Keely Smith

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 ...