18 Facts About Jill Corey

Jill Corey was discovered and signed on one day when she was 17.

Jill Corey went on to have her own radio shows and to star in a feature film.

Italian-American, Corey was born in Avonmore, Pennsylvania, a coal mining community about forty miles east of Pittsburgh.

Jill Corey's father, Bernard Speranza, was a coal miner, and she was the youngest of five children.

Jill Corey's mother died when she was four years old.

Jill Corey was a 1953 graduate of Bell-Avon High School.

Jill Corey began singing as an imitator of Carmen Miranda at family gatherings, on amateur shows in grade school, and contralto in the local church choir.

Jill Corey won first prize at a talent contest sponsored by the Lions Club, which entitled her to sing a song on WAVL in Apollo, Pennsylvania.

Jill Corey normally received over 100 record demos a week, and this one, with a 17-year-old girl and its train background, would not have been likely to gain his attention.

Jill Corey telephoned her in Avonmore, and the next morning she flew to New York to be heard by Miller in a more normal studio setting.

Jill Corey became the youngest star ever at the Copacabana nightclub, where she was hit on by Frank Sinatra, and had numerous hit records.

Jill Corey was co-host of Music on Ice, a variety program on NBC.

Jill Corey appeared at a Delta Gamma gathering in 1957, where she sang and greeted guests.

Jill Corey is known for her cover of a French song, "Let It Be Me", in 1957 for Columbia Records and her 1956 song, Egghead, which focuses on "failed masculinity" of an egghead.

Jill Corey suspended her career to marry Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Don Hoak on December 28,1961, in Pittsburgh.

Jill Corey then resumed her career in New York City.

An Associated Press article published in February 1973 pointed out the difficulties that Jill Corey faced in attempting a comeback.

Jill Corey died on April 3,2021, from septic shock in Shadyside Hospital, Shadyside, Pennsylvania, at age 85.