Kay Starr: Difference between revisions

{{Use mdy dates|date=JulyMarch 20222024}}

| genre = [[Traditional pop music|Traditional pop]], [[jazz]], [[country music|country]], [[western swing]]

| label = [[Capitol Records|Capitol]], [[RCA Victor Records|RCA Victor]], [[Happy Tiger Records|Happy Tiger]]

[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/172180556/kay-starr#view-photo=212403770 Gravestone photo with name '''Catherine Laverne Starks'''], findagrave.com. Accessed June 3, 2023.</ref><ref name="NY Times">{{cite news|last1=Belcher |first1=David |title=Kay Starr, Hillbilly Singer With Crossover Appeal, Dies at 94 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/04/arts/music/kay-starr-hillbilly-singer-with-crossover-appeal-dies-at-94.html |access-date=8 May 8, 2023 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=November 3, 2016}}</ref> was an American singer who enjoyed considerable success in the late 1940s and 1950s. She was of [[Iroquois]] and Irish heritage. Starr performed multiple genres, such as pop, jazz, and country, but her roots were in jazz.

Catherine Laverne Starks was born in [[Dougherty, Oklahoma]]<ref name="NY Times"/><ref name="Later Swing Era">{{cite book |last1=McClellan |first1=Lawrence |title=The later swing era, 1942-1955 |date=2004 |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |isbn=978-0313301575 |page=106}}</ref> to Annie and Harry Starks.<ref name="Oklahoma History">{{cite web |last1=Moore Campbell |first1=Ginnie |title=The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture: Kay Starr (1922-2016) |url=https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=ST017 |website=Oklahoma History.org |access-date=8 May 8, 2023}}</ref> Her mother's ancestors were Irish-American while her father was a Native American [[Iroquois]]. She would later claim to be both [[Cherokee]] and [[Choctaw]] descent.<ref name="NY Times"/> At the age of three, the Starks family moved to [[Dallas, Texas]], where her father obtained a job installing building sprinklers. Her mother raised chickens to support the family as well.<ref name="Guardian">{{cite news |last1=Vacher |first1=Peter |title=Kay Starr obituary: Jazz |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/nov/06/kay-starr-obituary |access-date=8 May 8, 2023 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=November 6, 2016}}</ref> Catherine began singing during early childhood, often performing to the chickens that her mother was raising.<ref name="Later Swing Era"/> She sang frequently around the house which caught the attention of her aunt,<ref name="Guardian"/> with whose help she took part in a local talent contest and won at the age of seven.<ref name="Later Swing Era"/><ref name="NY Times"/>

Starr's singing attracted the attention of [[Bob Crosby]]'s manager and had her join Crosby on the road.<ref name="Later Swing Era" /> 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".<ref name="Guardian" /> Despite being let go, she caught the attention of [[Glenn Miller]], who needed a substitute female performer while his regular performer ([[Marion Hutton]]) was ill. For two weeks, Starr performed at the [[Starin's Glen Island|Glen Island Casino]] alongside Miller's orchestra.<ref name="Later Swing Era" /> At age 16, Starr recorded her first tracks with Miller's orchestra: "Baby Me" and "Love with a Capital 'You'". The songs failed to become a success.<ref name="NY Times" /> This was in part because the band played in a key that, while appropriate for Hutton, did not suit Kay. Starr later recalled that she sounded like "a jazzed up Alfalfa" since they weren't in her range.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Friedwald |first1=Will |title=A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers |date=2010 |publisher=[[Pantheon Books]] |isbn=978-0375421495 |page=443}}</ref>

Starr and her mother then returned to Memphis, where she completed high school in 1940.<ref name="Old Time Oklahoma" /> She then moved to Los Angeles and worked alongside Venuti until 1941.<ref name="Memphis">{{cite web |last1=Johnson |first1=Bev |title=Kay Starr: Memphis Music Hall of Fame |url=https://memphismusichalloffame.com/inductee/kaystarr/ |website=[[Memphis Music Hall of Fame]] |access-date=May 9, 2023}}</ref>

After rock-and-roll swept olderestablished performers from the charts, Starr appeared in the television series ''[[Club Oasis]]'', mostly associated with the bandleader [[Spike Jones]]. She recorded several albums, including ''Movin' '' (1959), ''Losers, Weepers…'' (1960), ''I Cry By Night'' (1962), and ''Just Plain Country'' (1962).

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]]'', a 1968 album with [[Count Basie]].

In the late 1980s she performed in the revue ''3 Girls'' with [[Helen O'Connell]] and [[Margaret Whiting]], and in 1993 she toured the United Kingdom 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: Bennett Sings the Blues]]'' (2001). Two of her songs, ''Powder Your Face with Sunshine'' and ''It's a Good Day'', appeared in the 2007 movie ''[[Fido (film)|Fido]]''.

Starr died on November 3, 2016, in Los Angeles at the age of 94 from complications of [[Alzheimer's disease]]. Starr was married six times, including, briefly in 1953, to bandleader/composer [[Vic Schoen]]. Starr was survived by a daughter.<ref name="Belcher">{{cite news|last1=Belcher |first1=David |title=Kay Starr, Hillbilly Singer With Crossover Appeal, Dies at 94 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/04/arts/music/kay-starr-hillbilly-singer-with-crossover-appeal-dies-at-94.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=July 21, 2018 |language=en |date=November 3, 2016}}</ref>

*[https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/kay-starr Kay Starr Interview] at [[NAMM Oral History LibraryProgram|NAMM Oral History Collection]] (1994)]

[[Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in California]]

[[Category:TorchAmerican torch singers]]