Kay Starr

123,972 plays (37,415 listeners)

jazz, female vocalists, swing, 50s, jazz vocal… see all

She was born Katherine Laverne Starks on a reservation in Dougherty, Oklahoma. Her father, Harry, was a full-blooded Iroquois Indian; her mother, Annie, was of mixed Irish and American Indian heritage. When her father got a job installing water sprinkler systems, the family moved to Dallas, Texas. While her father worked for the Automatic Sprinkler Company, her mother raised chickens, and Kay used to sing to the chickens in the coop. As a result of the fact that her aunt, Nora, was impressed by her singing, she began to sing at the age of seven on a Dallas radio station, WRR, first in a talent competition where she finished third one week and won every week thereafter, then with her own weekly fifteen minute show. She sang pop and “hillbilly” songs with a piano accompaniment. By the age of ten, she was making $3 a night, a lot of money in the Depression days.

As a result of her father’s changing jobs, her family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and she continued performing on the radio, singing “Western swing music,” still mostly a mix of country and pop. It was while she was on the Memphis radio station WMPS that, as a result of misspellings in her fan mail, she and her parents decided to give her the name “Kay Starr”. At the age of fifteen, she was chosen to sing with the Joe Venuti orchestra.

The Ultimate Collection
Kay Starr
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Kay Starr: the Best of The Standard Transcriptions
Kay Starr
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Capitol Collectors Series
Kay Starr
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I've Got To Sing 1944-1948
Kay Starr
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Top Tracks

1	(Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With the Bag full track	139
2	Wheel of Fortune full track	131
3	) The Man in the Bag	100
4	I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm (Stuhr Remix) full track	95
5	I Cry by Night	73
6	Crazy	67
7	Side by Side	57
8	Changing Partners full track	47
9	(Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With the Bag (Thunderball mix) full track	39
10	Bonaparte's Retreat full track	37
11	The Rock and Roll Waltz	20
12	Honeysuckle Rose full track	19
12	Comes A-Long A-Love full track	19
12	After You've Gone full track	19
12	If You Love Me (Really Love Me) full track	19

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Bellathekid wrote:
Monday evening

I love her voice

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BBBrendon wrote:
July 2008

the oldens are the best

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yingjai wrote:
May 2008

i agree she's underrated. i like her songs

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AxeyAxe wrote:
March 2008

Wow! Voice rings out like a bell. Very nice to listen to.

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Nightevacoil wrote:
February 2008

What a wonderful and distictive singer!

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Zen13 wrote:
October 2007

Very underrated Jazz singer. They feature a couple of her songs from this Indy film Fido.

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daslava wrote:
July 2007

what voice!

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Xavierism wrote:
June 2006

I love Kay Start's cover of More Than You Know. She was a true musical diva!

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Recent Activity

petrurban, KrustyKris, marfraga and 16 other people added Kay Starr to their libraries. 11 hours ago
SillyMusicLover tagged Kay Starr with ‘pop’ and ‘female vocalists’. last week
JanPoplonski tagged Kay Starr with ‘female vocalists’. last week
flufftron and dkopera added Kay Starr to their libraries. last week
JanPoplonski tagged Kay Starr with ‘christmas’. last week
madsni, marianaleone, agente99 and 4 other people added Kay Starr to their libraries. last week
memorybooysen tagged Kay Starr with ‘jazz’. last month
bigjohncombo, DonnaLaFolle, snortlikeapig and 29 other people added Kay Starr to their libraries. last month
eve_il tagged Kay Starr with ‘jazz’. August 2008
Debraa added Kay Starr to Debraa’s library. August 2008