Roy Bargy born 31 July 1894

 

Roy Fredrick Bargy (July 31, 1894 – January 16, 1974) was an American composer and pianist.

Roy Frederick Bargy was born in Newaygo, Michigan on July 31,

1894 but grew up in Toledo, Ohio. When he was five years old, he started taking piano lessons which lasted until he was 17. Aspiring to the concert stage, he soon realized that unless he could study in Europe he wouldn't be able to break into the tight classical music world in America. The musical establishment until after the Second World War didn't permit American artists access to the concert halls and operatic stages unless they had extensive training abroad.

Rebuffed from his chosen career, Roy hung around the District in Toledo listening to such black pianists as Johnny Walters and Luckey Roberts. Like many another teenage prodigy, he soon got jobs playing piano and organ after school at the local movie houses. For school dances he organized his own orchestra.

Roy's 1917 draft card shows him listed as a musician playing for a Toledo country club. He ended up being enlisted for five months of 1918, serving in the Army in Central Officer's Training School in Georgia, and was honorably discharged at the end of November. In a Music Trade Review article of September 13, 1919, it was noted that: "Mr. Bargy was in an officers' training camp when the Germans resigned, and while in the service was a great organizer of bands and orchestras among the soldiers. He has played in many parts of the country and wherever he has appeared his true musicianship has been appreciated."

Bargy's first professional break came in 1919 when he auditioned for manager Charley Straight at the Imperial Player Rolls company. He began by recording his own piano novelties and arranging popular songs. He was chosen by Imperial to challenge QRS's new star of novelty piano, Zez Confrey, who had a similar background in the classics and who a year earlier began to create syncopated novelties. While Roy was hired to compete with Confrey, he was in no way imitating him, and although his compositions didn't meet the fantastic popularity Confrey's did, they were equal in inventiveness.


Bargy (the pianist) leading the Benson Orchestra 1922

In 1920, while working for Imperial, Straight introduced Roy to Edgar Benson, a booking agent who had formed a band to record for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Benson was impressed with Roy's musicianship and hired him as pianist, arranger and musical director of the dance orchestra. Roy recorded six piano solos (mostly in the novelty ragtime style) of interest during 1922-24 that, along with his 11 piano rolls, were reissued on a Folkways LP. His best-known composition is "Pianoflage."

 

 

The Victor recordings established Bargy as a triple-threat talent and provided him with the means to secure his services in similar capacities for such distinguished dance bands as those led by composer-saxophonist Isham Jones. Roy then began a twelve-year association with the greatest dance orchestra, Paul Whiteman's, in 1928 where his "legitimate" technique allowed him to play both credible jazz and classical solos such as "Rhapsody In Blue."In 1928 he was the first pianist to record George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F (in an arrangement by Ferde Grofé). Bargy eventually became second in command within the band and continued to work with Whiteman until 1940.

In 1940 Bargy was very active in radio as a conductor. He led bands for the studio orchestras of Lanny Ross, Xavier Cugat and Gerry Moore.In 1943 he became Jimmy Durante's musical director.. He is known for his work on All Star Revue (1950), The Jimmy Durante Show (1954) and The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950).

There was a brief reunion of Roy with Paul Whiteman in 1953 when the two played along with others in a travelling revue. An ad for them in Reno in July, 1953, shows the "King of Jazz" on the same bill as the "Piano Extraordinary" of Bargy along with some teen-aged musical acts from Whiteman's television show. Unfortunately, performing became more difficult for Roy in the mid-to-late-1950s due to the onset of arthritis, so appearances by Bargy with Whiteman or Durante diminished throughout the decade. One of their last performances together was for Durante's Fiftieth Anniversary in Show Business special, broadcast in full colour on NBC Television on August 9, 1961.

Both Jimmy and Roy retired in 1963 with Roy spending most of his time playing golf, a sport also enjoyed by Zez Confrey. Roy died at his home in Vista, California on January 16, 1974. Although Bargy left behind only a few compositions, his contributions to recorded jazz are considerable but hard to measure because he left his imprint in so many places.

