{"id":1369,"date":"2017-12-19T14:35:23","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T14:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perfectmusictoday.com\/?p=1369"},"modified":"2017-12-20T01:32:18","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T01:32:18","slug":"keely-smith-queen-las-vegas-grammy-award-star-hollywood-walk-fame-las-vegas-hall-fame-walk-stars-palm-springs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perfectmusictoday.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/19\/keely-smith-queen-las-vegas-grammy-award-star-hollywood-walk-fame-las-vegas-hall-fame-walk-stars-palm-springs\/","title":{"rendered":"Keely Smith, \u201cQueen of Las Vegas.\u201da GRAMMY award, a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Las Vegas Hall of Fame, Walk of Stars in Palm Springs a celebration of life"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Michael Hepworth<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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KEELY SMITH MARCH 9, 1928 – DECEMBER 16, 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Keely\u2019s public memorial\/celebration of life. It\u2019s set for 3 PM Saturday, January 6 at Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills,CA<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Palm Springs (Perfect Music Today) 12\/19\/17\/–Keely Smith, the iconic singer\/performer known for her many solo recordings as well as her musical partnership with first husband Louis Prima died in Palm Springs, CA on Saturday, December 16.\u00a0 She was 89 and under physicians\u2019 care at the time of her passing from apparent heart failure. Born Dorothy Jacqueline Keely in Norfolk VA on March 9, 19 28 of Native American (Cherokee) and Irish parentage, Smith showed a natural aptitude for singing at a young age. At 14, she sang with a naval air station band and at 15, she got her first paying job with the Earl Bennett band.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Smith, still a teenager, auditioned to be the \u201cgirl singer\u201d in Prima\u2019s band, got the job and hit the road with them in 1948.\u00a0 She and Prima married in 1953 and had two children together, Toni Prima and Luanne Prima, both of whom survive their mother.\u00a0 The Smith and Prima combination was a potent one both on stage, on television, in films and on records and made Keely Smith a household name.\u00a0 Their partnership earned them a\u00a0GRAMMY\u00ae\u00a0in 1959, the very first year of the awards, for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for their Capitol Records smash hit \u201cThat Old Black Magic\u201d which stayed on the charts for 18 weeks. \u00a0 She went on, 42 years later, to receive a Grammy nomination for her 2001 album,\u00a0Keely Sings Sinatra<\/i>\u00a0in the Traditional Pop Vocal category. \u00a0 She revisited \u201cThat Old Black Magic\u201d on the 50th Grammy Awards telecast in 2008 when she performed the song as a duet with Kid Rock.\u00a0 She was also seen on the big screen in\u00a0Hey Boy! Hey Girl!, Senior Prom<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Thunder Road\u00a0<\/i>while her performing brilliance earned her the title \u201cQueen of Las\u00a0Vegas.\u201d \u00a0She was very resolute in being in control of the trajectory of her career, as underscored by a comment offered to Theatermania some time before her retirement five years ago, \u201cNobody will ever interfere with what I do on stage. Someone might have an opinion of something but, if I disagree with it, I\u2019ll go with my own thinking. \u00a0I\u2019m just a plain person. \u00a0I sing like I talk \u2014 and, when I\u2019m on stage, I talk just like I\u2019m talking to you.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Other Smith and Prima hits included “Bei Mir Bist Du Sch\u00f6n” and “I\u2019ve Got You Under My Skin\u201d and best selling albums with Prima including\u00a0The Wildest! and The Wildest Show At Tahoe.<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0Her 1957 solo debut,\u00a0I Wish You Love<\/i>, produced by Nelson Riddle, established her as a significant recording star in her own right and she followed that up with a string of releases for Capitol, Dot and Reprise including\u00a0Swingin\u2019 Pretty\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0The Intimate Keely Smith<\/i>.\u00a0 The latter album, recorded after her 1961 divorce from Prima, was produced by Jimmy Bowen who married her in 1965. It was re-released to great critical acclaim just last year with Marc Myers, writing in JazzWax, calling it \u201ca flawless album.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 In a time when few women had the vision to be masters of their own artistic and commercial destinies, she set up \u201cKeely Records\u201d her own record label in conjunction with friend Frank Sinatra\u2019s Reprise Records and embraced her role as one of Reprise\u2019s signature artists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Her classic\u00a0run of dates at Feinstein\u2019s in Manhattan in 2005 \u00a0received both critical laudation and standing ovations.\u00a0Variety\u00a0<\/i>noted, “Smith\u2019s bold, dark voice took firm hold on a handful of great standard tunes, and she swung hard\u201d while\u00a0The New Yorker<\/i>\u2019s review called her \u201cboth legendary and underrated.. she can still sing the stuffing out of a ballad as well as swing any tune into the stratosphere.\u201d \u00a0Keely Smith\u2019s final performance took place in\u00a0 February 13,\u00a020 11 \u00a0at Cerritos Performing Arts Center in Southern California. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Over the course of a career that ran for seven decades, Keely Smith has been honored with numerous awards apart from her Grammy. She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, inducted into the Las Vegas Hall of Fame and presented with a Star on Walk of Stars in Palm Springs where she made her home for the past 40 years<\/span><\/p>\n

