Irene Kral born 18 January 1932

Irene Kral (January 18, 1932 – August 15, 1978), was a jazz singer who was born in Chicago, Illinois. A superb ballad singer who always put both plenty of emotion and subtlety into her often haunting interpretations, Irene Kral stood near the top of her field during her shortened life.

Irene Kral was born to Czechoslovakian parents in Chicago. Her earliest musical influence was her brother, Roy, who at 18 formed his own big band and would rehearse the group in their parent's basement. While watching her brother and his band, she decided that she wanted to sing. She was 8 years old at the time. Her brother, Roy, became well known later as half of 'Jackie and Roy', a highly influential bebop vocal duo, well-respected in jazz circles.

By the time she was 16, she was singing and accompanying herself on piano, performing at school and the occasional wedding. Her vocal skills impressed her professional musician brother enough for him to take her by the hand to audition for a swinging Chicago big band, led by Jay Burkhardt. Burkhardt's band had been the starting point for two other singers, who went on to bigger things, Joe Williams and Jackie Cain (who later married her brother, and was the 'Jackie' of 'Jackie and Roy'). A series of jobs with other bands came and went, over the next few years, including a brief stint with Woody Herman.

In 1954, she landed a job singing with a jazz vocal group called the Tattletales. She played drums, and sang lead with the group, which traveled from coast to coast, and to Canada, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. The group recorded for Columbia Records, but nothing much came of the records. She stayed with the group for a little over a year. Following her heart to stretch out as a solo artist, she left the Tattletales and began picking up the occasional weekend solo job, and auditioning for any band that she thought might be going places.

When she was 25, in 1957, her friend Carmen McRae recommended her to band-leader Maynard Ferguson. The next time Ferguson came through Chicago, she got up on the stand and sang one tune with the band. After Ferguson heard Kral finish singing 'Sometimes I'm Happy', he hired her on the spot and she started that night with no rehearsal. In Fergusons' band she met Joe Burnett, a trumpet and fluegelhorn player, whom she married in 1958. She stayed with the Ferguson band for nearly two years, recording one album with them, before she was offered her own contract to record solo. Her phrasing, timing, and intonation were impeccable, and her interpretations timeless, parsimonious, and sincere.

Here's "Nothing Like You" from 1965 album "Wonderful Life."

After getting married and settling in Los Angeles, Kral did not work for a while. In 1964, she sang on Laurindo Almeida's Grammy Award-winning album, Guitar From Ipanema. The following year, she recorded an album of her own, called Wonderful Life, on the small Mainstream label. In addition to her usual choice of great songs, unfortunately, the company insisted that she record three tunes aimed at the Top 40 'teen' market. On these songs, she seems like a fish out of water. Nothing came of the attempt to make her more 'commercial', and the songs stand as the only blemish on her recorded output of classy material.

Ten years passed before she recorded again. From 1974-1977, she recorded three exquisite albums for Choice and Catalyst, including two duet sets with pianist Alan Broadbent (Where Is Love and Gentle Rain), that are considered classics; her rendition of "Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most" is definitive. Sadly, Irene Kral was struck down by cancer at the height of her career at age 46.

Her recordings (for United Artists in 1959, a 1963 date for Ava, a Mainstream session in 1965, and the Choice and Catalyst albums) are all currently out of print, although a live set from September 1977 put out by Just Jazz in the mid-'90s is available on CD.

Her career never “took off” in terms of fame and fortune, partly because of her untimely death.Irene Kral died on August 15th, 1978 at age 46, in Encino, CA, after having battled breast cancer for 6 years. She had performed up to three weeks prior to her death. Roy Kral says "she managed to express her pleasure at finally being acknowledged when she said to me, 'It looks like we've finally made it.' "

Irene was made more famous posthumously when Clint Eastwood used her recordings in his 1995 movie, The Bridges of Madison County. (Info edited from various sources mainly danacountryman.com)

Eartha Kitt born 17 January 1927

Eartha Mae Kitt (January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer, actress, dancer and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby". Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the world". She took over the role of Catwoman for the third and final season of the 1960s Batman television series, replacing Julie Newmar, who was unavailable due to other commitments. She also voiced Yzma on Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and its television spinoff, The Emperor's New School, earning five Emmy Awards in the process, the last shortly before her death.

Kitt's mother was Black Indian with Cherokee ancestry, and her father was European-American. She was born on a cotton farm in tiny North, South Carolina, but joked about the fact that many audiences assumed her to be from somewhere more exotic.

