shirley Bassey, Vikki Carr, and Dean Martin.
The 1970s saw Hatch and Trent diversify into the world of musical theatre. In 1978, the couple left the UK for a four-year residency in Dublin, where they hosted their own TV series Words And Music and It's A Musical World, before moving to Australia in 1982.
Trent and Hatch separated in 1995, and divorced in 2002. Following the couple's initial separation, Trent made a hugely successful return to the British stage, touring the country in the musical High Society. After spending several years in semi-retirement, she toured Australia with a series of concerts in April and May 2004.
Jackie Trent has been in the show business for more than 50 years! Enjoy her powerful voice!

Teal Joy

2009-06-07T10:42:00.001-07:00

Here are two great songs performed by the little known but fabulous singer Teal Joy, and typical of her style and versatility.
Nicknamed "the Oriental Billie Holiday", Teal Joy is a Japanese-American singer from the 1950s belonging to the musical family of Pat Suzuki and Miyoshi Umeki.
Here we have two examples of her special talent: the first number installs an atmosphere à la Billie Holiday, the second number highlights her eccentricity and recalls at times Eartha Kitt's electric style!
Enjoy Teal Joy's big voice!

Melba Moore

2009-06-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

Here is another version of the classic standard by the fabulous and glamourous singer Melba Moore.
Melba Moore (born Melba Hill in 1945, New York) is an American R&B singer and actress. She is the daughter of saxophonist Teddy Hill and R&B singer Bonnie Davis.
Moore attended Newark Arts High School in Newark, New Jersey. She began her career in 1967 as a member of the original cast of the musical Hair along with Ronnie Dyson and Diane Keaton. In 1970, Moore won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in Purlie (she portrayed Lutiebelle). In 1978 she appeared (as Marsinah) with Eartha Kitt in Timbuktu!.
By the 1970s Moore started focusing on music with many hits in the late 1970s through to the mid 1980s. Her debut album, released in 1970 on Mercury Records, was I Am Love, followed by Look What You're Doing To The Man. Moore often collaborated with R&B crooner, Freddie Jackson.
In 1986 she headlined the CBS television sitcom Melba that debuted the same night as the Challenger explosion and was infamously canceled after only its pilot episode.
She was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1971 for 'Best New Artist'. Her 1975 second album, Peach Melba, saw her get a Grammy nomination. In 1976, she earned another Grammy nomination for Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance - Female for the song "Lean On Me".
Moore has been and is currently focusing on gospel recordings while still appearing in an occasional Broadway show. In 2003, she was featured in the film The Fighting Temptations, which starred Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Beyoncé Knowles.
Enjoy Melba Moore's powerful voice!

Marva Whitney

2009-06-02T14:53:00.001-07:00

Marva Whitney (born Marva Ann Manning in 1944 in Kansas City, Kansas) is an African American funk singer. She is considered by many specialists to be one of the "rawest" and "brassiest" music divas.

Whitney's performing career started as early as three years old while touring with her family's gospel group, the Manning Gospel Singers. Singing with James Brown in the late 1960s, she was able to make a name for herself with powerful songs like "I'm Tired, I'm Tired, I'm Tired (Things Better Change Before Its Too Late)" and "If You Don't Work (You Can't Eat)".

Enjoy Marva Whitney's incredible talent!

