Teresa Brewer
Teresa Brewer (born May 7, 1931 as Theresa Breuer in Toledo , Ohio , † October 17, 2007 in New Rochelle , New York ) was an American pop singer . It recorded about 600 songs and was listed with 31 titles in the US charts between 1950 and 1961 , including seven top 10 hits.
Life
Child star
Teresa was only two years old when her mother took her to a hometown casting for the WSPD radio show Uncle August's Kiddie Show . On the show, she appeared for cookies and cakes donated by the sponsor . She never took singing lessons, but took a few hours of tap dancing lessons . Between the ages of five and twelve, she sang and danced as a permanent guest on Major Bowes Amateur Hour , a radio show that was very popular in the United States. From the age of twelve she restricted her musical activities in favor of her school education and only appeared on the local radio.
In January 1948, the 16-year-old won an entertainment competition in Toledo and was sent to New York City with three other winners to appear on a talent show called Stairway to the Stars . Around this time, she changed the spelling of her name to the English-language adaptation "Brewer" in order to increase the level of awareness she had gained by winning several talent competitions and appearing in nightclubs in New York (including the famous Latin Quarter ).
Pop star
Through her appearances, the artist agent Richie Lisella became aware of Brewer and took care of her. In 1949 Brewer got a recording deal with London Records and recorded her first single in the summer of 1949 . With the title of their fourth single Music! Music! Music! she achieved her first record success in the spring of 1950. The title came first in the US hit lists and in Great Britain and sold over a million times. More humorous songs like Choo'n Gum or Molasses, Molasses followed in 1950 as top 20 hits. Although Brewer preferred to sing ballads , Longing for You was initially the only one to get them into the charts in 1951 . In 1951 she changed the music label and went to the record company Coral Records , with which she worked until 1962.
She was now married and had a daughter. By 1956 there were two more daughters. Since Brewer had never learned to read sheet music, the record company always sent her a demo tape for her recordings to get to know the melody. Her next hits were Gonna Get Along Without You Now (1952), a song that over the years also became a hit with various other artists (including Patience and Prudence 1956, Skeeter Davis 1964, Trini Lopez 1967 and Viola Wills 1979) . Also in 1952, Teresa recorded You'll Never Get Away as a duet with Don Cornell , and in 1953 she produced another million-seller with Till I Waltz Again with You . Other hits from 1953 to 1955 included Dancin 'with Someone , Ricochet , Bell Bottom Blues , Our Heartbreaking Waltz and Skinnie Minnie . During these years she continued to sing in major nightclubs in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and other US cities.
In the mid-1950s she covered a number of rhythm and blues ( Pledging My Love , Tweedlee Dee , A Tear Fell, and Bo Weevil ,) and country songs ( Jilted , A Sweet Old-Fashioned Girl, and Let Me Go Lover , the better known in the version by Joan Weber ). With some of these songs she reached the top 10 in Great Britain. In 1956 she co-wrote I Love Mickey , a song about the New York Yankees baseball player Mickey Mantle , who sang on the record with Brewer. While most of them as a pop star classified, but many of their songs have a clear rock - beat , especially Ricochet , Jilted and A Sweet Old Fashioned Girl .
In 1957 she brought out other cover versions: the country song Teardrops in My Heart and the R&B songs You Send Me and Empty Arms ; she was also able to place Nora Malone in the charts in Great Britain . Their fourth daughter was born in 1958. In 1960 she had her last hit on the British charts with How Do You Know It's Love ; her last US chart hit was Milord in 1961 , an English-language version of the chanson by Édith Piaf . In 1962 she went to Philips Records, and later changed labels several times - but she never made it into the charts again. 1972 married Brewer jazz producer Bob Thiele († 30 January 1996), which published the following year, a record, on his wife with the big band of Count Basie songs from the repertoire of Bessie Smith sang.
The record industry honored Brewer with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her record success . She died in New Rochelle in 2007 at the age of 76.
Discography
literature
- Frank Laufenberg: Rock & Pop Lexicon . Econ Taschenbuch Verlag 1998, ISBN 3-612-26206-8 , Volume 1, p. 188.
- Günter Ehnert (Ed.): Hit Records British Chart Singles 1950-1965 Taurus Press 1995, ISBN 3-922542-32-8 .
Web links
- Teresa Brewer Fan Center
- Teresa Brewer Olde Time Cooking & Nostalgia
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Brewer, Teresa |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Breuer, Theresa (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American pop singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 7, 1931 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Toledo, Ohio |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 17, 2007 |
| Place of death | New Rochelle , New York |