After winning a scholarship to the Katherine Dunham Dance School, she began to tour with the group and achieved her first professional success. As a member of the troupe, the sixteen year old Kitt toured in Mexico, Europe and South America as well as the U.S. Choosing to stay in Paris, she began to sing in nightclubs. Subsequently, Kitt became known as a singer and actress as well as a dancer. In 1950 she began her acting career as Helen of Troy in an Orson Welles production entitled Time Runs. In 1952 she starred in a Broadway musical, New Faces of 1952.

  

                                

She recorded a number of successful songs in the early 1950s as well, having released her debut album RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt which climbed to number five in the charts. A string a hits followed in her distrinctive gravelly voice including 'Under the Bridges of Paris' and 'My Heart Belongs to Daddy' and she sealed her exotic reputation by releasing another hit album sung entirely in French.

Kitt continued to act in both theater and on film, and to perform in nightclubs. Unwilling to contribute to the discrimination rampant in American society, Kitt decided that she would not perform before segregated audiences and included that requirement in her contracts. She appeared in several films, including St. Louis Blues in 1958 and Anna Lucasta in 1959. In the 1960s she played the role of Catwoman on the Batman television show. Kitt had seemingly achieved the American dream, and was a success in show business.

Her career took a different turn after she spoke out against the Vietnam War at a White House luncheon in 1968 in the presence of Lady Bird Johnson. As a result of her outspoken anti-war position, she was blackballed and was unable to find work in the U.S., with the exception of a few talk shows. Contracts were lost or cancelled. The CIA developed a file containing personal and professional information. Eartha moved to Europe, where she lived and worked for the next ten years, struggling financially and ignored by many friends. Kitt has said she would have spoken out even if she had known the consequences.

Unafraid of controversy, Kitt performed in South Africa in 1974. Heavily criticized, she responded by pointing out that she had
managed to get two schools built there for black children. She had raised the money by selling autographs at department stores. Traveling around the country and performing in an integrated show, Kitt felt she did a little to weaken the apartheid system and raise awareness among South Africans of all colors.

In 1978 she was nominated for a Tony award for her starring performance in another Broadway show, Timbuktu. It was her first major performance in the U.S. in ten years. When the show opened in Washington, D.C., Kitt was invited to the White House, where President Carter met her, saying, "Welcome home, Eartha." The show was a success and ran for two and a half years.

In 1984, she returned to hit music with a disco song, Where Is My Man (UK # 34); the first certified Gold record of her career. Kitt found new audiences in nightclubs across the country, including a whole new generation of gay male fans, and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of HIV/AIDS organizations. Her 1989 follow-up hit "Cha-Cha Heels" (featuring Bronski Beat) received a positive response from UK dance clubs and reached #32 in the UK charts.

In recent years, Kitt's annual appearances in New York made her a fixture of the Manhattan cabaret scene. She took the stage at venues such as The Ballroom and the Café Carlyle to explore and define her highly stylized image. From October to early December, 2006, Kitt co-starred in the Off-Broadway musical Mimi Le Duck. She also appeared in the 2007 independent film And Then Came Love opposite Vanessa Williams. Kitt was the spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics' Smoke Signals collection in August 2007. She re-recorded "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" for the occasion, was showcased on the MAC website, and the song was played at all MAC locations carrying the collection for the month.

She lived for many years in Pound Ridge, NY, but moved to Connecticut to be near her daughter's family. Her final concert performance came in October 2008, with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. Kitt died from colon cancer on Christmas Day, December 25, 2008, at her home in Weston, Connecticut (info edited from Wikipedia and usca.edu)

Eartha Kitt - Just An Old Fashioned Girl (Live Kaskad 1962)

Ethel Merman born 16 January 1909

Ethel Merman (January 16, 1908 – February 15, 1984) was an American actress and singer. Known primarily for her belting voice and roles in musical theatre, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are "I Got Rhythm", "Everything's Coming Up Roses", "Some People", "Rose's Turn", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "It's De-Lovely", "Friendship", "You're the Top", "Anything Goes", and "There's No Business Like Show Business", which later became her theme song.