Ethel Merman

2008-07-29T13:08:00.001-07:00

Here is a beautiful song by legendary singer and actress Ethel Merman.
Ethel Merman (born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, 1908 – 1984) was a American actress of stage and film musicals, well known for her powerful voice, often hailed by critics as "The Grande Dame of the Broadway stage". Merman was known for her powerful, belting mezzo-soprano voice, precise enunciation, and pitch. Because stage singers performed without microphones when she began singing professionally, she had great advantages in show business, despite the fact that she never received any singing lessons. Merman began singing while working as a secretary for the B-K Booster (automobile) Vacuum Brake Company in Queens. She eventually became a full time vaudeville performer and played the pinnacle of vaudeville, the Palace Theatre in New York City. She had already been engaged for "Girl Crazy", a musical with songs by George and Ira Gershwin, which also starred a very young Ginger Rogers (19 years old) in 1930. Although third billed, her rendition of "I Got Rhythm" in the show was popular, and by the late 1930's, she had become the first lady of the Broadway musical stage. Many consider her the leading Broadway musical performer of the Twentieth century, with her signature song being "There's No Business Like Show Business" (from "Annie Get Your Gun").
Merman starred in five Cole Porter musicals, among them "Anything Goes" in 1934, where she introduced "I Get a Kick Out of You", "Blow Gabriel Blow", and the title song. Her next musical with Porter was "Red, Hot and Blue", in which she co-starred with Bob Hope and Jimmy Durante and introduced "It's Delovely" and "Down in the Depths (on the 90th floor)". In 1939's "DuBarry Was a Lady", Porter provided Merman with a "can you top this" duet with Bert Lahr, "Friendship". Like "You're the Top" in "Anything Goes", this kind of duet became one of her signatures. Porter's lyrics also helped showcase her comic talents in duets in "Panama Hattie" ("Let's Be Buddies", "I've Still Got My Health"), and "Something for the Boys" ("By the Mississinewah", "Hey Good Lookin'").
Merman won the 1951 Tony Award for Best Actress for her performance as Sally Adams in "Call Me Madam". Perhaps Merman's most revered performance was in "Gypsy" as Gypsy Rose Lee's mother Rose. Merman introduced "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and "Some People" and ended the show with the wrenching "Rose's Turn". Critics and audiences saw her creation of Madame Rose as the performance of her career. Merman lost the Tony Award to Mary Martin, who was playing Maria in "The Sound of Music". "How can you buck a nun?" mused Merman. The competitiveness notwithstanding, Merman and Martin were friends off stage and starred in a legendary musical special on television. Merman retired from Broadway in 1970, when she appeared as the last Dolly Levi in "Hello, Dolly!", a show initially written for her. No longer willing to "take the veil", as she described being in a Broadway role, Merman preferred to act in television specials and movies. In 1979, she recorded The Ethel Merman Disco Album, with many of her signature show-stoppers set to a disco beat. Ethel Merman put in everything she made generosity and an infectious good humour.
Enjoy her great voice and unique style!

2 other great performances by the dynamic Ethel!

Etta Jones

2008-07-24T15:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a very good song performed by the great Etta Jones.
Etta Jones (1928 – 2001) was an American jazz singer whose critical success and relative commercial obscurity earned her a reputation in her lifetime as a "jazz musician's jazz singer". A highly underrated singer who rarely received the recognition she richly deserved, Etta Jones is noted for her elegant interpretations of standards, ballads, and blues. Her characteristic inflections have sometimes prompted comparisons to stylistic devices employed by Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington. Her first recordings — "Salty Papa Blues", "Evil Gal Blues", "Blow Top Blues" and "Long, Long Journey" — were produced by Leonard Feather in 1944, featuring her in the company of clarinetist Barney Bigard and tenor saxophonist Georgie Auld. Her last recording, a tribute to Billie Holiday, was released 57 years later on the day of Jones' death. Only one of her recordings — her debut album for Prestige Records ("Don't Go to Strangers", 1960) — enjoyed great commercial success with sales of over a million copies. Her remaining nine albums for Prestige and, beginning in 1975, her numerous recordings for Muse and High Note secured her a devoted following among two or three generations of listeners. She had three Grammy nominations, for the Don't Go to Strangers LP in 1960, Save Your Love for Me in 1981, and My Buddy in 1999. In 2008 the album Don't Go to Strangers was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Following her recordings for Prestige, on which Jones was featured with outstanding arrangers such as Oliver Nelson and jazz stars such as Frank Wess, Roy Haynes and Gene Ammons, Jones had a musical partnership of more than thirty years with tenor sax player Houston Person, who received equal billing with her. He also produced her albums and served as her manager, after meeting in one of Johnny Hammond's bands. As the singer who perhaps came closest to the "natural" sound and phrasing of Billie Holiday, Jones brought to the fragile and vulnerable Holiday persona a bite and power reminiscent of Dinah Washington. She knew pain and loss (especially following the death of a daughter) but did not let it cast a melancholy aura over her performances. Jones was born in Aiken, South Carolina, and raised in Harlem. She died at the age of 72.
Enjoy Etta Jones' fine style!

