# (1929-2017) Keely Smith, a vocalist best known in the 1950s at nightclubs and on TV: Videos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/12/18/1929-2017-keely-smith-a-vocalist-best-known-in-the-1950s-at-nightclubs-and-on-tv-videos/
- Published: 2017-12-18T21:00:07+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Keely Smith, a vocalist best known in the 1950s at nightclubs and on TV as the
stone-faced half of a husband-and-wife comic duo in which she impatiently waited
out and mocked the rubbery crooning style of mate Louis Prima before delivering 
a sincere pop rendition of her own, died on December 16. She was 89.**

After their divorce in 1961, the split left fans wondering whether the personality
differences that made their on-stage act so successful were, in part, rooted in 
their home life. Everything about Keely’s darting looks on stage and Prima’s apprehensive
glaces seemed a little too real. The discord that they ginned up—Prima’s primal 
R&B delivery and Smith’s controlled pop response—on hit songs such as _That Old 
Black Magic_, _Just a Gigilo_ and _Don’t Worry About Me_seemed akin to the marital
strains on TV’s _The Honeymooners_.

In some respects, their mass appeal rested largely with the subtext in their act,
depending on your perspective. From a wife’s vantage point, the pains of enduring
the loud, clownish antics of a husband were all too familiar, while the male view
saw Smith as an up-tight kill-joy only too eager to extinguish her husband’s fun.
In truth, the act borrowed quite a bit from the jazz-pop pairing of Louis Armstrong
and Ella Fitzgerald.

In the 1960s, a newly single Smith went on to have a strong solo career at clubs
and on albums, thanks in part to the benevolence of Frank Sinatra, whose Reprise
label signed her. Some of her best albums were recording during this period.

In the 1950s, the pairing of Keely and Prima helped loosen up pop music, injecting
heat and chicanery to a genre that had grown staid and sexless. A familiar melody
in the hands of Prima and Keely was given fresh life as a novelty song, particularly
when the blow torch of Sam Butera’s raucous saxophone was added.

Here are a bunch of videos celebrating Smith’s voice:

Here’s _That Old Black Magic_…

Here’s _All the Way_…

Here’s _Superstar_….

Here’s _Do You Want to Know a Secret_…

Here’s _Imagination_…

And here’s _What Kind of Fool Am I _(that last held note is all you need to know
about Smith)_._..

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