Angelina Helen Catherine Cordovano (June 28, 1936 – November 22, 1988), known professionally as Cathy Carr, was an American pop singer.
She was born in The Bronx and as a young girl, Cordovano
made her appearance on the television variety show The Children’s Hour,
sponsored by Horn & Hardart (which is a now-defunct food services firm
which operated the nation’s first food automats — self-service types of
restaurant with just vending machines as chief servers). The company had a
chain of restaurants in Philadelphia and New York.
As Cordovano (or Cathy Carr by then) grew up, she was
part of the United Service Organizations (USO) where she worked as singer and
dancer. She also worked with big band orchestras such as those led by Johnny
Dee, Larry Fotine and Sammy Kaye. During 1953 Carr ventured into the
recording career and signed a contract with Coral Records. She recorded and
released some singles but wasn’t able to achieve any hits.
Carr then jumped to Cincinnati, Ohio-based imprint
Fraternity Records in 1955. After three flop singles from Fraternity, she was
finally able to notch her first hit — and a big one at that — with
her rendition of the hit song “Ivory Tower.” It reached #2 on the Billboard pop
chart; but big it was, “Ivory Tower” was also to be her only major hit. Carr’s
first album, also titled Ivory Tower, was subsequently released. Her second
charting Fraternity-released single “Heart Hideaway,” was only a small hit at
#67.
TV appearances included American Bandstand, The Dick
Clark Saturday Night Beechnut Show and also the Perry Como Show. She also performed
in Australia with the Lee Gordons Record Star Parade Show Tour. And according
to Mellow Larks member Tommy Hamm’s biography, he was married briefly to Carr
in the late 50’s.
In 1959 Carr moved to Roulette Records, where she went on
to have other minor hits until 1961 such as “First Anniversary” (#42, pop),
“I’m Gonna Change Him” (#63, pop), “Little Sister” (#106, pop) and “Sailor Boy”
(#103, pop). Her rendition of Phil Spector’s “To Know Him Is to Love Him” was
largely ignored in favour of the original take by the Teddy Bears. Roulette
released Carr's only LP for the label, Shy, which featured the songs "I'm
Nobody's Baby" and "So Near and Yet So Far."
The growing popularity of rock and roll and beat music
made it increasingly harder for traditional pop singers like Carr to gain a
decent hit. Aside from that, her affinity towards teenage pop
(despite her age) and not trying to include more mature songs to her repertoire held her back from growing as an artist.
(despite her age) and not trying to include more mature songs to her repertoire held her back from growing as an artist.
She recorded briefly for Smash Records in her attempt to
record more adult-oriented pop songs, but went back to teenybopper tunes again
when she recorded for Laurie Records. Her single there “Sailor Boy,” bubbled
under the Hot 100 in 1962. She moved to RCA where she recorded pop standards,
before RCA released her last single in 1967.
Carr died from ovarian cancer on November 22, 1988 in
Fayetteville, New York, aged 52.
(Scarce information edited mainly from Wikipedia &
mentalitch.com)