Roberta Sherwood

2008-07-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

Here is a famous poetic song performed by the great Roberta Sherwood.
A middle-aged mother and housewife, Roberta Sherwood rose from obscurity to become one of the all-time great nightclub success stories, capturing the hearts of audiences everywhere with her strong, sweet voice, her simple, sincere approach to ballads, and her trademarks - banging a cymbal, tapping her foot, wearing glasses and draping a sweater over her shoulders. Born in 1913 into a carnival family, Miss Sherwood began her 50-year career at age 11. The elder daughter of old-time minstrel showman, Robert Sherwood, she and her sister Anne started their own vaudeville and nightclub act, appearing in 1932 in a Miami revue, directed by Don Lanning. She quit show business to marry him in 1938 and struggled to continue to perform while raising a family - singing in lounge bars, at a Kiwanis Club party, a firemen's ball or with a local dance band. Miss Sherwood sang her way through the 1940's and 50's. It was not until 1956, with her husband dying of lung cancer and a family to feed, that Miss Sherwood's career took off. Initially passed over as too old to perform, she sang only at local events until she was hired by a Miami Beach club owner. The club was called Murray Franklin's, there she sang love songs, torch songs, sittin'on the porch songs - "You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You", "Cry Me A River", "Take Your Shoes Off Baby" and "Start Runnin' Through My Mind" - and so many other greats. Soon, people packed the bar to hear the woman with the glasses who banged on a battered cymbal while she sang. The television comedian Red Buttons saw her perform and brought in Walter Winchell, who raved about her in his column and on radio broadcasts. The Copacabana landlord, J. Podell, booked her "blind" at $5,000 per week. She jammed his Copa every night. Top spots around the nation booked her for as high as $10,000 a week. She was signed by Decca Records. Her records and albums made her wealthier. She made the rounds at the major clubs in Las Vegas and opened in Hollywood to an enthusiastic reception. Over the years, she appeared with such stars as Mickey Rooney, Don Rickles and Milton Berle. Her style was described by Time magazine as "flashy, richly sentimental, as unsubtle as her crashing cymbal and as unpretentious as her $49.50 dress". She was modest about her art. "I just sing loud", she said in an interview in 1956, "and I've got a good ear. I pick up tunes easily. I must know a couple thousand songs, all kinds. All I do is step out there and belt out a mess of songs, no special material, no gimmicks. I just sing and shuffle around. Actually, my act is a bigger strain on my shoe leather than my voice." She became a favorite in the early days of television, making frequent guest appearances with Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen, Jackie Gleason and Garry Moore, and also appearing on "Person to Person" with Edward R. Murrow.
Enjoy Roberta Sherwood's generous style!

Jo Stafford

2008-07-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

Here is a most famous song performed by legendary jazz singer Jo Stafford who passed away recently.
Jo Stafford (1917 – 2008) had a career that spanned the late 1930's through the early 1960's. Stafford is greatly admired for the purity of her voice and was considered one of the most versatile vocalists of the era. She was also viewed as a pioneer of modern musical parody, having won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 1961 (with husband Paul Weston) for their album "Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris". Originally, she wanted to become an opera singer and studied voice as a child. However, because of the economic Great Depression, she abandoned that idea and joined her sisters Christine and Pauline in a popular vocal group, "The Stafford Sisters", which performed on Los Angeles radio station KHJ. When her sisters married, the group broke up and Stafford joined a new vocal group, "The Pied Pipers". The group became very popular, working on local radio and movie soundtracks, and caught the attention of two of Tommy Dorsey's arrangers, Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston. The group backed Frank Sinatra in some of his early recordings. In 1942, the group had an argument with Dorsey and left, but in 1943 it became one of the first groups signed to Johnny Mercer's new label, Capitol Records. Capitol's music director was the same Paul Weston who had been instrumental in introducing Stafford to Dorsey. Weston and Stafford married in 1952. In 1944, Stafford left the Pied Pipers to go solo. Her tenure with the USO, in which she gave countless performances for soldiers stationed overseas, acquired her the nickname "GI Jo". In 1948 Stafford and Gordon MacRae had a million-seller with their version of "Say Something Sweet to Your Sweetheart" and in 1949 repeated their success with "My Happiness". In 1950, she left Capitol for Columbia Records, then returning to Capitol in 1961. At Columbia, she was the first recording artist to sell twenty-five million records. During her second stint at Capitol, Stafford also recorded for Frank Sinatra's Reprise label. In the 1950's, she had a string of popular hits with Frankie Laine, six of which charted. It was also at this time that Stafford scored her best known hits with huge records like "Jambalaya", "Shrimp Boats", "Make Love to Me" and "You Belong to Me". The last song was Stafford's all-time biggest hit, topping the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom (the first song by a female singer to top the UK chart). In 1966, Stafford went into semi-retirement, retiring completely from the music business in 1975. Stafford wouldn't perform again until 1990, at a ceremony honoring Frank Sinatra.
Enjoy Jo Stafford's elegance and unique style!

