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Artist
Lee Wiley
12+ albums
jazz30sfemale vocalistsjazz vocal40s
about
Lee Wiley (October 9, 1908 – December 11, 1975) was an American jazz singer, popular in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Wiley was born in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. While still in her early teens, she left home to pursue a singing career with the Leo Reisman band. Her career was temporarily interrupted by a fall while horseback riding. Wiley suffered temporary blindness, but recovered, and at the age of 19 was back with Reisman again, with whom she recorded three songs: "Take It From Me," "Time On My Hands," and her own composition, "Got The South In My Soul." She sang with Paul Whiteman and later, the Casa Loma Orchestra. A collaboration with composer Victor Young resulted in several songs for which Wiley wrote the lyrics, including "Got The South in My Soul" and "Anytime, Anyday, Anywhere," the latter an R&B hit in the 1950s. In 1939, Wiley recorded eight Gershwin songs on 78s with a small group for Liberty Music Shops. The set sold well and was followed by 78s dedicated to the music of Cole Porter (1940) and Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart (1940 and 1954), Harold Arlen (1943), and 10" LPs dedicated to the music of Vincent Youmans and Irving Berlin (1951). The players on these recordings included Bunny Berigan, Bud Freeman, Max Kaminsky, Fats Waller, Billy Butterfield, Bobby Hackett, Eddie Condon, Stan Freeman, Cy Walter, and the bandleader Jess Stacy, to whom Wiley was married for a number of years. These influential albums launched the concept of a "songbook" (often featuring le
top songs
albums
On The Air
The Total - Vol. 1
The Complete Golden Years Studio Sessions
The Complete Young (1931-1937)
Night In Manhattan
Sings The Songs Of George & Ira Gershwin & Cole Porter
Follow Your Heart
Presenting Lee Wiley
Lee Wiley Sings the Songs of Rodgers & Hart and Arlen
A Ghost of a Chance
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Right to Sing
Back Home Again