(Info various, mainly edited from www ragtime.ru) 

Benny Featerstone born 30 July 1912

Benny Featherstone (July 30, 1912 –April 06, 1977) is considered "one of the most fascinating and gifted musicians in the history of Australian jazz". Once described as "Australia's Louis Armstrong. He was the first notable Australian jazz improviser who mastered many instruments - trumpet, trombone, clarinet and piano. But most of all he was an excellent drummer.

His family moved to Melbourne c.1918 where Benny attended Melbourne Grammar and played trombone with the school orchestra and its Footwarmers band (1926-1927). He was the drummer with Joe Watson and His Green Mill/Wentworth Hotel Orchestra (1929-1931) and recorded with them and the Beachcombers (1930).

 Here's  Joe Watson & His Green Mill Orchestra : You're The Cream In My Coffee, Recorded in Melbourne 1929.

Musicians: Joe Watson George Dobson t, Don Binney tb, Arthur Morton Les Paine as cl, Tiny McMahon ts cl, George McWhinney p, Tris Hill bj, Vic Woods bb, Benny Featherstone d, Jack O'Hagan v.

During 1931-1933 he worked with bands led by Maurice Guttridge, Les Raphael, Ern Pettifer, Geoff Smith and the 3DB Radio studio band. He went to England in mid 1933 where he heard and met Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington and played a short engagement at the Silver Slipper Club. On his return to Melbourne he joined Art Chapman’s New Embassy Band and led a group at Rex Cabaret (which included Frank Coughlan).

He went to Sydney in late 1934 to front Ben Featherstone’s Famous Band for a twelve-month residency at the Manhattan Club/Cabaret but returned home when the club went bankrupt after eight weeks. Led the Commodore Cabaret band and was with Art Chapman’s orchestra at Wattle Palais until reforming his band in late 1935. From mid 1937 he worked with popular dance, swing and show bands including those led by Harold Wray, Charles Rutherford, Bob Tough, Don Rankin, Mick Walker, Bob White, Bill O’Flynn, Mickey Powell and Claude Carnell.

He contributed to the legendary Fawkner Park Kiosk jam sessions on weekends and led his own swing quartet, sextet, Six Stars of Swing and Dixielanders (with Roger Bell and Pixie Roberts). He joined the merchant navy in late 1943, played in American Servicemen’s clubs in Queensland, was in Oakland USA on VP Day (15 August 1945), then disappeared from the music scene, became a shipping clerk (1958-1975) and was inactive musically except for occasional jam sessions at parties and a Bob Clemens’ Downbeat Town Hall Concert in 1954.

He became reclusive in his later years and died in Melbourne 6^th April 1977.

(Info and photos very scarce, but managed to find this article by Ernst Grossman from Jazzline)

Ole Erling born 29 July 1938

Ole Erling was born Erling Axel Olsen on July 29th 1938 in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Denmark. Although he grew up in a musical home, it was not immediately apparent that Erling, the youngest of three brothers, would have a career as a professional musician. He worked for a period as a caretaker, and then trained as an electrician.

He was once called in to the "Hammondhuset" in the Stroget in Copenhagen (a store specialising in organs), to repair a light. He heard the sound of the "Hammond" organ being played by a skilled musician, and suddenly decided that he would like to learn. Erling bought a "Hohner" organ from an orchestra in Italy which had run out of money, and were selling their instruments.

After a period of practice, he began performing at weddings and other religious events, and eventually became a 'banquet' musician (in Danish, a "suppe-steg-og-is-musiker"). He took a stage name, Ole Erling, and in 1968 received an engagement at the Hotel Marina (by now he was playing an American "Baldwin" organ). His career gained further momentum when he began self-funding the release of gramophone records, cassettes and tape reels filled with 'fun music', as well as containing more lively repertoire. He then set up his own record label ('Populær Musik', later 'PM Musik'), and achieved some chart success, which progressed his career further.