Merman was born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann in her maternal grandmother's house at 359 4th Avenue, Astoria, Queens, New York. Her father, Edward Zimmermann, was an accountant, and her mother, Agnes (née Gardner), was a school teacher. Merman's father was German American and Lutheran, and her mother was Scottish American and Presbyterian; she was baptized Episcopalian. She attended PS 4 on Steinway Street in Astoria. She used to stand outside the Famous Players-Lasky Studios and wait to see her favorite Broadway star, Alice Brady. Ethel loved to sing songs like "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" and "Alexander's Ragtime Band" while her adoring father accompanied her on the piano. William Cullen Bryant High School in Astoria named its auditorium Ethel Merman Theater.

Merman began singing while working as a secretary for the B-K Booster (automobile) Vacuum Brake Company in Queens. She eventually became a full time vaudeville performer and played the pinnacle of vaudeville, the Palace Theatre in New York City. She had already been engaged for Girl Crazy, a musical with songs by George and Ira Gershwin, which also starred a very young Ginger Rogers (19 years old) in 1930. Although third billed, her rendition of "I Got Rhythm" in the show was popular, and by the late 1930s, she had become the first lady of the Broadway musical stage. Many consider her the leading Broadway musical performer of the Twentieth Century, with her signature song being "There's No Business Like Show Business" (from Annie Get Your Gun 1946).  

 

Here is "I Get A Kick Out Of You" by Ethel Merman feat: Stanley Black / London Festival Orchestra and Chorus taken from above album

Merman starred in five Cole Porter musicals among them Anything Goes in 1934, where she introduced "I Get a Kick Out of You", "Blow Gabriel Blow", and the title song. Her next musical with Porter was Red, Hot and Blue, in which she co-starred with Bob Hope and Jimmy Durante. Merman was known for her powerful, belting mezzo-soprano voice, precise enunciation and pitch. Because stage singers performed without microphones when Merman began singing professionally, she had a great advantage, despite the fact that she never took any singing lessons. In fact, Broadway lore holds that George Gershwin advised her never to take a singing lesson after she opened in his Girl Crazy

Perhaps Merman's most revered performance was in 1959’s Gypsy as Gypsy Rose Lee's mother Rose. Merman introduced "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and "Some People" and ended the show with the wrenching "Rose's Turn". Critics and audiences saw her creation of Madame Rose as the performance of her career. She did not get the role in the movie version, however, which went to movie actress Rosalind Russell, Merman decided to take Gypsy on the road and trumped the motion picture as a result. Merman retired from Broadway in 1970, when she appeared as the last Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly!, a show initially written for her.

Merman's film career was not as distinguished as her stage roles. Though she reprised her roles in Anything Goes and Call Me Madam, film executives would not select her for Annie Get Your Gun or Gypsy. Some critics state the reason for losing the roles was that her outsized stage persona did not fit well on the screen. Merman's last movie role was a self-parody in the comedy movie Airplane!,

Merman began to become forgetful with advancing age, and on occasion had difficulty with her speech. At times her behavior was erratic, causing concern among her friends. In 1983, as she was preparing to go to Los Angeles to appear at the Oscars that year, Merman collapsed. Although the original physician assessment was that Merman had suffered a stroke, tests later revealed an inoperable brain tumor. The severity of her condition was kept out of the press, and only a few close friends were allowed to visit. As her condition deteriorated, she was cared for by her son, Bobby. She died February 15, 1984, less than a month after her 76th birthday. (info edited from Wikipedia)



One of her final appearances.

Earl Hooker born 15 January 1929

Earl Hooker (January 15, 1929** – April 21, 1970) was an American Chicago blues guitarist, perhaps best known for his slide guitar playing. Considered a "musician's musician", Hooker performed with blues artists such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Junior Wells, and John Lee Hooker (a cousin) as well as fronting his own bands. An early player of the electric guitar, Hooker was
influenced by the modern urban styles of T-Bone Walker and Robert Nighthawk. As a band leader, he recorded several singles and albums, in addition to recording with well-known artists. His "Blue Guitar", a popular Chicago area slide-guitar instrumental single, was later overdubbed with vocals by Muddy Waters and became the popular "You Shook Me".

In the late 1960s, Hooker began performing on the college and concert circuit and had several recording contracts. Just as his career was on an upswing, Earl Hooker died in 1970 at age 41 after a lifelong struggle with tuberculosis. His guitar playing has been acknowledged by many of his peers, including B.B. King, who commented: "to me he is the best of modern guitarists. Period. With the slide he was the best. It was nobody else like him, he was just one of a kind".

