Keely Smith

SE: Did you start singing professionally in Norfolk where you grew up?
KS: Yes.

SE: Which band gave you your first break?
KS:  Actually I’d have to say “Saxxy Dowell’s” Naval Air Station Band. I used to sing with a little band around Norfolk, but it was like I said, just a little local band and Saxxy Dowell was at the U.S. Naval Air station down there and his band was full of world-renowned musicians from Tommy Dorsey and Harry James Band. People like that and I luckily got to sing with them. And that was a great experience. My mother had to travel with me everywhere because I was under age, but it was….

SE: How old are you?
KS:  I’m not gonna answer that! (Laughing)

SE: I don’t mean now.
KS:  I’m not gonna answer how old I was then either (Laughing)

SE:  The mysterious Keely Smith!
KS: You know what? I don’t lie about anything. I have let people be misled in the past about age. When I first started out, Louie lied about…Barbara lied about my age. They made me older and then when I got older they tried to back up and make me younger; and the public is totally confused as to really how old I am, so I just don’t tell it. I really don’t believe in age Steve. I think it’s something that we have that’s there but I don’t believe in it.

SE:  I’m with you.
KS:  So I refused to get old.

SE:  So, how did you and Louie Prima discover each other as it were?
KS:  Actually he discovered me in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I was born in Norfolk and we had a club in Virginia Beach called “The Surf Club,” and this gentleman brought in a different band each week during the summer months only; and we had heard of Louis Prima the previous summer– this was the summer of 47.” We had gone to New York and it was very hot; and when I say we, I mean my mother, father, my baby brother, and my brother Piggy; and it was so hot that we drove down to Atlantic City and we saw this band.  The sign said Louis Prima, who we had never heard of, and we walked out on to the pier and were absolutely mesmerized with this man up there, and with what he was doing. He had almost as many people standing around the bandstand watching as he had dancing and that was my first introduction to Louis Prima. So when we went home my brother and I went to Mr. Kane, the man who owned The Surf Club, and told him about Louis Prima who he also had never heard of; and told him that if he brought him in next year that we’ll pack the place on Friday night, (which was the opening night down there) and Mr. Prima will pack it the rest of the week. You’ve just got to bring this man in! In the meantime I went out and bought every Louis Prima record I could find and I knew all his music. So Mr. Kane did bring him in and sure enough on Friday night the place was packed. Louis had a singer with him at the time by the name of Tangerine, who was extremely nervous and he made an announcement that he was looking for a new singer. Several girls from the area went up and sang, but I didn’t because I was very bashful and I’d never told anyone if I  sang or not. However someone told Louis and he called me in on Sunday afternoon. They had a tea dance from 4 to 6 in the afternoon. I was out on the beach and I heard over the microphone: “Dot Keely please come to the bandstand,” and I thought maybe that something was wrong with one of my parents because they were always with us.  So I borrowed a blouse and  a skirt and went running up to Louis and I said, ‘Is anything wrong with my folks?’ He said, “No, no, no, I understand you’re a singer.” I said, ‘Yeah but not your type of singer.’ He said, “What do you mean?” And I said, ‘Well, I sing in little local things.’ He said, “I want you to sing a couple of songs.” I got so nervous that I was gonna die. I got up and I sang, “Embrace You” and “Sleepy Time Gal” and he hired me on the spot. I went to work with him that night, which was a Sunday night. And the only dress I had was a prom dress. I left home with him the following Thursday. Now what he didn’t know about me was that I knew all his arrangements, so he didn’t have to worry about teaching me any of the songs, intros, endings, or anything; I knew all of it. My mother had one condition that I had to travel with Louis and his wife and Louis had three rules. They were: I couldn’t smoke, I couldn’t drink, and I couldn’t date the musicians, which was fine with me. And that’s how it happened.