Lola Falana

2008-07-20T13:49:00.001-07:00

Here is a famous and exciting song performed in Italian by the beautiful Lola Falana.
Lola Falana (born Loletha Elaine Falana in 1942 in Camden, New Jersey) is an American dancer and actress of Cuban and African American descent. By the age of three she was dancing, and by age five she was singing in the church choir. By the time she was in junior high school, she was already dancing in nightclubs to which she was escorted by her mother. Pursuing a musical career became so important to Falana that, against her parents' wishes, she left her Philadelphia high school a few months before graduation and moved to New York City. Her first dancing gig was at "Small's Paradise" in Harlem. Dinah Washington, the “Queen of Blues”, was influential in fostering Lola’s early career. While dancing in a nightclub, Falana was discovered by Sammy Davis Jr., who gave her a featured role in his 1964 Broadway musical "Golden Boy". Lola's first single, "My Baby", was recorded for Mercury Records in 1965. Later in her career she recorded under Frank Sinatra's record label. In the late 1960's Falana was mentored by Davis. In 1966 Davis cast her, along with himself in her first film role in the film "A Man Called Adam". Falana became a major star of Italian cinema beginning in 1967. In Italy she learned to speak fluent Italian while starring in three movies. She was known as the "Black Venus". During this time she was busy touring with Davis as a singer and dancer, making films in Italy, and reprising her role in "Golden Boy" during its revival in London. In 1969 Falana ended her close working relationship with Sammy Davis Jr., though the two remained friends. In 1970, Falana made her American film debut in "The Liberation of L.B. Jones" and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress for her performance. That same year she posed for Playboy magazine. She was the first black woman to model for a line of cosmetics that was not targeted solely to blacks, in the successful Faberge Tigress perfume ads. In those early years, she also starred in a few movies considered to be of the blaxploitation genre. American TV audiences became familiar with Falana during the early 1970's. She often appeared on The Joey Bishop Show and The Hollywood Palace, displaying her talent for music, dance, and light comedy. She was the first supporting player hired by Bill Cosby for his much-anticipated variety hour, The New Bill Cosby Show, which made its debut on September 11, 1972 on CBS. Throughout the mid-1970's Falana made guest appearances on many popular TV shows, including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Laugh-In and The Flip Wilson Show. She also starred in her own television specials. In 1975 she returned to Broadway as the lead in the musical "Doctor Jazz". Although the production closed after just five performances, Lola was nominated for a Tony Award and won the 1975 Theater World Award. With help from Sammy Davis, Falana brought her act to Las Vegas and became a top draw there. By the late 1970's, she was considered the Queen of Las Vegas. She played to sold-out crowds at The Sands, The Riviera, and the MGM Grand hotels. Finally The Aladdin offered her $100,000 a week to perform. At the time, Falana was the highest paid female performer in Las Vegas. Her show ran twenty weeks a year and became a major tourist attraction. After a severe illness, she converted to Roman Catholicism. Though she performed again in Las Vegas shows in 1987, her practice of religion and faith became the center of her life. Her last musical performance was in 1997, at Wayne Newton's theater in Branson, Missouri.
Enjoy Lola Falana's beauty and chic!

And here is another beautiful performance!