          Here's " How Deep Is Your Love" from above album

However, in the early 1980s interest in organ music was waning in Denmark, and his career slowed almost to a stop. Erling returned to the music scene after buying one of the new "Wersi" organs, happily coinciding with resurgence in interest in organ music, and for several years he played at the Langeland Festival.

In 2015, he sold his record company, and drastically reduced his concert appearances, though he still occasionally released new CDs, though they were now available only online. As an expert in making music with computers, Erling also became a fixture at the annual "Umbraco" developer conference in Copenhagen. Ole Erling died in Smørum on February 20th 2016, aged 77. (Info da.Wikipedia & IMDB)


From the 70´s. A Danish documentary about great Danish organ stars. Ole Erling & Peter Erling.

Carmen Dragon born 28 July 1914

Carmen Dragon (July 28, 1914 – March 28, 1984) was an American conductor, composer, and arranger who in addition to live performances and recording, worked in radio, film, and television.  
                                                                                   

He was educated in Antioch, California, and left following graduation from the old Riverview High School. He obtaned his MA degree from the San Jose College.

Carmen Dragon began his musical career as an arranger with Meredith Willson's orchestra. He was very active in pops music conducting and composed scores for several films, including At Gunpoint (1955), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Night into Tomorrow (1951), and Kiss Tomorrow Good-bye (1950). With Morris Stoloff, he shared the 1944 Oscar for the popular Gene Kelly/Rita Hayworth musical Cover Girl, which featured songs by Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin. He made a popular orchestral arrangement of "America the Beautiful" and also re-arranged it for symphonic band.

Carmen Dragon conducted the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra (which he conducted for ten years), and they performed on The Standard School Broadcast, broadcast on NBC in the western U.S. for elementary schools from 1928 through the 1970’s. The show was sponsored by the Standard Oil Company of California (now the Chevron Corporation), but other than the name there were no commercials. The program featured a high quality introduction to classical music for young people growing up in the 1940’s and early 1950’s. He also conducted the Capitol Symphony orchestras, and he composed, conducted and arranged for a number of American radio and television programs (including the Standard School Broadcast in 1949). He also conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestrac, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and several British television series, and he was a guest conductor for a number of American symphony orchestras. He joined ASCAP in 1950.

Carmen Dragon made a series of popular light classical albums for Capitol Records during the 1950’s with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Some of these recordings have been reissued by EMI on CD. Dragon appeared as himself briefly at the end of the 1979 film The In-Laws, conducting the fictitious Paramus Philharmonic.

Carmen Dragon’s accomplishments include: Oscar winner (Cover Girl, 1944); Emmy winner (Christmas television special, 1964); Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (5,000 hours of radio broadcasts); Music Educator (Standard School Broadcast - a national music education program broadcast directly into elementary classrooms); Orchestrator Extraordinaire (Internationally acclaimed for his unique, lush style); Conductor/Music Director (20 years with the prestigious Glendale Symphony Orchestra and orchestras world- wide); Recording Artist (featured on over 39 recordings with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and Capitol Symphony); Film Composer (over 30 films including Cover Girl and the 1950's cult classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers). The Antioch Unified School District named one of its new elementary schools in his honor. Carmen Dragon Elementary School opened in September 2004.

Of the legacies left behind by Carmen Dragon, the most accessible are the many wonderful orchestrations of pops and light classics available for rental through Carmen Dragon Music Library. Dragon's lush arrangements are appreciated by conductors and musicians for their rich musical content and diversity of style, and every audience enjoys his unique way of expressing emotion through music.

His children: Son, Daryl Dragon of the 1970s pop music duo The Captain & Tennille; Daughter, Carmen E. Dragon (died July 11, 2010), classical worldwide harpist; Son, Dennis Dragon, drummer for the popular surf band Surf Punks; also produced much of The Captain & Tennille's music; Daughter, Kathryn Dragon Henn, Manager of Mr. Dragon's Orchestral Pops Rental Library. He was father-in-law of Toni Tennille.

Carmen Dragon died of cancer, aged 69, in a Santa Monica, California hospital, on March 28, 1984.

