Kitty Kallen (born May 25, 1922^[1]) is an American popular singer who performed with a number of big bands in the 1940s, and scored her biggest hit in 1954 with the song "Little Things Mean a Lot".

Career[link]

Born in Philadelphia^[1][2] to a Jewish family, she won an amateur contest as a child doing imitations of popular singers of the day. While still a child, she sang on The Children's Hour, a radio program sponsored by Horn & Hardart, an automat chain. As a pre-teen, she had her own radio program on Philadelphia's WCAU, and sang with the big bands of Jan Savitt^[2] in 1936, Artie Shaw in 1938,^[3] and Jack Teagarden in 1940. While with the Teagarden band, she married Clint Garvin, who played clarinet in Teagarden's band. When Teagarden fired Garvin, Kallen left as well. The marriage was annulled.

While still in her teens, she joined the Jimmy Dorsey band, replacing Helen O'Connell. In 1944, she performed the vocals for Dorsey's number-one hit "Besame Mucho". Most of her singing assignments were in duets with Bob Eberly, and when Eberly left to go into the service toward the end of 1943, she joined Harry James' band. Between January and November of 1945, Kitty Kallen had two songs recorded with the Harry James Orchestra in the top twenty, six in Top Ten, and two at the #1 spot -- "I'm Beginning To See the Light" and "It's Been a Long, Long Time" which remains deeply associated with the end of World War II and the returning troops.

With the 1954 hit "Little Things Mean a Lot", Kallen was voted most popular female singer in Billboard and Variety polls. She followed up this song with "Chapel in the Moonlight" and a version of "True Love" for Decca. In 1959, she recorded "If I Give My Heart to You" for Columbia Records, and in 1963, she recorded a top-selling version of "My Coloring Book" for RCA. Her final album was Quiet Nights, a bossa nova-flavored release for 20th Century Fox Records. Following these successes, she was forced to retire permanently due to a lung ailment.

A compilation of her hits on various labels is available on the Sony CD set The Kitty Kallen Story.

Kallen received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2009.

Kallen was married to Budd Granoff, a publicist, agent, and television producer, for over forty-five years, until his death in 1996. They have a son, Jonathan Granoff, who is President of the Global Security Institute and an Adjunct Professor of International Law at Widener University School of Law.

Hit recordings[link]

Listen[link]

• Big Band Serenade podcast 155 contains information with many recordings of her singing

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} "Kitty Kallen". AllMusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/kitty-kallen-p32148. Retrieved May 28, 2012. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Kallen page on The Interlude Era site
3. ^ Kallen page on the Solid! site
4. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 296. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 

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Harry James
Background information
Birth name	Henry Haag James
Born	(1916-03-15)March 15, 1916 Albany, Georgia
Died	July 5, 1983(1983-07-05) (aged 67) Las Vegas, Nevada
Genres	Big band, swing music
Occupations	Musician, Bandleader
Years active	1937–1983
Associated acts	Frank Sinatra Ben Pollack Benny Goodman

Henry Haag “Harry” James (March 15, 1916 - July 5, 1983) was an actor and musician best known as a trumpeter who led a swing band during the Big Band Swing Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He was especially known among musicians for his astonishing technical proficiency as well as his superior tone.

Biography[link]

From left: Stan "Cuddles" Johnson, Fraser MacPherson, Bob Smith, Harry James, Al Johnson, Stew Barnett. (The Cave Supper Club, May 1970)

From left: Harry James, Lucille Ball, Betty Grable. (The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show, 1958)

Harry James was born in Albany, Georgia,^[1] the son of a bandleader of a traveling circus.^[2] By the age of 10 he was taking trumpet lessons from his father, who placed him on a strict daily practice schedule. Each day, James was given one page to learn from the Arban's book and was not allowed to pursue any other pastime until he had learned that particular page.

In 1931 his family settled in Beaumont, Texas, where James began playing with local dance bands.

In 1935 he joined the nationally popular Ben Pollack but at the start of 1937 left Pollack to join Benny Goodman's orchestra, where he stayed through 1938. He was nicknamed "The Hawk" early in his career for his ability to "sight-read." A common joke was that if a fly landed on his written music, Harry James would play it. His low range had a warmth associated with the cornet and even the flugelhorn, but he achieved this on the trumpet. This was emulated by Jack Sheldon, but this sound was underrecorded in favor of James' brilliant high register.

In February 1939 James debuted his own big band in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His hit "You Made Me Love You" was in the Top 10 during the week of December 7, 1941.^[3] He toured with the band into the 1980s.

His was the first "name band" to employ vocalist Frank Sinatra, in 1939. He wanted to change Sinatra's name to 'Frankie Satin' but Sinatra refused. His later band included drummer Buddy Rich.

He played trumpet in the 1950 film Young Man with a Horn,^[4] dubbing Kirk Douglas. James's recording of "I'm Beginning to See the Light" appears in the motion picture My Dog Skip (2000). His music is also featured in the Woody Allen film Hannah and Her Sisters. James recorded many popular records and appeared in many Hollywood movies.

He was second only to Glenn Miller as the most successful recording artist of 1942.^[2] His orchestra succeeded Miller's on a program sponsored by Chesterfield Cigarettes that year when Miller disbanded his orchestra to enter the Army.