Music database

Musician

Keely Smith

Keely Smith

born on 9/3/1928 in Norfolk, VA, United States

died on 16/12/2017 in Palm Springs, CA, United States

Keely Smith

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Keely Smith (born Dorothy Jacqueline Keely, March 9, 1932) is a Grammy Award-winning American jazz and popular music singer, who performed and recorded extensively in the 1950s with then-husband Louis Prima, and throughout the 1960s as a solo-artist.

Career

Smith showed a natural aptitude for singing at a young age. At 14, she sang with a naval air station band led by Saxie Dowell. At 15, she got her first paying job with the Earl Bennett band.

She saw Louis Prima perform in New York City in 1949. When he came through Norfolk, Virginia, she auditioned. She became the calm balance to Prima's wild antics, as he made his way through a repertoire of jump blues, jazz, and Italian pop songs. They recorded together in 1949 and married in 1953.[1]

Their songs included Johnny Mercer's and Harold Arlen's "That Ol' Black Magic", which was a Top 20 hit in the US in 1958. At the 1st Annual Grammy Awards in 1959, Smith and Prima won the first Grammy for Best Performance by a Vocal Group for "That Ol' Black Magic". Her deadpan act was popular with fans. The duo followed up with the minor successes "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen", a revival of the 1937 Andrews Sisters hit. Smith and Prima's act was a mainstay of the Las Vegas lounge scene for much of the 1950s. Though her actual voice was not used, she was caricatured as "Squealy Smith" in Bob Clampett's 1960 Beany and Cecil episode "So What and the Seven Whatnots," a Snow White spoof in a Vegas setting.

Smith appeared with Prima in the 1959 film, Hey Boy! Hey Girl!, singing "Fever", and also appeared in and sang on the soundtrack of the previous year's Thunder Road. Her song in Thunder Road was "Whippoorwill". Her first big solo hit was "I Wish You Love" in 1957. In 1961, Smith divorced Prima. She then signed with Reprise Records, where her musical director was Nelson Riddle. In 1965, she had Top 20 hits in the United Kingdom with an album of Beatles compositions, and a single, "You're Breaking My Heart" which reached No. 14 in April.[2]

She returned to singing in 1985, recording the album I'm in Love Again with Bud Shank and Bill Perkins.[1] Her albums, Swing, Swing, Swing (2002), Keely Sings Sinatra (2001) for which she received a Grammy nomination, and Keely Swings Count Basie Style with Strings (2002) won critical and popular acclaim.

In 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to her.[3]

Personal life

Smith is of Irish and Native American ancestry.[4]

Marriages

  • Married Louis Leo Prima July 13, 1953, in Virginia Beach; the couple divorced in 1961. They had two children: Toni Elizabeth and Luanne Francis.
  • Married Jimmy Bowen in 1965. The couple divorced in 1969.[5]
  • Married singer Bobby Milano (real name Charles Caci) in 1975 in Palm Springs. Frank Sinatra gave the bride away.[6]

Business matters

In 1986, Smith faced legal problems for failing to withhold employee personal income and disability insurance taxes in connection with vending companies (including Piggy Vending) she owned in Palm Springs, California.[7][8]

Discography

  • 1957 I Wish You Love (Capitol)
  • 1958 Politely! (Capitol)
  • 1959 Swingin' Pretty (Capitol)
  • 1959 Be My Love (Dot)
  • 1960 Swing, You Lovers (Dot)
  • 1960 A Keely Christmas (Dot)
  • 1961 Twist With Keely Smith (Dot)
  • 1961 Dearly Beloved (Dot)
  • 1962 Because You're Mine (Dot)
  • 1962 What Kind of Fool Am I? (Dot)
  • 1962 Cherokeely Swings (Dot)
  • 1963 Little Girl Blue/Little Girl New (Reprise)
  • 1964 The Intimate Keely Smith (Reprise)
  • 1965 Keely Smith Sings the John Lennon—Paul McCartney Songbook (Reprise)
  • 1965 That Old Black Magic (Reprise)
  • 1985 I'm In Love Again (Fantasy)
  • 2000 Swing, Swing, Swing (Concord Jazz)
  • 2001 Keely Sings Sinatra (Concord Jazz)
  • 2002 Keely Swings Basie-Style With Strings (Concord Jazz)
  • 2005 Vegas '58 – Today (Concord)

With Louis Prima

  • 1958 Breaking It Up! (Columbia)
  • 1958 Louis Prima & Keely Smith on Broadway (Coronet)
  • 1959 Louis and Keely! (Dot)
  • 1958 Together (Dot)
  • 1961 Return of the Wildest! (Dot)

With Louis Prima and Sam Butera and the Witnesses

  • 1957 The Call of the Wildest (Capitol)
  • 1957 The Wildest Show at Tahoe (Capitol)
  • 1958 Las Vegas Prima Style (Capitol)
  • 1959 Hey Boy! Hey Girl! (Capitol)
  • 1960 On Stage (Dot)

References

  1. ^ a b Unterberger, Richie. "Keely Smith | Biography & History | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 February 2017. 
  2. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 509. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 
  3. ^ Palm Springs Walk of Stars by date dedicated Archived 2012-10-13 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ^ I Wish You Love album liner notes (1958)
  5. ^ "Keely Smith Granted Default Divorce". The Palm Beach Post. July 30, 1969. 
  6. ^ "Keely Smith". Herald Journal. 25 January 1975. 
  7. ^ "Keely Smith faces over 25 tax counts". The Pittsburg Press. AP. July 12, 1986. p. A2. Retrieved September 30, 2012. 
  8. ^ Organized Crime in California 1978. 1979. p. 19. 

External links

This page was last modified 17.10.2017 12:58:32

This article uses material from the article Keely Smith from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.