(Info edited from Carmen Dragon Website; Wikipedia & IMDB)

Isabelle Aubret born 27 July 1938

Isabelle Aubret (born 27 July 1938) is a French singer. She permanently pays tribute to the greatest artists and her repertoire is worth the best anthologies of classic French music.

A promising gymnast as a child, she won the French national championships in 1952 but, by her late teens, she had turned her attention to singing. Discovered by the music director of a local radio station, she was recruited as featured vocalist to a Le Havre orchestra and, in 1960, she won a singing competition at the Paris Olympia. There she came under the wing of the hall's director, Bruno Coquatrix, who secured her a cabaret spot in the Pigalle.

Aubret released her debut single in 1961, "Nous les Amoureux" -- the following year, French vocalist Jean-Claude Pascal would win the Eurovision Song Contest (for Luxembourg) with the same song. Aubret herself entered France's domestic Eurovision  qualifiers for the first time that same year, when she finished second. The following year, however, her performance of "Un Premier Amour" was victorious, both nationally and on the international stage. 

A tour with singer Jean Ferrat (who wrote her hit "Deux Enfants au Soliel") brought Aubret further attention, as did several high-profile shows with Sacha Distel. She was also support act at Jacques Brel's legendary Olympia shows in March 1963; her career came to a shattering halt, however, when she was involved in a serious car accident. She would be laid up for much of the next three years, but both Ferrat and Brel ensured she would not be forgotten.

Ferrat wrote her a new song, "C'Est Beau la Vie," which she recorded despite being totally incapacitated at the time, while Brel gifted her with the lifetime rights to one of her favorite songs of his, "La Fanette." In 1965, still convalescing, Aubret made a heroic return to the stage, opening for Salvatore Adamo at the Olympia, but it was 1968 before she was truly back in action, when she returned to Eurovision and finished in third place with "La Source." 

She toured throughout the remainder of the 1960s and, in 1970, she returned to the domestic Eurovision qualifiers when she performed a duet with Daniel Bératta on the runner-up "Olivier Olivia." But she was clearly on her way down in the public eye, a victim of both changing musical tastes and her own avowedly left-wing politics. Singles "The Partisan" and "Casa Forte" were scarcely promoted, and she was all but blackballed from national TV.

A new album in 1973, Le Soleil Est dans une Orange, marked the beginning of her rehabilitation, and in 1976 she was back in the Eurovision qualifiers, performing "Je Te Connais Déjà." Four years later, Japanese fans voted her the World's Best Singer, while her albums Berceuse pour une Femme (1977) and Une Vie (1979) were both major successes. 

Tragedy struck again in 1981 when Aubret broke both legs while rehearsing a trapeze act with boxer Jean-Claude Bouttier. Although she continued recording sporadically, and even returned to Eurovision one last time, performing "France France" in the 1983 qualifying contest, it would be 1984 before she released another album, Le Monde Chante, and 1986 before she could return to the road.

This period also saw the release of the compilation Isabelle Aubret Chante Jacques Brel. Her political past was forgotten now, and French media finally embraced her. Released in 1985, the single "1789" was a success, while the album Vague à l'Homme was universally praised for its patronage of rising songwriters Romain Didier, Danielle Messia, and Allain Leprest. The latter also opened for her when she appeared at the Olympia in 1987 for her first Paris shows since the early '70s. 

She marked the bicentenary of the French revolution with the album 1989, while the 1990s opened with another acclaimed long-player, a collection of English-language jazz standards, In Love. This was followed by what many regard as her finest album yet, a 1992 collection devoted to the work of French poet Louis Aragon. Another release that same year, Coup de Coeur, brought together Aubret's interpretations of some of her favorite French songwriters -- Brel and Ferrat, of course, but also Serge Gainsbourg, Francis Cabrel, Charles Trenet, Jean-Jacques Goldman, Henri Salvador, and Guy Béart. And she crowned the year by accepting the Légion d'Honneur award from French president Mitterrand. 

