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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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KAYE, Sammy

(b 13 March '10, Rocky River OH; d 2 June '87, Ridgeway NJ) Reeds, composer, led sweet dance band. Like Kay Kyser, he used the gimmick of singing song titles. Began at Ohio U, Cleveland after graduation, then on Cincinnati radio, long run in Pittsburgh; finally one of the most successful dance bands well into '60s. Radio show Sunday Serenade late '40s--50s; Kaye was a good front man and his excellent stage show featured 'So you want to lead a band', in which fans volunteered to wave the baton; it transferred to TV '50s. He wrote his own theme, 'Kaye's Melody', also hits 'Until Tomorrow' '41, 'Remember Pearl Harbor' '42, 'Wanderin'' '50 (vocal by Tony Alamo). Pop Memories credits the band with more than 100 hits '37--53, mostly in top ten, incl. no. ones 'Rosalie' '37, 'Love Walked In' '38, 'Dream Valley' '40, 'Daddy' '41, 'Chickery Chick' '45 (novelty by Sidney Lippman, b 1 March '14, Minneapolis, and Sylvia Dee, b Josephine Proffitt Faison, 22 Oct. '14, Little Rock; d 12 June '67, NYC; he also wrote '''A'' -- You're Adorable', hit for Perry Como '49; together they wrote 'My Sugar Is So Refined'; 'Too Young', hit for Nat Cole '51; Broadway show Barefoot Boy With Cheek '47, based on comic novelist Max Shulman). Other Kaye no. ones: 'I'm A Big Girl Now' and 'The Old Lamplighter' '46, 'Harbor Lights' '50. 'It Isn't Fair' was no. 3 '50 (written '33 by Richard Himber and Frank Warshauer); good arrangement of big romantic ballad left space for Kaye after band's intro: 'Here, to sing this beautiful song, is Don Cornell.' Other vocalists incl. Jimmy Brown, Tommy Ryan (who took over Blue Barron band '44). More hits early '60s on Decca (instrumental 'Charade' reached top 40); arranger Charlie Albertine, who created Les Elgart sound, worked for Kaye late '60s. The slogan 'Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye' was sent up as 'Swing and Sweat with Charlie Barnet'. George T. Simon on Kaye's NY debut at the Commodore Hotel '38 wrote: 'The ''swing'' of Sammy Kaye can truthfully be described as follows': followed by inches of blank space, but in fact 'Daddy' '41, written by Bobby Troup, with a vocal by the band, had more than a hint of swing. Compilations on Columbia and Hindsight.