Petula Clark

2008-07-19T12:14:00.000-07:00

Here is a beautiful song from 1959 performed by the fantastic and inalterable Petula Clark.
Petula Sally Olwen Clark (born in 1932) is an English singer, actress and composer best known for her upbeat popular international hits of the 1960's, especially "Downtown". With more than 70 million records sold worldwide, she is the most successful British female solo recording artist. She also holds the distinction of having the longest span on the UK pop charts of any British female artist — 54 years. In October 1942, she made her radio debut while attending a BBC broadcast with her father, hoping to send a message to an uncle stationed overseas. During an air raid, the producer requested that someone perform to settle the jittery audience, and Clark volunteered a rendition of "Mighty Lak a Rose" to an enthusiastic response in the theatre. She then repeated her performance for the broadcast audience, launching a series of some 500 appearances in programmes to entertain the troops. In addition to radio work, Clark frequently toured the UK with fellow child performer Julie Andrews. She became known as "Britain's Shirley Temple" and was considered a mascot by the RAF and the United States Army. In 1944, while performing at London's Royal Albert Hall, Clark was discovered by film director Maurice Elvey, who cast her in his war drama "Medal for the General". She then worked with Anthony Newley in "Vice Versa" (directed by Peter Ustinov) and Alec Guinness in "The Card". In 1946, she launched her television career with an appearance on a BBC variety show, "Cabaret Cartoons", which led to her being signed to host her own afternoon series, titled simply "Petula Clark". A second, "Pet's Parlour", followed in 1949. In later years, she starred in "This is Petula Clark" (1966) and "The Sound of Petula" (1972-74). In 1949, Clark branched into recording with her first release, "Put Your Shoes On, Lucy", for EMI. She scored a number of major hits in the UK during the 1950's, including "The Little Shoemaker" (1954), "Majorca" (1955), "Suddenly There's a Valley" (1955) and "With All My Heart" (1956). In 1958, Clark was invited to appear at the Olympia in Paris where she was received with acclaim. Her initial French recordings were huge successes. Gradually she moved further into the continent, recording in German, French, Italian and Spanish, and establishing herself as a multi-lingual performer. Her recordings of several Serge Gainsbourg songs were also big sellers. Released in four different languages in late 1964, "Downtown" was a success in the UK, France, Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Italy, and even Rhodesia, Japan, and India. "Downtown" went to number 1 on the US charts in 1965 and sold three million copies. It was the first of 15 consecutive Top 40 hits Clark scored in the US, including "I Know a Place", "My Love", "A Sign of the Times", "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love", "This Is My Song" (from the Chaplin film "A Countess from Hong Kong"), and "Don't Sleep in the Subway". In 2003, her recording of "Downtown" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Clark's recording successes led to frequent appearances on US variety programs hosted by Ed Sullivan and Dean Martin, guest shots on Hullabaloo, Shindig!, The Kraft Music Hall, and The Hollywood Palace, and inclusion in musical specials such as The Best on Record and Rodgers and Hart Today. In 1968, NBC invited her to host her own special in the USA, and in doing so she inadvertently made television history. While singing a duet of "On the Path of Glory" with guest Harry Belafonte, Clark touched his arm: it was the first time a man and woman of different races exchanged physical contact on American television! Throughout the 1960's and 70's, Clark toured in concert extensively throughout the States, and often appeared in supper clubs such as the Copacabana in New York City, the Ambassador Hotel's Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, and the Empire Room at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where she consistently broke house attendance records. Clark revived her film career in the late 1960's, starring in two big musical films: "Finian's Rainbow" (1968) opposite Fred Astaire (for which she was nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe Award), and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" (1969) with Peter O'Toole. Later stage work includes "Someone Like You" in 1989 and 1990, for which she composed the score; "Blood Brothers", in which she made her Broadway debut in 1993, followed by the US tour; and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Boulevard", appearing in both the West End and US touring productions from 1995 through 2000. With more than 2500 performances, she has played the role more often than any other actress. In 2000, she presented a self-written one-woman show, highlighting her life and career, to tremendous critical and audience acclaim in Montreal. In 2004, she toured Australia and New Zealand, appeared at the Hilton in Atlantic City, the Hummingbird Centre in Toronto, Humphrey's in San Diego, and the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, and participated in a multi-performer tribute to the late Peggy Lee at the Hollywood Bowl. Following another UK concert tour in early spring 2005, she appeared with Andy Williams in his Moon River Theater in Branson, Missouri for several months, and returned for another engagement in the fall of 2006, following scattered concert dates throughout the US and Canada. In November 2006, Clark was the subject of a BBC Four documentary entitled "Petula Clark: Blue Lady". "Duets", a compilation including Dusty Springfield, Peggy Lee, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, and the Everly Brothers, among others, was released in February 2007. Clark was presented with the 2007 Film & TV Music Award for Best Use of a Song in a Television Program for "Downtown" in the series "Lost". In 1998, Clark was honoured by Queen Elizabeth II by being made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire).
Enjoy Petula's immarcescible charm!