The hit album C'Est le Bonheur was released in 1993, while 1996 brought a live show dedicated (like the earlier album) wholly to the works of Louis Aragon. A boxed compilation of albums dedicated to Aragon, Brel, and Ferrat followed, before 1998 saw her tour France (and Quebec) with a new stage show, this time built exclusively around Brel. She saw out the 20th century with a new album dedicated to songs about Paris and is still active singing and releasing albums. (Info Dave Thompson)

Buddy Clark born 26 July 1912

Buddy Clark (July 26, 1912 - October 1, 1949) was an American popular singer of the 1930s and 1940s. In the late 1940s, after his return from service in World War II, his career blossomed and he became one of the nation's top crooners. He died in a plane crash in 1949.

Clark was born Samuel Goldberg to Jewish parents in Dorchester, Massachusetts. At first he was headed for a career in law at Northeastern University in Boston, but soon turned to what he really loved which was singing which he had been doing on local radio. He made his Big Band singing debut in 1932 as a tenor, with Gus Arnheim's orchestra, but was not successful. Singing baritone, he gained wider notice in 1934, with Benny Goodman on the Let's Dance radio program. In 1936 he began performing on the show Your Hit Parade, and remained until 1938. In the mid-1930s he signed with Vocalion Records, having a top-20 hit with "Spring Is Here". He continued recording, appearing in movies, and dubbing other actors' voices until he entered the military, but did not have another hit until the late 1940s.

Meanwhile Buddy Clark continued to be a large presence on network radio with "Here's To Romance" with the orchestra of David Broekman on NBC Blue beginning in 1942. That year Clark had a small role in the movie musical comedy "Seven Days Leave" which starred Victor Mature and Lucille Ball. Soon Buddy did his part for Uncle Sam and the United States entering the armed forces. After his discharge at wars end he returned to network radio with a starring role on "The Contented Hour" sponsored by Carnation with Jo Stafford and the orchestras of Victor Young and then Percy Faith. Later radio appearances included "The Spike Jones Show" for CBS in 1947, and "The Chesterfield Supper Club" for NBC in 1949. Meanwhile Buddy had been signed by Columbia Records in 1947 for whom he had charted as a featured vocalist ten years before.

In 1946 he signed with Columbia Records and scored his biggest hit with the song "Linda" recorded in November of that year, but hitting its peak in the following spring. "Linda" was written especially for the six-year-old daughter of a show business lawyer, named, Lee Eastman, whose client, songwriter Jack Lawrence, wrote the song at Lee’s request. Upon reaching adulthood, Linda became famous as a photographer and a musician as a member of Wings, the 1970s band headed by her husband, former Beatle Paul McCartney. 

1947 also saw hits for Clark with such titles as "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" (from the musical Finian's Rainbow), which made the Top Ten, "Peg O' My Heart", "An Apple Blossom Wedding", and "I'll Dance at Your Wedding". The following year he had another major hit with "Love Somebody" (a duet with Doris Day, selling a million and reaching #1 on the charts) and nine more chart hits, and extended his success into 1949 with a number of hits, both solo and duetting with Day and Dinah Shore. A month after his death, his recording of "A Dreamer's Holiday" hit the charts.

On Saturday, October 1, 1949, hours after the 37-year-old had completed a Club Fifteen broadcast on CBS Radio with The Andrews Sisters—subbing for ailing host Dick Haymes.  Clark's last radio broadcast found him in very high spirits, clowning with Maxene, LaVerne, and Patty Andrews. He joined them for a comical rendition of "Baby Face," during which Buddy amused the CBS studio audience, as well as the famous swing trio of sisters, with his spot-on Al Jolson impression. 

Clark joined five friends in renting a small plane to attend a Stanford vs. Michigan State college football game. On the way back to Los Angeles after the game, the plane ran out of fuel, lost altitude, and crashed on Beverly Boulevard in West Los Angeles.  

Clark survived the initial crash by being thrown from the plane, but died hours later in a hospital from his injuries, the only one on the plane to have perished. And so one of the great stars of the post war years had lost his life. In those short two and a half years, Clark had placed twenty three records on the best seller lists, ten of which cracked the top ten, and three of which were number one records. An unexpected and tragic death had robbed America of one of its most talented and enduring singing stars. 

