1. Kay Starr's mother's ancestors were Irish-American while her father was a Native American Iroquois.
22 Facts About Kay Starr
1. 2.
Kay Starr's mother raised chickens to support the family as well.
3.
Kay Starr sang frequently around the house which caught the attention of her aunt, with whose help she took part in a local talent contest and won at the age of seven.
4.
Kay Starr performed two times a week and earned three dollars a performance.
5.
Kay Starr was discovered by jazz violinist Joe Venuti, who had obtained a contract to perform at the Peabody Hotel in the summer of 1937.
6.
Kay Starr's parents accepted the performance opportunity, as long as she was home by their midnight curfew.
7.
Venuti did not tell the hotel her real age, and fibbed about Kay Starr's mother being her sister.
8.
Kay Starr's singing attracted the attention of Bob Crosby's manager and had her join Crosby on the road.
9.
Kay Starr went to New York City and played with Crosby's band for two weeks until she was dismissed by the show's sponsor for being considered "too earthy".
10.
For two weeks, Kay Starr performed at the Glen Island Casino alongside Miller's orchestra.
11.
At age 16, Kay Starr recorded her first tracks with Miller's orchestra: "Baby Me" and "Love with a Capital 'You'".
12.
Kay Starr later recalled that she sounded like "a jazzed up Alfalfa" since they weren't in her range.
13.
Kay Starr then moved to Los Angeles and worked alongside Venuti until 1941.
14.
In 1946 Kay Starr became a soloist and a year later signed a contract with Capitol Records.
15.
Kay Starr liked it so much that she wanted to record it.
16.
Kay Starr contacted Roy Acuff's publishing house in Nashville and spoke to Acuff directly.
17.
Kay Starr was happy to let her record it, but it took a while for her to make clear that she was a singer, not a fiddler, and therefore needed to have some lyrics written.
18.
However, at this time, rock-and-roll was displacing the existing forms of pop music and Kay Starr had only two hits, the aforementioned, which is sometimes considered her attempt to sing rock and roll, and sometimes as a song poking fun at it, "The Rock and Roll Waltz".
19.
Kay Starr stayed at RCA Victor until 1959, hitting the top ten with "My Heart Reminds Me", then returned to Capitol.
20.
Kay Starr recorded several jazz and country albums on small independent labels, including How About This, a 1968 album with Count Basie.
21.
Kay Starr sang with Tony Bennett on his album Playin' with My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues.
22.
Kay Starr died on November 3,2016, in Los Angeles at the age of 94 from complications of Alzheimer's disease.