And here are 3 other beautiful performances!

Dionne Warwick

2008-07-17T14:22:00.001-07:00

Here is a great song from 1967 (already sung, among others, by Shirley Bassey) performed by legendary singer Dionne Warwick.
Dionne Warwick (born Marie Dionne Warrick in 1940) is an acclaimed five-time Grammy Award-winning singer, actress, activist, United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, former United States Ambassador of Health, and humanitarian. She is best known for her partnership with songwriters and producers Burt Bacharach and Hal David. According to Billboard magazine, Dionne Warwick is second only to Aretha Franklin as the female vocalist with the most Billboard Hot 100 chart hits during the rock era (1955-1999). Dionne began singing gospel as a child at the New Hope Methodist Church in East Orange. Her first televised performances were in the mid-and late 1950's with the Drinkard Singers and were carried on local television stations in New Jersey and New York City. Warwick graduated from East Orange High School in 1959 and was awarded a Scholarship in Music Education to the Hartt College of Music in Hartford, Connecticut (a school from which she earned her Doctorate of Music Education in the 1980's). While performing background on The Drifters' recording of "Mexican Divorce", Warwick's voice and star presence were noticed by the song's composer Burt Bacharach, who was writing songs with many other songwriters including Hal David. Her first solo single was released in November, 1962. The song was entitled "Don't Make Me Over". This was followed by "Walk on By" in April 1964, a major international hit and million seller that solidified her career. The mid 1960's to early 1970's became an even more successful time period for Warwick, who saw a string of Gold selling albums and Top 20 and Top 10 hit singles. "Message to Michael", a Bacharach-David composition, became a top 10 hit for Warwick in May 1966. In 1967, Warwick earned her first RIAA Gold Single for US sales of over one million units for the single "I Say a Little Prayer". The single "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" was an international million seller and a Top 10 hit in several countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Japan and Mexico. By the end of 1971, Dionne Warwick had sold an estimated thirty-five million singles and albums internationally in less than nine years and more than 16 million singles in the USA alone. The song "Heartbreaker" was one of Dionne's biggest international hits, peaking on Billboard's Hot 100 at #10 in January 1983 and #1 AC in the USA and #2 in the UK. Internationally, the tune was also a smash in continential Europe, Australia, Japan, South Africa, Canada, and Asia. In 1983, Dionne released another notable album titled "How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye" which was produced by Luther Vandross. Their collaboration had been a lifelong dream of Vandross, who had maintained that he wanted to work with Warwick, Aretha Franklin, and Diana Ross. In 2005, Dionne Warwick was honored by Oprah Winfrey at her Legends Ball. Warwick appeared on the May 24, 2006 fifth-season finale of American Idol. Millions of U.S. viewers watched Warwick sing a medley of "Walk on By" and "That's What Friends Are For", with longtime collaborator Burt Bacharach accompanying her on the piano. Dionne Warwick's new gospel album, "Why We Sing", was released in 2008. Warwick's sister Dee Dee Warwick also had a successful singing career. Warwick's aunt is gospel singer Cissy Houston, Whitney Houston's mother, making Whitney Dionne's first cousin.
Enjoy Dionne Warwick's great beauty and style!

Marilyn Maye & Ed Ames

2008-07-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a rare song from 1969 performed by 2 of RCA's greatest artists, the fabulous Ed Ames and Marilyn Maye together.
Enjoy this pop song in Ed & Marilyn's special style!

