Kitty Kallen (born Katie Kallen; May 25, 1921 – January 7, 2016) was an American singer whose career spanned from the 1930s to the 1960s, to include the Swing era of the Big Band years, the post-World War II pop scene and the early years of rock 'n roll. Kallen performed with popular big band leaders of the 1940s, including Jimmy Dorsey and Harry James,[1] before establishing a solo career.
She is widely known for her 1954 solo recording '"Little Things Mean a Lot", a song that stayed at the U.S. Billboard number one spot for nine consecutive weeks and took top honor as 1954's #1 song of the year, charted in the U.S. for almost seven months, hit No. 1 on the UK singles chart, and sold more than two million copies.[2] Voted "most popular female singer" in 1954 in both Billboard and Variety polls,[3] Kallen lost her voice at the London Palladium in 1955 at the top of her career[4][3][5] and stopped singing before an audience for four years.[4] After testing her voice under a pseudonym in small town venues, she ultimately returned and went on to achieve 13 top-ten career hits.
Early life
Born Katie Kallen (her birth name at times erroneously reported as Katherine Kalinsky)[4][6] on May 25, 1921, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,[4][7] to Russian Jewish immigrants Samuel and Fannie Kalinsky (later Kallen), she was one of seven children.[8] As a child, she won an amateur contest by imitating popular singers. When she returned home with her prize, a camera, her father did not believe her, and punished her for stealing the camera. Only when neighbors subsequently visited to congratulate her did Kallen's father realize she had actually won it.[3]
Career
As a young girl, she sang on The Children's Hour, a radio program sponsored by Horn & Hardart, the legendary automat chain. As a preteen, Kallen had a radio program on Philadelphia's WCAU and sang with the big bands of Jan Savitt[7] in 1936, Artie Shaw in 1938,[9] and Jack Teagarden in 1939. It was with Teagarden's band that Kallen cut her first records, eight sides in total.
Shortly before her 21st birthday, on May 5, 1942, she sang the vocals for "Moonlight Becomes You", with Bobby Sherwood and His Orchestra at the second ever session for what was then still called Liberty Records but would soon be renamed Capitol Records. It was her only session for the label.
At 21, she joined the Jimmy Dorsey band, replacing Helen O'Connell. One of her recordings with Dorsey was a favorite of American servicemen: "They're Either Too Young or Too Old" reached the No. 2 position in the Billboard charts in 1944.[10] The same year, Kallen 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's band.
Between January and November 1945, she had two songs recorded with the Harry James Orchestra in the top twenty, six in the top ten, and two at the No. 1 spot: "I'm Beginning to See the Light" and "It's Been a Long, Long Time",[11] which remains deeply associated with the end of World War II and the returning troops. In 1951, Kallen appeared with Buster Crabbe as the Queen and King of Winter at the Lake Placid resort.[12]
As a solo performer following the war, Kallen bounced from label to label--a brief stint with Musicraft in 1946 and then three years at Mercury in 1949-51, followed by a stint at Columbia and a reunion with Harry James. Despite covering a number of songs that had been hits for other singers, she still failed to produce a major hit. It was not until signing with Decca in 1953 that she at last enjoyed chart success.
With the 1954 hit "Little Things Mean a Lot", she was voted the most popular female singer in Billboard and Variety polls. AllMusic called the recording a "monster hit",[4] and music historian Jonny Whiteside said the song "ably characterizes Kallen's impressive, and graceful, transition from classic big band swing to modern post-war pop".[13] She followed up the song with "In the Chapel in the Moonlight", another million selling record,[2] in the U.S. and a version of "True Love" for Decca.
In 1956, rock-and-roll was dominating the charts and nosing out most older singers. Kallen experienced a mental breakdown during this time in which she found herself unable to sing live, although she could perform in the studio with no problems. She sought help from a psychiatrist but ended the sessions after he asked her to undress as part of therapy. Kallen's psychological issues and the changing music landscape convinced her to retire from performing, but three years later she decided to make a comeback and signed with Columbia.
During the height of her popularity, three imposters billed themselves as Kitty Kallen. When one of them, Genevieve Agostinello, died in 1978, it was incorrectly reported that Kallen herself had died.[15] On February 8, 1960, Kallen received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (located on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard at #7021).[3]
A compilation of her hits on various labels remains available on the Sony CD set The Kitty Kallen Story.
Marriages
While performing with Jack Teagarden's band, she married Clint Garvin, the band's clarinet player. When Teagarden fired Garvin, Kallen left as well, later annulling the marriage. In 1948, Kallen married Bernard "Budd" Granoff, a publicist, agent, and television producer[17] — who later became a pioneering television syndicator.[17] The couple, married for over forty-five years until Granoff's death in 1996, had a son, Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute and Adjunct Professor of International Law at Widener University School of Law.[17]
Later years
In 1977, Kallen sued her dermatologist, Norman Orentreich, after he prescribed an estrogen drug, Premarin, for her small facial wrinkles. She subsequently suffered blood clots in her lungs, caused directly by the drug, and was awarded $300,000 by a court.[18]
Kallen had homes in Englewood, New Jersey, and Cuernavaca, Mexico. By the end of her life, she lived full-time in Cuernavaca, where she died on January 7, 2016, at the age of 94. She was in a relationship with Sonny Shiell in her later years.[21]
Singles discography
Year
Single (A-side, B-side) Both sides from same album except where indicated Unrelated B-sides not shown
^ abJC Marion (2002). "Kitty Kallen". Home.earthlink.net. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
^"Father of Kitty Kallen dies". The New York Times. January 14, 1955. PHILADELPHIA Jan. 13 Samuel Kallen, father of Kitty Kallen, the singer, died last night at Einstein Hospital at-the age of 61. His widow, Rose, and six other children, survive.
^"Placid's Royalty Named"(PDF). The New York Times. December 20, 1951. Former Olympic champion Buster Crabbe and singer Kitty Kallen of Broadway will act as King and Queen of Winter at Lake Placid's twenty-sixth annual coronation ceremonies Dec. 29. Mr. Crabbe and Miss Kallen, who had the lead in Finian's Rainbow will succeed Faye Emerson and Skitch Henderson, last Winter's royal couple. The coronation traditionally opens the winter season at Lake Placid and includes an ice show and hockey game.
^Whiteside, Jonny (June 24, 2010). "Kitty Kallen". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
^EDIDIN, PETER (February 16, 2008). "Universal Royalty Suit". The New York Times. The estates of some of American music's biggest names, including Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Sarah Vaughan, have sued Universal Music Group for more than $6 million, claiming the company cheated them out of royalties, The Associated Press reported. The lawsuit, which was also filed on behalf of some living artists, asserts that the company withheld record royalties, engaged in self-serving schemes with record clubs and suppressed payments from Apple's iTunes and other digital distributors. The court papers accuse Universal of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment. The 14 plaintiffs are Patti Page, Tony Martin, Dick Hyman, Richard Hayman, Kitty Kallen and the estates of Basie, Goodman, Vaughan, Woody Herman, Les Brown, the Mills Brothers, Jerry Murad, Frankie Laine and the gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe. The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, says Universal has been using questionable accounting practices since at least 1998. "We believe that these claims are baseless, and we are confident that we will prevail in court," said Peter Lofrumento, a spokesman for the Universal Music Group.
