Anita Kerr

Anita Kerr (born Anita Jean Grilli on October 31, 1927, in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American singer, composer and music producer. Kerr's career peak was during the 1960s, a time when women in her field were rare. Among her works were jingles for WLS-AM in Chicago, a trilogy of albums with poet Rod McKuen, titled "The Sea", "The Earth", and "The Sky" (each featuring the San Sebastian Strings), and choral music for the first season of "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" (directing her own group, The Anita Kerr Singers).

The Anita Kerr Singers also had a hit record called "Forever", released under the name The Little Dippers on the University label, which reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. She also recorded the #91 charting record "Joey Baby" (credited to Anita And Th' So-And-So's) by overdubbing her voice four times to create a group sound. The Singers sang backup for some of Roy Orbison's biggest hits in the early 1960s, when he was recording for Monument Records in Nashville, and also for Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Perry Como, Pat Boone, Rosemary Clooney, Bobby Vinton, Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson, Jim Reeves, Bobby Bare, Floyd Cramer, Al Hirt and other artists.

Kerr was both composer and conductor of the Swiss entry "Piano, Piano" in the 1985 Eurovision Song Contest in Gothenburg, Sweden. She is one of the very few female conductors in the history of the contest. In 1998 Kerr was credited as a co-author of the song "Drowned World/Substitute for Love", which appeared on Madonna's album "Ray of Light".

Discography

*"Voices: With Complete Recorded Examples", (MCA Music, 1972)

External links

*imdb name|id=0449644|name=Anita Kerr
* [http://www.anitakerr.com/ Anita Kerr: The Official Site]
* [http://www.spaceagepop.com/kerr.htm "Space Age Pop" page entry]