Keely Smith

Keely Smith
Smith in 1960
Smith in 1960
Background information
Birth nameDorothy Jacqueline Keely
Born(1928-03-09)March 9, 1928
Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.
DiedDecember 16, 2017(2017-12-16) (aged 89)
Palm Springs, California, U.S.
Genres
OccupationSinger
Years active1939-2017
LabelsCapitol, Dot, Reprise
Spouses
Matteo Gambardella Jr.
(m. 1947; div. 1950)
(m. 1953; div. 1961)
;
2 children
(m. 1965; div. 1969)
Bobby Milano
(m. 1975; died 2006)

Dorothy Jacqueline Keely (March 9, 1928[1][note 1][2] – 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.[3]

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.[4]

  1. ^ Lentz, Harris M. III (2018). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2017. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-3318-3. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  2. ^ Wright-McLeod, Brian (2018). The Encyclopedia of Native Music: More Than a Century of Recordings from Wax Cylinder to the Internet. University of Arizona Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-8165-3864-5. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  3. ^ Clavin, Tom (December 17, 2017). That Old Black Magic: Louis Prima, Keely Smith, and the Golden Age of Las Vegas. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-56976-813-6. Retrieved December 18, 2017 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Harrington, Jim (December 17, 2017). "Iconic vocalist Keely Smith dies from apparent heart failure at 89". The Mercury News. San Jose, California.


Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).