The Keely\u2019s public memorial\/celebration of life. It\u2019s set for 3 PM Saturday, January 6 at Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills, 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in Los Angeles. \u00a0Her family suggests that those who wish to donate in her name do so to MusiCares:\u00a0https:\/\/www.grammy.com\/musicares\/donations<\/a><\/div>\n
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“My sister Luanne and I are overwhelmed and deeply grateful by 5h3 love and respect shown our dear mother over the past few days. (We believe she would have been too). Mother was a champion of humanity, equal and fair rights for all. She was a true individual, she worked hard, lived life on her own terms and loved her friends and family deeply. Her memory lives on in her music and for us in our hearts. We will miss her everyday and treasure the time we had together.<\/span>\u201d – Toni Prima<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Louis and Keely!<\/div>\n
1959<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I Wish You Love<\/div>\n
1957<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Swingin’ Pretty<\/div>\n
1959<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Keely Sings Sinatra<\/div>\n
2001<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Wildest Show At Lake Tahoe<\/div>\n
1990<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Las Vegas Prima Style<\/div>\n
2012<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A Keely Christmas<\/div>\n
1960<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Keely Swings Basie Style… With Strings<\/div>\n
2002<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Intimate Keely Smith<\/div>\n
1964<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Vegas ’58: Today<\/div>\n
2005<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Little Girl Blue\/Little Girl New<\/div>\n
1963<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Swing, Swing, Swing<\/div>\n
2000<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Box Of Oldies<\/div>\n
2010<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Swing You Lovers<\/div>\n
1960<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Hey Boy! Hey Girl!<\/div>\n
2001<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Louis Prima, Keely Smith & Sam Butera: The Story So Far, Vol.2<\/div>\n
2012<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Greatest Collection, Vol. 1<\/div>\n
2008<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Keely Smith Sings the John Lennon\u2014Paul McCartney Songbook<\/div>\n
1964<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Adore<\/div>\n
2015<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Sweet and Lovely<\/div>\n
2012<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Memorial services for Keely Smith are pending. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\"tn-10\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Michael Hepworth<\/p>\n

287 S.Robertson Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211<\/p>\n

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Michael Hepworth Keely\u2019s public memorial\/celebration of life. It\u2019s set for 3 PM Saturday, January 6 at Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills,CA Palm Springs (Perfect Music Today) 12\/19\/17\/–Keely Smith, the iconic singer\/performer known for… <\/p>\n

Continue Reading Keely Smith, \u201cQueen of Las Vegas.\u201da GRAMMY award, a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Las Vegas Hall of Fame, Walk of Stars in Palm Springs a celebration of life<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[672,673,668,675,666,671,674,669,670,667],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectmusictoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectmusictoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectmusictoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectmusictoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectmusictoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1369"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/perfectmusictoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1373,"href":"https:\/\/perfectmusictoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions\/1373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectmusictoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectmusictoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectmusictoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}