Dorothy Squires

2008-07-04T14:05:00.000-07:00

Here is a great song performed by the one and unique Dorothy Squires.
Dorothy Squires (1915 - 1998) was a Welsh vocalist. She was born Edna May Squires in Pontyberem, Carmarthenshire, in South Wales. She began to perform professionally as a singer at the age of 16. She did most of her work with the orchestra of Billy Reid who was her partner for many years. After she joined his orchestra, he began to write songs for her to perform. In the immediate post-war years she recorded the original version of Reid's composition, "A Tree in the Meadow", best known in the United States in its recording by Margaret Whiting, which reached n° 1 on the US charts. Similarly, her version of Reid's composition, "I'm Walking Behind You", was covered by Eddie Fisher which became a n° 1 hit in the US and her recording of "The Gypsy" became a n° 1 hit there after being waxed by The Ink Spots - their biggest hit. (It was also a major hit for Dinah Shore.)
After her relationship with Reid ended she married British actor Roger Moore in 1953 in New Jersey. Moore was twelve years her junior. The marriage lasted until 1961, when Moore left her and moved in with Luisa Mattioli, whom he was unable to marry legally until Squires granted him a divorce in 1969. She performed until the 1990's. Squires retired to Wales and died of lung cancer in 1998.
Considered as one of Great Britain's greatest singers, a charismatic and electrifying stage performer, her powerful voice, looks and style are very close to Vikki Carr and Shirley Bassey's, but she was their senior by far, so one cannot say that she was influenced by them. On contrary, it has been said that she was one of Bassey's main influences, along with Judy Garland.
Enjoy the power and emotion of Dorothy Squires' voice!

And here are other fantastic performances by the great Dorothy!

Nancy Sinatra

2008-07-02T17:19:00.001-07:00

Here are 3 great songs, beautifully performed by the lovely Nancy Sinatra.
Nancy Sandra Sinatra (born in 1940, in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of iconic singer Frank Sinatra and his first wife, Nancy Barbato, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'". For her fourth birthday, Phil Silvers and Jimmy Van Heusen wrote the song "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)", which her father recorded. Nancy Sinatra began her career as a singer and actress in the early 1960's, but achieved success mainly in Europe and Japan. Then she had a transatlantic number-one pop hit with "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", which showcased her provocative but good-natured style, and which popularized and made her synonymous with go-go boots. The tantalising promo clip featured a big-haired Sinatra and six shapely young women in tight tops, go-go boots and mini-skirts, and is considered a classic example of high camp. The song was written by Lee Hazlewood, who wrote and produced most of her hits and sang with her on several duets, including the critical and cult favorite "Some Velvet Morning". Between 1966 and 1967 alone, Sinatra charted with 13 titles, all of which featured Billy Strange as arranger and conductor. In 1967 she paired with her father for her second number-one single, "Somethin' Stupid". In 1967 she also recorded the theme song for the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. The track is generally regarded as one of the best Bond themes. In 1968 she acted alongside Elvis Presley in the movie "Speedway". On December 11, 1967, NBC broadcast a musical-variety special entitled "Movin' With Nancy" (from which come the last 2 songs). In addition to the Emmy Award-winning musical performances, the show is famous for Nancy Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. greeting each other with a kiss, one of the first black-white kisses in U.S. television history. She never stopped recording until now. In 2006 EMI released The Essential Nancy Sinatra – a UK-only greatest-hits compilation featuring the previously unreleased track, "Machine Gun Kelly". The collection was hand-picked by Sinatra and spans her 40-year career. Nancy Sinatra received her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 11, 2006, which was also declared "Nancy Sinatra Day" by Hollywood’s Honorary Mayor, Johnny Grant.
Enjoy!

