Early Capitol Recordings by Kay Starr

I've had very little time to transfer records lately, but I did want to pay homage to the terrific vocalist Kay Starr, who died earlier this month.

Starr was one of the last remaining singers who came out of a big band background. She had come up while still in her teens with Joe Venuti, then went with Glenn Miller (briefly) and Charlie Barnet (see my other blog for her Barnet 78).

Kay did do a handful of records with Miller and Barnet, then recorded quite a few under her own name for small labels, which were reissued incessantly on budget labels after Starr began churning our hits for Capitol.

It was on that label that she achieved her greatest fame. Her first Capitol recording was as a guest at a March 1945 date with the Capitol International Jazzmen, a proto-supergroup centered on Nat King Cole. At that session, she did the vocals on "Stormy Weather," which had achieved renewed popularity in the wake of the film of the same name with its Lena Horne feature.

I have added the "Stormy Weather" side as a bonus to this post, which is mainly devoted to Kay's first Capitol LP, a 10-incher from 1950 collecting some of the singles she produced for the label in 1947-49. Even early in her career, she was a fully-formed artist, confident and in command in a variety of styles.

From 1949

The estimable Will Friedwald describes her as a great jazz artist with a country timbre. While she was certainly from the country (Oklahoma), her singing is also saturated with the blues. Capitol sensed this, and for these early recordings matched her with R&B songs such as "Steady Daddy" and "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy." They also gave her songs from the "red hot mama" tradition, like 1923's "You've Got to See Mama Ev'ry Night," identified with the likes of Sophie Tucker, and tunes in a similar vein such as "You've Got to Buy, Buy, Buy for Baby" and "Poor Papa (He's Got Nothin' at All)." Her intense delivery, rapid vibrato and powerful rhythmic sense are perfectly suited to this material.

It did take a venture into the country realm to produce her first hit, a vocal version of the country riff "Bonaparte's Retreat" in 1950, and she did record duets with pop country singer Tennessee Ernie Ford. Later she handled gospel material very convincingly. And although she was very versatile, she was always unmistakably Kay Starr.

In general, Dave Cavanaugh leads the band on the earlier LP sides, with Frank De Vol taking over later on. The sound from the album is excellent. "Stormy Weather" comes from a 78 pressed on noisy wartime shellac.

I have quite a few of her early Capitol 78s in addition to the material here and will try to transfer some of them at a later date.