Incubator escapee wiki

Keely Smith

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:About Template:More citations needed Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox musical artist

Dorothy Jacqueline Keely (March 9, 1928<ref name="Clavin" /><ref group=note>The reference work The Encyclopedia of Native Music: More Than a Century of Recordings from Wax Cylinder to the Internet gives Smith's date of birth as March 9, 1932.</ref><ref name="enm">Template:Cite book</ref> – December 16, 2017), professionally known as Keely Smith, was an 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.<ref name ="Clavin">Template:Cite book</ref>

Smith married Prima in 1953. The couple were stars throughout the entertainment business, including stage, television, motion pictures, hit records, and cabaret acts. They won a Grammy in 1959, its inaugural year, for their smash hit, "That Old Black Magic", which remained on the charts for 18 weeks.<ref name="mn">Template:Cite news</ref>

Early yearsEdit

Smith was born in Norfolk, Virginia; her ancestry was Irish and Cherokee.<ref>I Wish You Love album liner notes (1958)</ref> Jesse Smith, her stepfather, was a carpenter, and her mother took in laundry to earn money to buy gowns for Smith to wear when she performed.<ref name=":0" />

CareerEdit

When Smith was 11 years old, she sang regularly as a cast member of The Joe Brown Radio Gang program on a Norfolk station.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> At age 14, Smith 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.<ref group=note>The Encyclopedia of Native Music: More Than a Century of Recordings from Wax Cylinder to the Internet says, "In 1948, entertainer Louis Prima appeared in her hometown of Norfolk, Virginia, and hired Smith at an audition."</ref><ref name=enm/> They recorded together in 1949 and married on July 13, 1953.<ref name=enm/><ref name="AM">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Their songs included Johnny Mercer's and Harold Arlen's "That Old 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 or Chorus for "That Old Black Magic".<ref name="ga">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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 cover 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.<ref name="PKM">Template:Cite news</ref> Smith 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, though her actual voice was not used.<ref>Template:YouTube</ref>

Smith appeared with Prima in the movie Hey Boy! Hey Girl!, singing "Fever", and also appeared in and sang on the soundtrack of the previous year's film Thunder Road. Her song in Thunder Road was "Whippoorwill". She also appeared in the film Senior Prom.<ref name="opa" />Template:Circular reference

Her first big solo hit was "I Wish You Love" in 1957, and it brought her a Grammy award nomination for Best Vocal Performance, Female.<ref name="ga" /> Her debut album by that same title achieved gold status.<ref name=enm/> In 1961, Smith divorced Prima. She then signed with Reprise Records, where her musical director was Nelson Riddle.<ref name="opa">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Circular reference

In 1965, she had Top 20 hits in the United Kingdom with an album of Beatles compositions, Keely Smith Sings The John Lennon—Paul McCartney Songbook, and a single, "You're Breaking My Heart", which reached No. 14 in April.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums">Template:Cite book</ref>

She returned to singing in 1985, recording the album I'm in Love Again with Bud Shank, Bill Perkins and Bob Cooper.<ref name="AM"/> Her albums, Swing, Swing, Swing (2000), Keely Sings Sinatra (2001) for which she received a Grammy nomination, and Keely Swings Basie-Style With Strings (2002) won critical and popular acclaim.<ref name="AM"/> In 2008, she performed a duet with Kid Rock during the 50th Grammy Awards on "That Old Black Magic".<ref name=mn/>

Smith earned positive reviews for her performances at Feinstein's nightclub in Manhattan in 2005. Said Variety: "Smith's bold, dark voice took firm hold on a handful of great standard tunes, and she swung hard", and The New Yorker called her "both legendary and underrated ... She can still sing the stuffing out of a ballad as well as swing any tune into the stratosphere."Template:Cn

According to a news release from her publicist issued upon her death, Smith was "very resolute in being in control of the trajectory of her career".

"Nobody will ever interfere with what I do on stage", Smith once told Theatermania. "Someone might have an opinion of something but, if I disagree with it, I'll go with my own thinking. I'm just a plain person. I sing like I talk — and, when I'm on stage, I talk just like I'm talking to you."

Smith's final performance was on February 13, 2011, at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center in Southern California.<ref name=mn/>

Personal lifeEdit

Smith first married Matteo Gambardella Jr. on September 6, 1947 in Pasquotank County, North Carolina, before divorcing him in December 1950.<ref>North Carolina County Registers of Deeds. Microfilm. Record Group 048. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, N.C.</ref> Smith married Louis Prima July 13, 1953.<ref name="enm" /> in Virginia Beach.<ref>Virginia Department of Health; Richmond, Virginia; Virginia, Marriages, 1936-2014; Roll: 101167092</ref> They had two children, Toni Elizabeth and Luanne Francis.<ref name="enm" /> Smith had affairs with Sam Giancana and Frank Sinatra<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> prior to her divorce from Prima in 1961. She also had a relationship with Clint Eastwood.<ref>Template:Cite book p.119</ref> She married Jimmy Bowen in 1965. The couple divorced in 1969.<ref name="Keely Smith Granted Default Divorce">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1975, Smith married singer Bobby Milano (real name Charles Caci) in Palm Springs. Sinatra gave the bride away. Milano died in 2006. <ref name="Keely Smith">Template:Cite news</ref>

On December 16, 2017, Smith died of apparent heart failure in Palm Springs, California, at the age of 89.<ref name="mn" /> She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

LegacyEdit

In 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to her.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She also has a star at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard in the Recording section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was dedicated on September 22, 1998.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

DiscographyEdit

Solo albumsEdit


With Louis Prima

  • 1958 Breaking It Up! (Columbia)
  • 1959 Louis and Keely! (Dot)
  • 1959 Louis Prima & Keely Smith on Broadway (Coronet)
  • 1960 Louis Prima Digs Keely Smith (Coronet)
  • 1960 Together (Dot)
  • 1961 Return of the Wildest! (Dot)


With Louis Prima, Sam Butera & 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)

NotesEdit

Template:Reflist

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:PortalTemplate:Sister project 

 | name/{{#if:{{#invoke:ustring|match|1=0808906|2=^nm}}
   | Template:Trim/
   | nm0808906/
   }}
 | {{#if: {{#property:P345}}
   | name/Template:First word/
   | find?q=%7B%7B%23if%3A+%0A++++++%7C+%7B%7B%7Bname%7D%7D%7D%0A++++++%7C+%5B%5B%3ATemplate%3APAGENAMEBASE%5D%5D%0A++++++%7D%7D&s=nm
   }}
 }}{{#if: 0808906  {{#property:P345}} | {{#switch: 
 | award | awards = awards Awards for | biography | bio = bio Biography for
 }}}} {{#if: 
 | {{{name}}}
 | Template:PAGENAMEBASE
 }}] at IMDb{{#if: 0808906{{#property:P345}}
 | Template:EditAtWikidata
 | Template:Main other

}}{{#switch:{{#invoke:string2|matchAny|^nm.........|^nm.......|nm|.........|source=0808906|plain=false}} 

 | 1 | 3 =  Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning
 | 4 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning

}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:IMDb name with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|showblankpositional=1| 1 | 2 | id | name | section }}

Template:Keely Smith Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://zalansite.site/mediawiki/index.php?title=Keely_Smith&oldid=378119"