Earl Zebedee Hooker was born in 1929 in rural Quitman County, Mississippi, outside of Clarksdale. In 1930, when he was one year old, his parents moved to Chicago. There he was influenced by another slide wizard, veteran Robert Nighthawk. But Hooker never remained still for long. He ran away from home at age 13, journeying to Mississippi. After another stint in Chicago, he rambled back to the Delta again, playing with Ike Turner and Sonny Boy Williamson. Hooker made his first recordings in 1952 and 1953 for Rockin', King, and Sun. At the latter, he recorded some terrific sides with pianist Pinetop Perkins (Sam Phillips inexplicably sat on Hooker's blazing rendition of "The Hucklebuck").

Here's the 1953 Sun recording of "Earls Boogie Woogie"

Back in Chicago again, Hooker's dazzling dexterity was intermittently showcased on singles for Argo, C.J., and Bea & Baby during the mid- to late '50s before he joined forces with producer Mel London (owner of the Chief and Age logos) in 1959. For the next four years, he recorded both as sideman and leader for the producer, backing Junior Wells, Lillian Offitt, Ricky Allen, and A.C. Reed and cutting his own sizzling instrumentals ("Blue Guitar," "Blues in D-Natural"). He also contributed pungent slide work to Muddy Waters' Chess waxing "You Shook Me." Opportunities to record grew sparse after Age folded; Hooker made some tantalizing sides for Sauk City, WI's Cuca Records from 1964 to 1968 (several featuring steel guitar virtuoso Freddie Roulette). 

Hooker's amazing prowess (he even managed to make the dreaded wah-wah pedal a viable blues tool) finally drew increased attention during the late '60s.

He cut LPs for Arhoolie, ABC-BluesWay, and Blue Thumb that didn't equal what he'd done at Age, but they did serve to introduce Hooker to an audience outside Chicago and wherever his frequent travels deposited him. But tuberculosis halted his wandering ways permanently in 1970. (Info edited from Wikipedia & All Music - N.B. ** Earls exact birthdate unknown, many different dates are given, so I have used the most popular one.)

Gwen Verdon born 13 January 1925

Gwyneth Evelyn “Gwen” Verdon (January 13, 1925 – October 18, 2000) was an American dancer and actress.

A star was born January 13, 1925 in Culver City, California. Her name was Gwyneth Evelyn Verdon, and she was the only Broadway star who had the capability of outshining greats, such as Ethel Merman. Her parents were English emigrants, Joseph William and Gertrude Verdon and she had one brother, William. Joseph was an electrician at MGM and Gertrude was a former dancer and vaudeville veteran. When she was a child, Gwen was afflicted with rickets, a disease that left her legs so badly misshapen that she was called "Gimpy" by other children and had to wear orthopedic boots and stiff braces. Gertrude placed her daughter in dance classes at the age of 3 in hopes of strengthening her legs and improving her carriage.

By the age of 6, Gwen was studying many dance forms (ballroom, Balinese, tap, jazz, juggling, flamenco). She attended Hamilton High School in LA, where she was cast in a revival of "Show Boat." However, she shocked her parents and instructors by abandoning her budding career to elope with tabloid reporter James Henagham. The marriage last 5 years and left Gwen 22 years old, divorced and with a son, Jimmy. She trusted Jimmy to the care of her parents and went to work as temperamental Jack Cole's assistant choreographer, where she helped him with shows like "Magdalena" and "Alive and Kicking".

Although she landed a few small film roles as a 'specialty dancer', Gwen was more often delegated to instruct actresses such as Jane Russell, Lana Turner, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe. Cole cast Gwen in his show "Alive and Kicking", but the show was a bitter disappointment to both Cole and Gwen and closed quickly. Ms. Verdon returned to Hollywood to raise her son and teach dance. However, 1953 brought 28 year old Gwen a big break in the Cole Porter muscal "Can Can" which was choreographed by Michael Kidd. Her role as Claudine in Can Can brought Gwen a Tony. At the conclusion of the "Garden of Eden" number, the house went wild. Verdon left the stage, went to her dressing room and changed into her bathrobe. The audience would not stop applauding until she took another bow... which she did--dressed in her bathrobe.