 

For his contributions to the music industry, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 6800 Hollywood Boulevard.  (Info edited from Wikipedia & Interlude Era)

Walter Brennan born 25 Jly 1894

Walter Brennan (July 25, 1894 – September 21, 1974) was an American actor. Brennan won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor three times and is tied with Jack Nicholson for the most Academy Award wins for a male actor.

Walter Andrew Brennan was born in Lynn, Massachusetts. He attended college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying engineering. While in school, Brennan became interested in acting, and began to perform in vaudeville. While working as a bank clerk, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a private with the 101st Field Artillery Regiment in France during World War I. Following the war, he moved to Guatemala and raised pineapples, before settling in Los Angeles. During the 1920s, he became involved in the real estate market, where he made a fortune. Unfortunately, he lost most of his money when the market took a sudden downturn due to the Great Depression. 

Finding himself broke, he began taking extra parts in 1929 and then bit parts in as many films as he could  and also worked as a stunt

man. In the 1930s, he began appearing in higher-quality films and received more substantial roles as his talent was recognized. This culminated with his receiving the very first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Swan Bostrom in the period film Come and Get It (1936). Two years later he portrayed town drunk and accused murderer Muff Potter in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. 

He would win it twice more in the decade, and be nominated for a fourth. His range was enormous. He could play sophisticated businessmen, con artists, local yokels, cowhands and military officers with apparent equal ease. Throughout his career, Brennan was frequently called upon to play characters considerably older 

than he was in real life. The loss of many teeth in a 1932 accident, rapidly thinning hair, thin build, and gravelly voice all made him seem older than he really was. He used these physical features to great effect. In many of his film roles, Brennan wore dentures; in Northwest Passage—a film set in the late 18th century, when most people had bad teeth—he wore a special dental prosthesis which made him appear to have rotting and broken teeth. 

Director Jean Renoir gave the character actor a leading role in 1941: Brennan played the top-billed lead in Swamp Water. During that same year in the film Sergeant York, he played a sympathetic preacher and dry goods store owner who advised the title character played by Gary Cooper. Though he was hardly ever cast as the villain, notable exceptions were his roles as Old Man Clanton in the 1946 film My Darling Clementine opposite Henry Fonda, the 1962 Cinerama production How the West Was Won as the murderous Colonel Jeb Hawkins, and as Judge Roy Bean in The Westerner, for which he won his third best supporting actor Academy Award, in 1940. 

Brennan appeared in several other movies and television programs, usually, as an eccentric "old timer" or "prospector". Prior to the launching of The Real McCoys, Brennan appeared as himself as a musical judge in the 1953-1954 ABC series Jukebox Jury. He also made a few recordings, the most popular being "Old Rivers" about 

an eccentric but much-beloved farmer; it was released as a single in 1962 by Liberty Records with "The Epic Ride Of John H. Glenn" on the flip side, and peaked at number 5 in the U.S. Billboard charts. 

Unlike many actors, Brennan's career never really went into decline. As the years went on, he was able to find work in dozens of high quality films, and later television appearances throughout the 1950s and 60s. As he grew older, he simply became a more familiar, almost comforting film figure whose performances continued to endear him to new generations of fans. In all, he would appear in more than 230 film and television roles in a career spanning nearly five decades. 

For his contribution to the television industry, Walter Brennan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6501 Hollywood Blvd. In 1970, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where his photograph adorns a wall. 

He died in 1974 of emphysema, a beloved figure in movies and TV, the target of countless comic impressionists, and one of the best and most prolific actors of his time. (Info edited from Wikipedia & IMDB)

Peggy Mann born 27 September 1919

Margaret Germano, better known as Peggy Mann (September 27*, 1919 – summer 1988), was an American Big Band singer who was prominent in the 1930s and 1940s. 

