1. Diana Trask was considered to be one of the first Australian music artists to find success in the United States, particularly in the genres of pop and country.
62 Facts About Diana Trask
1. 2.
Diana Trask began her career in Melbourne and Sydney during the late fifties, appearing on local television and singing at clubs.
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Diana Trask settled in New York City and received a recording contract from Mitch Miller of Columbia Records in 1960.
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Diana Trask then married American businessman, Thom Ewen, who became her full-time manager.
5.
The couple moved back to Australia here her television program, The Di Diana Trask Show, was syndicated for one season in 1965.
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Diana Trask then resettled in the US and reinvented herself as a country music artist.
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Diana Trask's music continued making the US country charts and she toured alongside performer Roy Clark in several Las Vegas engagements.
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Diana Trask's 1974 single, "Oh Boy", was a top ten song in Australia.
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Diana Trask remained popular in Australia through the 1980s with albums like the gold-ceritifed One Day at a Time.
10.
Diana Trask returned to college and received a degree in herbal medicine.
11.
In 2009, Diana Trask's husband died and she returned to her career.
12.
Diana Trask was born in Camberwell, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria.
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Diana Trask was one of three children born to Lew and Thelma Trask.
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Diana Trask's father was the owner of a furniture business while her mother was a music teacher.
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Diana Trask attended a local state school but transferred to a Catholic school because her mother found her challenging to manage.
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Diana Trask enjoyed singing from an early age and routinely asked her mother to give her vocal lessons.
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Diana Trask dated her first boyfriend at age 15, but broke up with him shortly after discovering him kissing her mother in the family home.
18.
Diana Trask ultimately dropped out of school around age 16 and worked several minimum wage jobs while working towards becoming a professional singer.
19.
Diana Trask started received vocal lessons from Melbourne instructor Jack White, who helped her audition for the local Channel Seven television competition called Swallow's Parade.
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Diana Trask won the competition and then won a second talent show, TV Quest, in 1957.
21.
Diana Trask then did a small tour in Southern Australia and returned to Melbourne occasionally performing on the local television network.
22.
Diana Trask often performed on a program called In Melbourne Tonight but ended after it was rumored that Trask's father would sponsor the show through his furniture business.
23.
Diana Trask ultimately declined which resulted in Trask losing her singing position.
24.
Diana Trask decided to move to Sydney where she was told she would find steadier singing opportunities.
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Diana Trask found work performing with the Australian Jazz Quartet and at the Sky Lounge in Sydney.
26.
Diana Trask then obtained her own radio program on the ABC network called Diana Trask Sings, which was heard by American promoter Lee Gordon.
27.
Diana Trask then opened shows for Sinatra in Melbourne and Sydney.
28.
Diana Trask stayed at Sinatra's Los Angeles home for several days.
29.
Diana Trask offered Trask assistance with her career, but she declined insisting she could do it herself.
30.
Diana Trask debuted as a jazz singer at The Blue Angel nightclub in August 1959.
31.
Diana Trask appeared on the television program, Don McNeill's Breakfast Club.
32.
Diana Trask recalled Miller reprimanding her when her vocal style "got too swingy" and on occasion telling her to leave the session until "you feel like doing it my way".
33.
Miller then had Diana Trask appear in a television pilot for a show based on old-fashioned movie theater "sing-alongs".
34.
Diana Trask was then given a studio contract by 20th Century Fox who suggested she change her last name, but Trask declined.
35.
Diana Trask then appeared with Jayne Mansfield in a television pilot for the show Monte Carlo.
36.
Diana Trask then married American businessman Thom Ewen in Australia the same year and became pregnant.
37.
Diana Trask appeared regularly on In Melbourne Tonight on GTV-9 during that year.
38.
Diana Trask theorized in her autobiography that it was due to Australian television still being "in its infancy".
39.
Meanwhile, Diana Trask was in search of a new musical direction.
40.
For eight months, Diana Trask studied country and bought records of artists she liked.
41.
Killen then had Diana Trask cut Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces".
42.
Diana Trask was then nominated by the Grammy Awards for the song in 1970.
43.
Diana Trask continued recording and had a second US top 40 country song with "Beneath Still Waters" in 1970.
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Diana Trask was then produced by Norris Wilson and begun being managed by Jim Halsey.
45.
Diana Trask reached her peak commercial success by 1973 with the US top 20 singles "It's a Man's World " and "Say When".
46.
Diana Trask then paired up with producer Jim Foglesong, who found her a song he believed would be her biggest hit called "Oh Boy".
47.
Diana Trask signed with the Kari label in 1980 and the company issued her final singles to make the US country chart: "This Must Be My Ship" and "Stirrin' Up Feelings".
48.
Diana Trask often sat with the pair at songwriting sessions to learn the craft.
49.
In 1983, Diana Trask chose to step away from her career and did not renew her contract with the Halsey agency.
50.
Diana Trask briefly returned to performing in 1985 at the Australian Grand Final in Melbourne, Victoria.
51.
Diana Trask recalled working briefly at the 1987 opening of a club in Reno, Nevada, but the show was not a success.
52.
Diana Trask made a brief return again to the Australian Grand Finals "100 Years" celebration in 1996.
53.
Diana Trask resumed traveling in her RV and took care of her husband whose health was beginning to fail.
54.
Diana Trask returned to recording music in the late 2000s where was given an opportunity to make an entire album of her self-penned songs.
55.
Diana Trask embarked on an Australian tour in 2013 followed by a new studio album in 2014 called Daughter of Australia.
56.
When Diana Trask became a country music artist, the family purchased land and built a home outside of Nashville.
57.
When Diana Trask went into semi-retirement and her children were grown, the couple sailed the Caribbean full-time for several years in the 1980s.
58.
Diana Trask returned to collegiate studies and graduated with a degree in natural medicine.
59.
From 2006 the couple lived in Woodbine, Georgia until Thom Ewen died in 2009, after which Diana Trask resided in nearby St Mary's.
60.
Diana Trask was inspired in her early career by traditional pop and jazz singers such as Rosemary Clooney and Doris Day.
61.
When she transitioned into country music, Diana Trask listened to the records of singers like George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline.
62.
Diana Trask stated that Cline and Parton were her favorite female country artists because they sang with a less "nasal" delivery than their contemporaries.