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A fine traditional pop vocalist,
Keely Smith was best known as the longtime duet partner of the late singer/trumpeter
Louis Prima. However,
Smith was also a talented solo performer, on par with the leading female vocalists of the 1950s. With
Prima she took the "straight man" role in their raucous, just-this-side-of-parody blends of jazz, jump blues, and Italian pop on records like
Las Vegas Prima Style and in their Vegas-oriented shows. They also scored a major success when their 1958 cover of
Johnny Mercer and
Harold Arlen's "That Old Black Magic" hit the Top 20 and garnered the duo the first ever Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group. On her own,
Smith recorded a string of well-received albums and scored a hit with "I Wish You Love" in 1957. After divorcing
Prima, she signed with
Frank Sinatra's
Reprise Records and released a series of sophisticated albums featuring musical direction by
Nelson Riddle and
Ernie Freeman. She also returned to the charts in 1965 with the Top 20 British single "You're Breakin' My Heart." After a period away from the spotlight, during which time she raised her daughters, she made a comeback in the 1980s. Over the next 30 years until her death in 2017,
Smith recorded a handful of albums for Concord and performed often.
Born
Dorothy Jacqueline Keely in Norfolk, Virginia in 1928,
Smith grew up in a family of Cherokee and Irish heritage. As a child, she sang on a radio show (eventually adopting her stepfather's last name as her stage name), and later performed with Saxie Dowell's band at a local naval air station. The singer was only 15 when she first saw
Prima perform in New York City. The following summer,
Prima played her hometown of Norfolk at the same time he was looking for a new female singer.
Smith won the job on a more or less spur-of-the-moment audition, and recorded her first duets with
Prima in 1949. Eventually they became romantically involved as well, marrying in 1953 and recording throughout the '50s, though they had their greatest success as one of Las Vegas' most successful stage acts.
When the duo was signed to Capitol,
Prima stipulated that
Smith get her own recording deal. Her subsequent Capitol albums, including 1957's
I Wish You Love, were accomplished readings of popular standards, sometimes swinging mildly, although
Smith seemed more comfortable with ballads. She and
Prima left Capitol for Dot at the end of the '50s, and in 1961 she divorced him on grounds of extreme mental cruelty.
After divorcing
Prima,
Smith formed her own Keely Records label and partnered with longtime friend and mentor
Frank Sinatra for a handful of impeccably produced efforts. Released under
Sinatra's own
Reprise imprint, 1963's
Little Girl Blue/Little Girl New and its successors showcased
Smith's highly resonant vocal style, framing her in swinging arrangements by
Nelson Riddle and
Ernie Freeman. The
Reprise albums proved a boon for the singer, garnering her a Top 20 British hit in 1965 with "You're Breakin' My Heart."
After a nearly ten-year hiatus from the music business spent raising her two daughters,
Smith returned to performing. She made a comeback album in 1985 on Fantasy, I'm in Love Again, which featured accompaniment from top West Coast jazzmen
Bud Shank and
Bill Perkins. What Kind of Fool Am I? followed in 1994.
In the wake of the late-'90s neo-swing revival,
Smith recorded several well-regarded albums for Concord, including 2000's Swing, Swing, Swing, 2001's Grammy-nominated Keely Sings Sinatra, and 2002's Keely Swings Basie-Style with Strings. Three years later, she re-created the atmosphere of her classic live Las Vegas act with
Prima on Vegas '58 -- Today. In 2012,
Smith delivered the standards-centric Sweet and Lovely. A savvy businesswoman,
Smith retained the rights to her
Reprise masters, which were never issued on disc. In 2016, she partnered with Real Gone Music and issued all five of her mid-'60s
Reprise albums, starting with 1964's
The Intimate Keely Smith and including the
Beatles-themed
Keely Smith Sings the John Lennon-Paul McCartney Songbook.
Smith passed away on December 16, 2017 of apparent heart failure; she was 89 years old. ~ Richie Unterberger