Now virtually forgotten, but certainly deserving of reappraisal, is Peggy Mann. Born Margaret Germano in Yonkers New York in 1919, Peggy was a prominent big band vocalist of the late 1930s - early 1940s. A noted beauty and prodigy child dancer, she turned to singing instead, replacing Bea Wain in Ben Pollack's orchestra. 

She also worked with Henry Halstead, Ben Pollack and Enoch Light in the late 30s, and sang with Larry Clinton, Goodman, McKinley and violinist Teddy Powell who formed his first big band in 1938. She also worked with Gene Krupa in the early 40s before she left to work as a soloist. A review in Billboard magazine referred to her "captivating manner that has made her a favourite song stylist." 

She sang with the Pollack band just after its prime, but was on recordings such as ‘I’m In My Glory’, ‘If It’s The Last Thing I Do’ and ‘You Made Me Love You’. With Clinton she appeared on several recordings, including ‘Because Of You’, ‘You’ll Never Know’ and ‘Isn’t It Time To Fall In Love’. For Teddy Powell’s sweet band she duetted with Dick Judge on the hit, ‘Goodbye, Mama (I’m Off To Yokohama)’ and also sang on ‘Somebody’s Thinking Of You Tonight’ and ‘Be Careful, It’s My Heart’.  

                      

                        

Peggy Mann also recorded with Russ Case (‘Crying For Joy’), Tommy Dorsey (‘Bill’), the Benny Goodman Quintet (‘Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye’) and under her own name (‘Changeable’ and ‘When Somebody Thinks You’re Wonderful’). Mann was a replacement singer for Joan Edwards on the radio version of Your Hit Parade. 

On November 1st, 1946, Peggy signed a two year contract as the featured vocalist on the Saturday night "Hit Parade" program. But if there was ever a crowning moment in Peggy's career, it came only a couple weeks later. That's when Peggy had the opportunity to sing with one of the biggest stars of not only the 1940s, but of all time. It was at this time that Peggy met Frank Sinatra and was invited to perform on the Frank Sinatra Radio Show in the last two months of 1946 and for a short time into the New Year. With Peggy having the opportunity to sing with "Old Blue Eyes", this could be the break she needed. What is sad about this short time that the two spent together, is that only one of their duet recordings, "Embraceable You", from November 26th, 1946 is known to exists. 

It's not exactly known why Peggy left Frank's show a couple of months later except that she did have many other offers on the table. And being the go-getter that Peggy was, she tried everything including teaming up with the legendary pianist Eddie Heywood in 1947. Together they recorded three songs that were possibly her finest to date. Performing with Eddie Heywood gave Peggy a chance to have a band compliment her singing instead of the other way around. And with a top notch production facility being used, it was a match made in heaven. These three tracks recorded are probably the rarest to find today in the USA.

One of the gigs Peggy soon landed was 1950's ABC broadcast of "Name the Movie" where she hosted with tenor Clark Dennis. She then went on to host a   television show with Del Courtney on KPIX Television in San Francisco. Peggy also hosted the "Peggy Mann Show" for six months on ABC.

She retired from the music business in the early 50s, but during 1957, our little songbird had shown up one more time. We were able to hear Peggy in what may have been her finest two songs ever recorded. "The Man I Love" and "Someone To Watch Over Me".Hollywood Records released "Music For Going Steady" featuring Vic Damone and Peggy Mann with the Ted Dale Orchestra. No other recording has ever surfaced after this one. Peggy being the private person that she was, quietly slipped away
from showbiz.

For the next 30 plus years, Peggy lived away from the bright lights and entertained her family at many of their gatherings. Her family can still remember how Peggy would sit around the piano and sing "The Man I Love" which would be quite fitting since this was one of the finest songs she ever recorded. During this time, Peggy's star may have disappeared from the public eye, but it was her loving family who kept her still perched upon a pedestal, and to them, back then as she still is today....she was their star. Sadly though, in the summer of 1988, Peggy quietly passed away.  

(* some sources give her birthdate as 24th July. Info edited from Wikipedia & AMG & The Peggy Mann Tribute Page @ facebook )