Dutch collector card, no. 15.
American actress and singer Pearl Bailey (1918-1990) began her singing career in nightclubs during the 1930s. She made her film debut with Variety Girl (George Marshall, 1947), and as a singer, she scored a big hit in 1952 with her version of 'Takes Two to Tango'. She played Frankie in Carmen Jones (Otto Preminger, 1954) with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte. Her version of 'Beat Out That Rhythm on the Drum' was seen as the highlight of the film. She also starred in St. Louis Blues (Allen Resiner, 1958) opposite Nat King Cole, and featured as Maria in Porgy and Bess (Otto Preminger, 1959), along with Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge. Bailey received a Tony Award for her role in a special performance of 'Hello, Dolly!', with exclusively African-American actors.
Dutch collector card, no. 29.
American rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter Antoine 'Fats' Domino Jr. (1928-2017) was best known for his songs, 'Ain't That A Shame' and 'Blueberry Hill'. He was inspired by boogie-woogie pianists like Meade Lux Lewis and singers like Louis Jordan. In 1946, Domino started playing piano with bandleader Billy Diamond, who nicknamed Domino ‘Fats’ because of his big appetite. His million-selling debut single, 'The Fat Man', is credited by some as the first ever rock and roll record. His style was based on traditional rhythm and blues ensembles of bass, piano, electric guitar, drums, and saxophone. Domino released five gold (million-copy-selling) records before 1955, and had 35 Top 40 American hits. He was one of the most influential rock and roll performers of the 1950s and 1960s. During the 1950s, Fats Domino performed in such films as Shake, Rattle & Rock! (Edward L. Cahn, 1956) with Mike Connors, The Girl Can't Help It (Frank Tashlin, 1956) with Jayne Mansfield, and The Big Beat (Will Cowan, 1958).
Dutch collector card, no. 30.
Lloyd Price (1933-2021) was an American R&B and rock 'n' roll singer. He was known as 'Mr. Personality' after his million-selling hit, 'Personality' (1959). Although most of Price's hits occurred in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had his first hit in 1952 with 'Lawdy Miss Clawdy', which became a major R&B hit. However, his budding career came to a quick halt in 1954 when he was drafted into the army and was sent to Korea. Because of his musical background, though, he was placed into the Special Services (entertainment) branch, where he was put in charge of a large dance band that played 'Swing' music to entertain the troops. It was here that Price got the idea for what was to become his trademark style: combining a lush, full orchestra with the grittier, rawer tempos and vocals of R&B. Lloyd Price was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
Dutch collector card, no. 31.
Lou Levy (1928-2001) counts as one of the leading jazz pianists of the 20th century. He started on piano when he was 12. His chief influences were Art Tatum and Bud Powell. At the end of the 1940s, he first attracted attention as a pianist for Georgie Auld, Boyd Raeburn and Chubby Jackson's bebop band, with whom he also toured Europe. In 1948, he joined Woody Herman's orchestra for a while. He also played with Sarah Vaughan, Tommy Dorsey, and Flip Phillips. Levy gained a strong reputation as a fine accompanist to singers, working with Peggy Lee (on and off during 1955-1973), Ella Fitzgerald (1957-1962), June Christy, Anita O'Day, Tony Bennett and Nancy Wilson. He also played with Benny Goodman, and especially for many years with Stan Getz, with whose quartet he also toured in the 1980s. He also accompanied Frank Sinatra, with whom he also went on tour in spring 1987, on his original recording of 'My Way' (1968) and the accompanying album.
Dutch collector card, no. 32.
Rita Reys (1924-2013) was one of the greatest jazz singers the Netherlands has produced. Drummer Wessel Ilcken introduced her to the jazz scene. In 1950, Reys and Ilcken founded their own combo, with which they achieved success in Europe: the Rita Reys Sextet. In England, they performed in US army bases and dance clubs. They met saxophonist Ronnie Scott, founder of the jazz club Ronnie Scott's. In 1953, Rita and Wessel spent several months in Stockholm, then the centre of the European jazz scene. She recorded her first music records there for the label Artist, with alto saxophonist Lars Gullin's band. Reys' national breakthrough followed in January 1955, with the album 'Jazz Behind the Dikes'. Accompanied by the Wessel Ilcken Combo, she recorded 'My Funny Valentine', her signature song. Aram Avakian of the record company Columbia invited her to New York, where she recorded her first foreign album, 'The Cool Voice of Rita Reys' (1956) with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. At the French Juan-les-Pins jazz festival in 1960, Reys was named Europe's First Lady of Jazz. Her record 'Marriage In Modern Jazz' won Reys her first Edison Award. When she died at 89, she had been the greatest jazz singer in the Netherlands for more than half a century.