Her next role was as Lola, the sexy, volatile seductress and assistant to the Devil in "Damn Yankees", a role choreographed by Bob Fosse (she also played the part in the film version). Gwen won her second Tony for this role. Fosse chose Verdon over Marilyn Monroe. Fosse and Verdon collaborated on "New Girl In Town" and "Redhead", bringing her her third and fourth Tony's. Fosse and Gwen were married in 1960. Ms. Verdon took a six year hiatus to have daughter Nicole Fosse. In 1966, she returned to the stage to portray the role of Charity Hope Valentine in "Sweet Charity", with a Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields score, book by Neil Simon book and choreography by none other than Fosse himself. It ran over 600 performances. This musical was turned into a movie in 1969 with Shirley MacLaine in the lead. Gwen coached MacLaine throughout. 

Gwen and Bob legally separated in 1971 due to Fosse's extramarital affairs, but never actually divorced. They remained close friends and worked together on "Chicago" where Gwen played Roxie Hart, the musical "Dancin'" and Fosse's autobiographical film "All That Jazz." In recent years, Gwen and daughter Nicole collaborated to create the Broadway show "Fosse", about Bob. Along with her two children, Verdon had four grandchildren and one great grandchild. Gwen continued to instruct dance and musical theatre up until 1999. (Below is a photo of Gwen with the Clinton's at an award ceremony in 1998)

Best known for her verve, sass and vivacity, Gwen was not only perhaps the best dancer this world has ever seen, but she could act and sing, a triple-threat. Her voice had a rough-hewn, grainy quality and yet... it was still very feminine and beautiful.

                    

A 1956 recording of  "The Lady Is A Tramp" taken from above LP (original source was the fabulous "Singin' & Swingin' blog, a few years ago which alas is sadly missed.)

Unfortunately, while at the home of her daughter, Gwen passed away on October 18, 2000 in Woodstock, Vermont due to natural causes. The same day, the lights on Broadway were dimmed in honor of the passing of one of its brightest stars.
(info from IMDB)

Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees - Who's Got the Pain (1958)

Ruth Brown born 12 January 1928

 

Ruth Brown (January 12, 1928–November 17, 2006.) Born Ruth Alston Weston in Portsmouth, Virginia, she was probably the second most popular female R&B singer of the early and mid 1950s (right behind Dinah Washington). Her magnificent voice could "sell" a song (sometimes in spite of the song itself), and, with the greatest number of singles issued by a female singer on the Atlantic label, she made trip after trip to the R&B charts. In fact, Atlantic Records was sometimes referred to as "The House That Ruth Built."
(Please note one or two sources give her birth date as January 30th)

Ruth Brown's father was a dockhand who directed the local church choir, but the young Ruth showed more of an interest in singing at USO shows and nightclubs. In 1945, Brown ran away from her home in Portsmouth along with a trumpeter, Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married, to sing in bars and clubs. She then spent a month with Lucky Millinder's orchestra, but was fired after she brought drinks to the band for free, and was left stranded in Washington, D.C.

Blanche Calloway, Cab Calloway's sister, also a bandleader, arranged a gig for Brown at a Washington nightclub called Crystal Caverns and soon became her manager. Willis Conover, a Voice of America disc jockey, caught her act and recommended her to Atlantic Records bosses, Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abramson. Brown was unable to audition as planned though, because of a serious car accident that resulted in a nine-month hospital stay. In 1948, however, Ertegün and Abramson drove to Washington from New York City to hear her sing in the club. Although her repertoire was mostly popular ballads, Ertegün convinced her to switch to rhythm and blues. His productions for her, however, retained her "pop" style, with clean, fresh arrangements and the singing spot on the beat with little of the usual blues singer's embroidery.

In her first audition, in 1949, she sang "So Long", which ended up becoming a hit. This was followed by Teardrops from My Eyes in 1950. Written by Rudy Toombs, it was the first upbeat major hit for Ruth Brown, establishing her as an important figure in R&B. Recorded for Atlantic Records in New York City in September 1950, and released in October, it was on Billboard's List of number-one R&B hits (United States) for 11 weeks. The huge hit earned her the nickname "Miss Rhythm" and within a few months Ruth Brown became the acknowledged queen of R&B.

She followed up this hit with "I'll Wait for You" (1951), "I Know" (1951), "5-10-15 Hours" (1953), "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" (1953), "Oh What a Dream" (1954), "Mambo Baby" (1954) and "Don't Deceive Me" (1960). She also became known as Little Miss Rhythm and the girl with the teardrop in her voice. In all, she was on the R&B charts for 149 weeks from 1949 to 1955, with 16 top 10 blues records including 5 number ones, and became Atlantic's most popular artist, earning Atlantic records the proper name of "The House that Ruth Built."

