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Dorothy Jacqueline Keely (March 9, 1928The 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. – 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.
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.
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". 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. 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.
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.
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. Her debut album by that same title achieved gold status. 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 The 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.
She returned to singing in 1985, recording the album I'm in Love Again with Bud Shank, Bill Perkins and Bob Cooper. 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. In 2008, she performed a duet with Kid Rock during the 50th Grammy Awards on "That Old Black Magic".
Smith earned positive reviews for her performances at Feinstein's nightclub in Manhattan in 2005. Said Variety magazine: "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."
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".
Smith's final performance was on February 13, 2011, at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center in Southern California.
On December 16, 2017, Smith died of apparent heart failure in Palm Springs, California, at the age of 89. She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills.
With Louis Prima
With Louis Prima, Sam Butera & The Witnesses
"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."
Personal life
Smith first married Matteo Gambardella Jr. on September 6, 1947 in Pasquotank County, North Carolina, before divorcing him in December 1950.North Carolina County Registers of Deeds. Microfilm. Record Group 048. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, N.C. Smith married Louis Prima July 13, 1953. in Virginia Beach.Virginia Department of Health; Richmond, Virginia; Virginia, Marriages, 1936-2014; Roll: 101167092 They had two children, Toni Elizabeth and Luanne Francis. Smith had affairs with Sam Giancana and Frank Sinatra prior to her divorce from Prima in 1961. She also had a relationship with Clint Eastwood. p.119 She married Jimmy Bowen in 1965. The couple divorced in 1969. In 1975, Smith married singer Bobby Milano (real name Charles Caci) in Palm Springs. Sinatra gave the bride away. Milano died in 2006.
Legacy
In 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to her. 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.
Discography
Solo albums
Notes
External links
Categories: 1928 Births, 2017 Deaths, American Women Pop Singers, Native American Singers, American Women Jazz Singers, American Jazz Singers, Singers From Virginia, Musicians From Norfolk, Virginia, American People Of Irish Descent, Capitol Records Artists, Dot Records Artists, Reprise Records Artists, Concord Records Artists, Grammy Award Winners, Nightclub Performers, Burials At Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Jazz Musicians From Virginia, Traditional Pop Music Singers, 21st-century American Women
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