SE: I never knew he was married at the time.
KS: Oh yeah. As a matter of fact, his wife became my best friend. We were the greatest of friends and I’m sorry that our friendship ever had to break up. She was beautiful. She looked like a young Ingrid Bergman and she was just wonderful.

SE: So he was pretty much your guardian on that first tour?
KS:  Mm hmm.

SE:  The pressure must have been something; I mean a lot of people today would say, “Oh God! I need at least a year to rehearse.”
KS: (laughing) Oh that’s funny!

SE:  I mean to get up on stage and do those songs so quickly.
KS: That’s only when they’re out of shape. You’re voice is a muscle and if you don’t keep it going… which I don’t do, now I’m guilty of that myself. But it only takes me two weeks to get it back. It doesn’t take me a year, or a month, or whatever.

SE: Well by listening to your new album, you’ve got no dust on those pipes as far as I can hear.
KS: Thank you.

SE: What were those first gigs like for you?
KS: Well, they were good. The first place that we went to from Virginia was New Jersey. I had to get adjusted to the language…. like I was never raised around cursing and I didn’t like it, you know? And musicians talk differently. Louis’ manager had a real foul mouth on her. I had to adjust to that and I would just walk out of the rooms you know. As a matter of fact, I did a movie with Robert Mitchum and got on location in North Carolina. The first meeting I went to, after they’d shoot for the day, they’d all meet in Bob’s suite, talk over what happened that day, and what they were gonna do the next day. The language was horrible, so I got up and excused myself and I left. Barbara, our manager, was with me and Bob said to her, “what happened?”  She said, “She’s not used to this kind of language and she just won’t sit here with it”, you know…and he came down to my suite and said, “Please come back,” and I told him,  ‘I’m embarrassed because I don’t like that. I’m sorry that I walked out and I don’t mean to create a problem.’ He said, “No, no, no, just come on back with me.” From then on for the rest of the entire film, there was never a cuss word. And that’s just the way that I am; I don’t like it. You know today, the F word is like and, or but, and to me it’s just uncalled for. It’s unnecessary. I’ve turned down very good jobs with top comedians because of their language, you know. I just can’t do it. I will not subject my people to that.

SE: It must have been tough playing Vegas that time with its reputation for being Sin City and all that…
KS: No it wasn’t. When we went there, there were thirty thousand people there.

SE:  So it wasn’t as corrupt and wild as the movies make it seem?
KS: No, it was wonderful in those days. And the language was nothing like it is today. Today you hear girls talk as bad as guys. In those days you hardly ever heard a girl talk like that.

SE: So I’m not gonna ask you how old you were!
KS: (Laughing) No.

SE:  …when you did those first gigs, but did you have any trouble because of your age at the time playing any of those venues?
KS:  (Laughing) No, they never asked us our age. Besides, if you’re not drinking…see you can take a young kid on stage. I can take a 12 year old on stage with me and let the kid work, but he can’t go in the showroom. You can work a youngster on stage but you just can’t allow them in the room where booze is sold.

SE: So as far as you’re early, Vegas shows go… I mean you were there from the beginning of what was to become VEGAS!
KS: Actually, we got there in November of 54, and it was… yeah you’re right, there were about five hotels there and it was wonderful!

SE: So was Vegas responsible for your connection to Frank Sinatra and the others?
KS: Actually, yes. I didn’t know Frank before Vegas. Louis did, but I didn’t. Frank Sinatra came to the show bringing all the people. We had Howard Hughes out there and Elvis Presley. You name it! Whoever was in town, was in our room…. our lounge, I should say…and  Frank used to get up and sing with us. Sammy would get up and sing with us. It was wonderful because we had freedom in that lounge that you don’t have in a big showroom.

SE:  It’s a shame that they didn’t have a tape or camera rolling at all times back then.
KS: I know we wished that we had some of the things that we did on stage that we couldn’t remember after.