Dutch collector card, no. 33.
Jazz saxophonist Stan Getz (1927-1991) was known as 'The Sound' because of his warm, lyrical tone. In the late 1940s, he had his breakthrough with Woody Herman's big band. Getz performed in Bebop and Cool Jazz groups and recorded the album 'Focus' (1961), now considered one of the masterpieces of mid-twentieth-century jazz. He helped popularise Bossa Nova in the United States with the hit 'The Girl from Ipanema' (1964), sung by Astrud Gilberto, and the album 'Jazz Samba' featuring their cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim's 'Desafinado', which sold more than one million copies. It won Getz the Grammy for Best Jazz Performance of 1963. His next Bossa Nova albums were 'Big Band Bossa Nova' (1962) and 'Jazz Samba Encore!' (1963). In 1972, Stan Getz recorded the jazz fusion album 'Captain Marvel' with Chick Corea. He ALSO had a cameo in the film The Exterminator (James Glickenhaus, 1980).
Dutch collector card, no. 35.
Paul Anka (1941) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor. Anka recorded his first single, 'I Confess', when he was 14. He became famous in the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s with hit songs like 'Diana' (1957), 'Put Your Head on My Shoulder' (1959), and '(You're) Having My Baby' (1974). He wrote the theme for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the English lyrics for Frank Sinatra's signature song, 'My Way' (1969). In the 1960s, Anka began acting in motion pictures as well as writing songs for them, most notably the theme for the hit film The Longest Day (Ken Annakin a.o., 1962). For his film work, he also wrote and recorded one of his greatest hits, 'Lonely Boy' (1959).
Dutch collector card, no. 36.
British singer Teddy Johnson (1919-2018) and his wife Pearl Carr (1921-2020) were best known during the 1950s and early 1960s. They were the UK's entrants at the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest with 'Sing, Little Birdie', which came second. The record peaked at no. 12 on the UK Singles Chart. Carr and Johnson were married in 1955 and remained so for 63 years, until their deaths. As a singer, Teddy performed in a few films, including Girls at Sea (1958). The couple became known professionally as 'Mr. and Mrs. Music' and were frequently on British television light entertainment programmes. In 1988, they appeared in the West End revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical 'Follies'. As the vaudeville couple Wally and Emily Whitman, they sang 'Rain on the Roof'. In 1990, after its 18-month run, they decided to retire.
Dutch collector card, no. 42.
Sultry American jazz and pop singer Peggy Lee (1920-2002) recorded such classics as 'Fever', 'Manana', 'Big Spender' and 'Is That All There Is?'. Peggy's big break came in 1941 when Benny Goodman hired her to sing with his band after hearing her perform in a Chicago nightclub. In 1942, Lee had her first No. 1 hit, 'Somebody Else Is Taking My Place', followed in 1943 by 'Why Don't You Do Right?', which sold more than one million copies and made her famous. She sang with Goodman's orchestra in two films, Stage Door Canteen (Frank Borzage, 1943) and The Powers Girl (Norman Z. McLeod, 1943). In Hollywood, she made herself a name with parts in The Jazz Singer (Michael Curtiz, 1952) and Pete Kelly's Blues (Jack Webb, 1955). And she composed songs for Walt Disney's Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1955), for which she also voiced the unforgettable Peg, a broken-down old showgirl of a dog, whose provocative walk was based on the stage-prowl of Peggy Lee.
Dutch collector card, no. 43.
American artist Sarah Vaughan (1924-1990) ranked with Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday in the top echelon of female Jazz singers. Nicknamed 'Sassy' and 'The Divine One', Vaughan was a four-time Grammy Award winner and won an Emmy in 1981 for a tribute to George Gershwin. Scott Yanow at AllMusic: "She often gave the impression that with her wide range, perfectly controlled vibrato, and wide expressive abilities, she could do anything she wanted with her voice." Vaughan performed her songs in several films, including the German production Schlager-Raketen (Erik Ode, 1960).
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