Keely Smith Biography

Dorothy Jacqueline Keely (March 9, 1928, Norfolk, Virginia - December 16, 2017, Palm Springs, California), better known as Keely Smith, was 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

Of Irish and Cherokee ancestry, 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. They recorded together in 1949 and married in 1953.

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 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". 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, 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 and Bill Perkins. 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 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to her.

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.
• Married singer Bobby Milano (real name Charles Caci) in 1975 in Palm Springs. Frank Sinatra gave the bride away.

Legal 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. She had arrest issues dealing with alcoholism and illegal drugs.

Death

On December 16, 2017, Smith died of apparent heart failure in Palm Springs, California at the age of 89. She will be buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills.

Discography

Solo albums

• 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)
• 1964 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)
• 2001 Keely Sings Sinatra (Concord)
• 2002 Keely Swings Basie-Style With Strings (Concord)
• 2005 Vegas '58 - Today (Recorded Live At Feinstein's At The Regency) (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, 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)