SE:  Do you know of any live material that wasn’t included on the “Live at Tahoe “ Album will ever see the light of day?
KS: There’s an eight CD set that came out of Germany on Bear Family. It’s all the Capitol recordings and everything we ever did is on there. So I doubt that there’s anything else that they could possibly bring out. It’s a big box with a big huge booklet and a picture of Louis, Sam, and I on the front. It’s really interesting even though the stuff in the booklet is not accurate.

SE: Well, I’ll remember what you’ve said every time I read about your age now…. I’ll say “That’s wrong! …I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s wrong!”
KS: (Laughing).

SE:  Were your shows an all night affair or did you have any opening acts?
KS:  Oh no, no, no. We had no opening acts. We worked from midnight till six in the morning. We did five shows…five forty-five minute shows. There were alternating acts.

SE: Oh, I see.
KS: Like, we would come off and somebody else would go on for like 15 minutes. That kind of a thing.

SE: Like a comedian or somebody?
KS: No, generally another musical group. Although Don Rickles did come out of that lounge.

SE: You really got a big bang for your buck back then.
KS: Oh yeah and you know something? There was no cover charge, no two-drink minimum, nothing. You could walk in, have a beer, and see the show.

SE:  Did you ever find it tough gaining acceptance in a male dominated business like show biz, or were you always treated equally?
KS: That never, ever crossed my mind;  if I was an equal or was accepted or anything. This may sound very stupid and very naïve, but I was happy doing what I was doing.  I was very much in love with Louis. I had my two children, my job was to go to work at midnight, come home at 6 in the morning. I would sleep, get up, and spend the whole day with my kids, take a nap and go back to work. That’s all I really cared about. It never dawned on me about woman equality or anything like that.

SE: How did you find time to perform, record, and make movies, etc. with two little ones to take care of?
KS: Well, I was very lucky. I had a housekeeper, at one point. My mother finally moved in with me and helped me with my children. But at one point I had a governess for my children and up until they went to school, they went everywhere with us.

SE: Towards the end of your marriage to Louis, all I’ve ever read everywhere was that you divorced him on the grounds of mental cruelty. Is that all you’ve ever said on the topic? Or have you ever elaborated on it and I’ve missed it?
KS:  No, no, no. I’ve often said that I divorced him because of his womanizing, his drinking, and his gambling. He just changed completely, I mean, over night. You know?  It was terrible and it got so bad. He had the girls calling my home. It was just a mess.

SE: I can’t even fathom doing that, because to me, you always come off like someone you just didn’t wanna tick off.
KS: (Laughing) I wasn’t like that at all. I am now. But I wasn’t like that at all, Steve. I was a pushover. Anything that Louis said was fine with me. He made all the decisions. He’d say, here babe, sign this and babe would sign it, and ten years later babe would be sued, you know? It’s just, he had a thing about him that whatever he wanted you to do almost, you did. Really. I never questioned any of the jobs. I never questioned the contracts. I never questioned anything. So, as far as getting ticked off, towards the end when it got really bad with the girls calling my home and cussing out my mother, things like that, then yes, then I really got uptight with that. It got to the point where I’m standing on stage, they’re sending up notes to him, all the notes that would come to the stage would always be handed to me cause a lot of the times they’d be requests for songs, and I’d read the note… It was very rough and it was really hard. I stayed probably a year and a half longer then I should have because of all of this…this went on for quite a while.

SE: You couldn’t ever tell that there were any problems going on through the music, that’s for sure.
KS: No, well the music always stayed the same, thank goodness.

SE: When you did your solo albums on Capital you were still with Louis’ band right?
KS: Oh yeah.

SE: So you would do the swing type… almost basically Rock ‘n Roll with Louis, and then go do your slow ballads, and pop tunes on your own albums.
KS: With Nelson, right.

SE: Yeah, was that a big switch for you; was it tough to make the transition right away?
KS: No, not at all. I did those songs on stage with our little group. And no, it wasn’t hard at all. It was a thrill to sing with Nelson Riddle No. 1 and No. 2 to sing with an orchestra that big was quite a thrill for me.

