Renowned pop and jazz vocalist Keely Smith, died on December 16, 2017, in Palm Springs, California. Her passing at age 89 was due to “apparent heart failure,” according to her publicist Bob Merlis as reported by the San Jose Mercury News.
Smith, born Dorothy Jacqueline Keely on March 9, 1928, first gained nationwide fame as a singer with Louis Prima’s Orchestra in 1948. She married Prima in 1953 and performed with him in every entertainment medium throughout the 1950s. The two are remembered for such memorable selections as “Bei Mir Bist Du Schön” and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” with best-selling albums The Wildest! and The Wildest Show At Tahoe. The pair won the first-ever pop vocal Grammy in 1959 for their hit recording of “That Old Black Magic.”
Her solo album debut was in 1957 with I Wish You Love, produced by orchestra leader Nelson Riddle for Capitol records, and it established Smith as a star in her own right. Among her other popular albums are Swingin’ Pretty (Capitol) and The Intimate Keely Smith (Reprise).
Of The Intimate Keely Smith, allaboutjazz.com critic Marc Myers writes, “the quality of the work is, frankly, astonishing. Smith’s song choices are off-beat and perfectly tailored for her voice, and her delivery is confessional and pure saloon. What’s more, we hear Smith's voice completely exposed, with little to mask her intonation