Julie Budd

2008-07-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

Here is a fantastic rendition of this famous song by a then only 15 years old singer, Julie Budd, strongly influenced by Barbra Streisand, but nevertheless possessing a great style.
From her biography: «Julie Budd is considered to be one of the most exciting singers on the scene today. While enjoying a multi-faceted musical career, Julie Budd's credits range from television to film and the New York stage, from symphonies to the most lavish casinos and showrooms in the country. She began her professional career at the tender age of twelve, after meeting record producer/orchestrator, Herb Bernstein, who immediately took Julie under his wing and introduced her to Merv Griffin at a recording session in New York City. After hearing Julie sing, this "Mini-Girl with the Maxi-Voice" was invited to appear on over 100 of Merv's TV shows. When Julie received a standing ovation from both the audience and the entire TV studio staff, it was just the beginning. From there she went on to appear on The Tonight Show, Entertainment Tonight and every other major TV show. In the years that followed, Julie co-starred with such legendary performers as Frank Sinatra, Bill Cosby, Joan Rivers, Bob Hope, George Burns, Liberace, and Carol Burnett. (...) Julie began to blossom as an adult and now... a Headliner in her own right, she has been touring with her own one-woman show. Her concerts include performances at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, The London Palladium, Tel Aviv's Israel Performing Arts Center, venues in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and major symphony halls in the United States. The New York Times raved with a full two-page glowing retrospective of Julie's career, declaring Ms. Budd "The Consummate Performer". (...) Julie has also pursued a successful acting career, having appeared with New York's prestigious Circle Repertory Company and Playwrights Horizons and starred in Neil Simon's They're Playing Our Song. She was also in Catskills on Broadway On Broadway with the Original Cast at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater. Moviegoers will also remember Julie's starring role in Disney's The Devil and Max Devlin with Bill Cosby and Elliot Gould, for which Julie received glowing notices. Along with this role, Julie had the great pleasure of working with her talented friend Marvin Hamlisch, who together with Carol Bayer Sager, penned the title song Roses and Rainbows for Julie, recently re-recorded and re-released for all of her fans this year. The film was recently repackaged and released on VHS and DVD, and can be seen regularly on the Disney Channel. Lately, Julie has become a favorite featured artist with some of the finest symphony orchestras in the country and has also appeared at some of the most prestigious Performing Arts Centers around the world. She has performed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, The Kennedy Center with the National Symphony, The Austin Symphony, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Pops, the Boca Pops Orchestra and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and many others. Julie has collaborated with some of the most noted and celebrated Maestros, including her gifted friend Marvin Hamlisch, who she continues to tour with all over the country.»
Enjoy the great voice of Julie Budd!

Nancy Wilson

2008-07-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

Here is an exciting song from "Bye Bye Birdie", performed by the great Nancy Wilson (in 1963), a most gifted and versatile songstylist, in the old tradition. Enjoy!

And here is another example of Nancy Wilson's style!

Marilyn Burroughs

2008-07-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

Here is another version of the famous song from "West Side Story" (with Natalie Wood), performed by the beautiful and very fine jazz singer Marilyn Burroughs, who was the wife of Clark Burroughs, a founding member and the lead singer for the famous band The Hi Lo's from 1953 to 1992. He formed for a short time a folk-rock duo with his wife and produced her LP "I Feel Pretty" from which comes the song presented here.
Enjoy Marilyn Burroughs' performance, which makes us feel happy and pretty!

Karen Dalton

2008-06-29T08:48:00.000-07:00

Here is a wondeful performance by the great singer Karen Dalton, too young disapperaed, long underrated but recently rediscovered.
Karen Dalton (born in Enid, Oklahoma, of Cherokee and Irish origin, 1938 - 1993) was an American folk singer and banjo player associated with the early 1960's Greenwich Village folk scene, particularly with Fred Neil and the Holy Modal Rounders as well as Bob Dylan. Her bluesy, world-weary voice is often compared to that of iconic jazz singer Billie Holiday. She sang blues, folk, country, pop, Motown - making over each song in her own style. She played the twelve string Gibson guitar and a long neck banjo. Her second album, "In My Own Time" (1971), was recorded at Bearsville studios, produced by Bob Dylan's former bass player Harvey Brooks, with liner notes by Fred Neil, originally released on Michael Lang's (Woodstock promoter) label, Just Sunshine. The cover photos were taken by Elliot Landy, and piano player Richard Bell guested on the album. Less common is her first album for Capitol, "It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best" (1969), re-released by Koch Records in 1996. Known as "the folk singer's answer to Billie Holiday" and "Sweet Mother K.D.", it is said that the Richard Manuel song "Katie's Been Gone", from The Band's The Basement Tapes, was written about her. Both Dalton's albums were re-released in November 2006.
Enjoy Karen Dalton's style!