11 June 2024

Kay Starr Earthy Singer – Phantom Dancer

Phantom Dancer Radio Show

Kay Starr was a jazz singer who started professional at age 15 and sang into her 80s. She also sang country and pop. The lyrics to ‘Bonaparte’s Retreat were written for her. She is your Phantom Dancer feature this week.

This is blog post 1001!

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 11 June) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

KAY

Kay Starr first sang in public at age seven for a talent contest, which she won.

Winning more talent contests lead her to have her on twice weekly show on WRR Dallas.

When she was 15 she was given her own ‘Starr Segment’ on WREC Memphis.

She changed her name to Starr because her real surname, Stark, kept being mispronounced.

During her high school years sang Hillbilly Music until she was discovered by jazz violinist Joe Venuti.

Starr performed in Venuti’s orchestra for the two summers of 1937 and 38 in the prestigious Hotel Peabody in Memphis.

Starr’s singing attracted the attention of Bob Crosby’s manager and had her join Crosby on the road. She went to New York City and played with Crosby’s band for two weeks until she was dismissed by the show’s sponsor for being considered “too earthy”.

You’ll hear her call a cat-calling soldier in the audience of one of today’s broadcasts, ‘a coward’.

Glenn Miller booked her as a substitute female singer while his regular performer, Marion Hutton, was ill.

Starr sang in Miller’s orchestra in the Glen Island Casino at age 16 and recorded two tracks. Neither were successful as the charts were written in Hutton’s key which was too high for Kay.

She moved to Los Angeles and worked in Venuti ‘s band until 1941, after which she signed with Wingy Manone’s band. (Read the Wingy Manone story in an earlier blog)

From 1943 to 1945 she sang with Charlie Barnet’s Ork retiring for a year after contracting pneumonia and later developing nodes on her vocal cords as a result of fatigue and overwork.

STARR

In 1946 Starr became a soloist.

She sang with Benny Goodman.

1947 saw her sign a contract with Capitol Records.

In 1950, she returned home to Dougherty OK and heard a fiddle recording of “Bonaparte’s Retreat” by Pee Wee King.

She liked it so much that she wanted to record it. She contacted Roy Acuff’s publishing house in Nashville and spoke to Acuff directly. He was happy to let her record it, but it took a while for her to make clear that she was a singer, not a fiddler, and therefore needed to have some lyrics written.

Acuff came up with a new lyric, and Bonaparte’s Retreat became her biggest hit up to that point, with close to a million sales.

In 1955, she signed with RCA Victor Records. However, at this time, rock-and-roll was displacing the existing forms of pop music and Kay had only two hits, Bonaparte’s Retreat and Rock’n’Roll Waltz.

She stayed at RCA Victor until 1959, hitting the top ten with “My Heart Reminds Me”, then returned to Capitol.

After rock-and-roll swept established performers from the charts, Starr appeared in the television series Club Oasis, with bandleader Spike Jones.

She recorded several albums in the late 50s, early 1960s.

After leaving Capitol for a second time in 1966, Starr continued touring in the US and the UK. She recorded several jazz and country albums on small independent labels, including How About This with Count Basie (1968).

In the late 1980s she performed in the revue ‘3 Girls’ with Helen O’Connell and Margaret Whiting.

She toured the United Kingdom in 1993 as part of Pat Boone’s ‘April Love’ Tour.

Her first live album, ‘Live at Freddy’s’, was released in 1997.

She sang with Tony Bennett on his album, Playin’ with My Friends (2001).

Two of her songs, “Powder Your Face with Sunshine” and “It’s a Good Day”, appeared in the 2007 movie Fido.