During the 1960s, Brown faded from public view to become a housewife and mother, and only returned to music in 1975 at the urging of Redd Foxx, followed by a series of comedic acting gigs, including a role in the sitcom Hello, Larry and the John Waters film Hairspray as local DJ Motormouth Maybelle, as well as Broadway appearances in Amen Corner and Black and Blue, which earned her a Tony Award for her performance and a Grammy award for her album Blues on Broadway, featuring hits from the show.

Brown's fight for musicians' rights and royalties in 1987 led to the founding of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. She was inducted as a Pioneer Award recipient in its first year, 1989. In 1993, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as The Queen Mother of the Blues. Ruth passed away on November 17, 2006 in a Las Vegas area hospital from complications following a stroke and heart attack.  (info mainly edited from Wikipedia)

Don Cherry born 11 January 1924

Donald Ross Cherry (born January 11, 1924) is an American singer of traditional pop music, best known for his 1955 hit, "Band of Gold"; and a former amateur and professional golfer.

Cherry was born in Wichita Falls, Texas. He started as a big band singer, in the orchestras of Jan Garber, Victor Young and Tommy Dorsey. In 1951 he recorded his first solo hits, "Thinking of You" and "Belle, Belle, My Liberty Belle", the latter of which had a better-selling version by Guy Mitchell. In 1955 came his biggest hit, "Band of Gold".

 

 He had three more hits in 1956 ("Wild Cherry", "Ghost Town" and "Namely You"), all of them backed by orchestra leader Ray Conniff. He was also the voice of the "Mr. Clean" commercials during the late 1950s and early 60s. His smooth, soulful style of singing earned him the respect of other singers (Vic Damone called him the “singer’s singer”).

Throughout his singing career, Cherry was also a top ranked amateur golfer, and was in contention to win the 1960 U.S. Open before eventually finishing in the top five, behind winner Arnold Palmer. He played on three Walker Cup teams: 1953, 1955, and 1961. He also won the Sunnehanna Amateur in 1954.

In 1962, Cherry decided to turn professional. In fact "Pro" was his nickname amongst his fellow entertainers and his skill on the golf course was matched only by his volcanic temper which, he said, "...made Tommy Bolt look like a choir boy!”

Cherry published his biography "Cherry's Jubilee" with co-writer Neil Daniels (Founder: Dean Martin Fan Center). He also collaborated with Willie Nelson on an album entitled "It's Magic" on DiamondDisc Records with The Allegro Media Group agreeing to distribute the CD in the USA and Canada.

In the mid-1960s, Cherry developed a life-long and almost inseparable friendship with singer Dean Martin. The happen-chance meeting between the pair occurred on the golf course in Las Vegas early one morning. The two hit it off right away. In addition to being golfing buddies, the two singers would often work the same nightclubs together. Martin performed in the main room while Cherry would headline the center arena or lounge. Cherry would also be a frequent guest on Martin's television show.

After appearing on The Dean Martin Show a number of times, Cherry was signed as a regular on Martin's 1967 summer show hosted by Vic Damone, Carol Lawrence and Gail Martin (Dean's daughter). That '67 Summer Show was so popular that it also aired again in 1971 as Martin's summer replacement.

After his first marriage ended in divorce in 1962 (producing two sons, Sean Ross Cherry and Stephen Patrick Cherry), Cherry remarried four years later to Joy Vera Blaine, a former Las Vegas showgirl and former Miss Nevada. Their fourteen-year marriage produced a daughter. Dean Martin was Cherry's Best Man at the wedding.

While jogging one day, Cherry met Francine Bond Smith, a former singer and dancer and a veteran of twenty-eight Broadway shows. Love soon blossomed and the couple married in 1993.

Like his friend, Dean Martin, Cherry experienced personal tragedy with the loss of a son. His youngest son, Stephen, 41, was killed on Sept. 11, 2001, a victim of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center Building in New York City. The first plane hit right where the younger Cherry's office was. Stephen Cherry, who also composed and recorded Country-Rock songs, left behind a wife and four sons.

Today, Don continues to appear in concert at various Las Vegas hotel/casinos, nightclubs throughout the country and special engagements. (info various, mainly Wikipedia)