Who is your favorite "forgotten singer"?

[BeBopBaby]

Come on now! It don't matter who's in Austin, Bob Wills Is Still The King!

One of my favorite all-time reviews on Amazon was a review that someone wrote about a Bob Wills album. The reviewer said, "I like the music, but this guy keeps yelling over it and ruining it." lol

 

[BeBopBaby]

Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mama_Thornton

-dixon cannon

Bow wow! I love Big Mama Thorton. And don't forget Sister Rosetta Tharpe. She was playing a fuzzed-out, distorted guitar way before it became popular in the 1960s.

 

[Fletch]

Anybody familiar with Carl Ravazza, from the early 30s Tom Coakley band? Wonderful voice and a very natural delivery.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Beverly Kenny. A singer who started her career in Miami at the wonderfully named "Black Magic Room" club and had a few albums during the mid-1950s on Decca. I believe she committed suicide in the aftermath of a failed love affair. She was really good and I'm having a heck of a time finding anything domestically issued of her work.

Bev Kenney - "La de Da, 'tis Autumn"

Just a few albums. Died in 'late 50s very young.

Wow! There's actually two of us who remember her!!!

 

[Sweet Polly Purebred]

Maxine Sullivan .. Wow! What a voice ..

 

[thebadmamajama]

Bessie Smith and Eva Cassidy. Totally different ends of the spectrum

 

[Jerekson]

Del Shannon and Colin Hay.

Both have had minor publicity with specific songs, but on a whole most people haven't heard of either of them.

 

[J.B.]

Del Shannon......

Welp, Del Shannon and Runaway are certainly un-forgettable AFAIC! I dug it in 1961 -- the first time around...

...and loved it again when it reprised as the theme song for these guys...

...my favorite-est TV crime show series ever!!

 

[HadleyH]

I've just 'discovered' Bob Howard (and his orchestra) he is absolutely amazing!!! A cross between Fats Waller and L.Amstrong :eusa_clap
He sings this tune called "I'll Never Change" (1935 I think) among others, I'll try to post a link to it soon.(I don't know if I'll be able to tho, but I'll try).

 

[Lady Day]

Jackie Wilson

*swoon*

LD

 

[DaveTheDude]

I saw a documentary this past weekend on the late great Sam Cooke.

This guy was so talented. Just listen to some of his music,
"You Send Me", "Wonderful World", " (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons",
"Bring It On Home To Me", "A Change Is Gonna Come".

 

[HadleyH]

Pat O'Malley! (1904-1985)

Amazing voice!!!:eusa_clap

He worked in the Jack Hylton Orchestra. Tunes of his, like "After You" (1933) and "Try a Little Tenderness" (1933) are well worth listening to. By 1930 he was the lead singer on that band, he then moved to Hollywood to make pictures.

I've been listening to him a lot lately, he is up there with Al Bowlly and Sam Browne. His voice is truly beautiful !!!

 

[Lotus Leroux]

Tex Beneke

Ivie Anderson

 

[thebadmamajama]

I saw a documentary this past weekend on the late great Sam Cooke.

This guy was so talented. Just listen to some of his music,
"You Send Me", "Wonderful World", " (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons",
"Bring It On Home To Me", "A Change Is Gonna Come".

Couldn't agree more.

 

[Naphtali]

Matt Monro, a British singer, had a voice comparable with Sinatra before hemorrhage, and repertoire somewhat less interesting than Sinatra after hemorrhage.

"Florence Foster Jenkins" and "singer" in the same sentence? Every so often Jim White of KMOX radio in St. Louis would play some Jenkins and some Knobnoster Marching Band between 10 PM and 2 AM when I lived in St. Louis in the 1970s. Can you say: Finger nails on a chalk board?

 

[ClayBob]

I love Lucky Millinder particularly the song, "Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well". Also, Louisiana's singing Governor Jimmie Davis (You Are My Sunshine).
Oh and Memphis Minnie, Barbara Lynn, and Lavern Baker.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Luckily my station still plays Matt Monro. Love him. Some of these "forgotten singers" I hear in regular rotation but some I've never even heard of. Interesting thread. I don't know who my favorite is but the one man I can't get enough of is Billy Eckstine. Don't hear him nearly as much as I used to on the Frank stations, so maybe that is a good definition of forgotten. I have records, though.

 

[Bill Taylor]

Although I have been lurking around Fedora Lounge a good while, I have never posted before, so here goes: As forgotten singers, I listen to these often. Nora Bayes, especially "Over There" (Geo M. Cohan - he selected her to record it) Victor Records, 1917 "How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down On The Farm When They've Seen Paree". Nora wrote "Shine on Harvest Moon in 1903 and sang it often, but strangely, it became Ruth Etting's signature song.

Billy Murray (also sang "Over There", but I like "Me And My Gal" better. Very popular on the stage and records during the teens and twenties.

Fanny Brice singing anything, but especially "My Man", Victor 1921 and "Second Hand Rose" about 1912 or 1915. She's even better than Streisand in "Funny Girl", which was about Fanny Brice anyway.

Al Jolson, especially "Swanee", Toot Toot Tootsie, Goodby" "Mammy"(first done on stage by William Frawley. Also, "Are you Lonesome Tonight", which was a Jolsen hit 30 years before Elvis recorded it.

William Frawley was a popular young song and dance man in Vaudeville and he first did "Mammy" but didn't think it was right for him and gave it to Jolsen. Who is Frawley you ask. Well, for you younger loungers (I am 74, started to school in 1938 and remember this old stuff), William Frawley was Fred Mertz(and Ethyl) on the "I Love Lucy" TV series.

 

[SamMarlowPI]

Dinah Washington...dunno if she's forgotten...or Thelonius Monk...or David Ruffin solo albums...or Sarah Vaughan..

 

[J.B.]

Although I have been lurking around Fedora Lounge a good while, I have never posted before, so here goes...

Welcome to tFL, Bill Taylor -- good to see you posting! Interesting about William Frawley's pre-Fred Mertz days. It's hard to imagine him singing! (I believe he was also known for tippin' a few in his time?!) :cheers1:

Oh, and be sure to stop by this thread to introduce yourself there as well!