SE: You worked with Billy May too huh?
KS: Sure did.

SE: You had all of Sinatra’s guys.
KS:  That’s right. (Laughing)

SE: Was Nelson Riddle pretty easy to work with?
KS: Wonderful to work with. Yes, he really was.

SE: What was your opinion of what Linda Ronstadt started doing… basically… what you did. She was doin’ the pop standards and hired Nelson Riddle to help her do it?
KS: I had met Linda at a party. Mickey Dolenz had a birthday party one time and I went to it. I met her and she’d had hit after hit after hit at that time, and she came up to me and introduced herself and said,  “I want you to know that you are my idol. I’ve always wanted to sing like you, you know.” So when she did the thing with Nelson, I felt that that was an extension of her doing what she wanted to do and I was very complimented by it actually.

SE: In Louis’ later years were you still pretty close to him?
KS: No, when Louis and I divorced, oh God, we didn’t talk for maybe ten years uh… other than arguing. You know, he didn’t see my daughter Luanne for over ten years and that’s mainly what I’d argue about, him not seeing the kids. Then at one point when he had his mild heart attack we started seeing each other. He wanted me to re-marry him and work with him and stuff like that. I’d tell him, ‘I love you, but I’m not in love with you anymore. I cannot re-marry you. I would never break up your marriage, you know.’

SE: Yeah.
KS: I said, “But I could work with you, if you wanna do that.” That never did materialize, but we stayed in touch.

SE: A few weeks ago, AMC had a documentary on you and Louis and then they showed the movie that you guys made.
KS: Right.

SE: I didn’t get to see it all, but I knew that they’d re-run it at 1 in the morning, but I fell a sleep…
KS: (Laughing)

SE: But they looked great from what I saw of them. I hope they show it again.
KS:  Well you know, it’s something your kids could watch. It’s a cute little movie, really, but that documentary I had nothing to do with, by the way. The clip they have of me in it…  I did not do for that show nor did “Leon” Prima or Lou “Sino” or one other man. They were all dead and these people went and bought these particular pieces of film from a PBS show that was done in New Orleans years ago on Louis. And I’m very upset that they allowed that to happen because I didn’t want to be a part of this particular documentary.

SE: Oh really. You didn’t approve it?
KS: No, not at all.

SE: Oh, now I’m sorry I brought it up.
KS: Oh no, that’s okay. I’ll tell you why, if that’s what you want to know.

SE: Well, sure.
KS: I don’t believe in people giving an opinion on what happened in the days that Louis and I were together that were not there. The only two people on that show that had any credibility about what they were saying were Sam Butera and Jimmy Vincent. Jimmy Vincent was with Louis when I first joined him. Jimmy Vincent was with us for years. Sam Butera was with us for years. Other than those two people no one on that show was there…except Louis, and of course me and that’s what I resented. I told the man when he called me. I said, “You know, you’re gonna talk to this one, that one, and this one, and you’re gonna get eight different opinions of what went on in those days, and nobody knows what went on except Louis and me.”  I said,” No… I won’t be a part of it.” And sure enough, they came up with Gia Maxone’s opinion, they came up with Louis Junior’s opinion, they came up with the guy from New Orleans, uh…Segretta, who doesn’t know what the heck he was talking about. None of it’s accurate. You know, they talk about Louis Prima being friends with Bing Crosby …Louis Prima couldn’t stand Bing Crosby!

SE: (Laughing).
KS: I mean this is the minor thing, but at the same time, nobody gets their stories right, and they can’t because they weren’t there. So that’s why I refused to be involved in it.

SE: Well, I don’t feel so bad about falling asleep then!
KS:  (Laughing).

SE: I’m a sucker for old footage, and it did have a lot of it.
KS: Well, some of the footage on Louis in that was excellent!

SE: Yeah!
KS: Some of the early, early, footage was really good and if it ever comes on you should watch it. It’s a little boring in spots, but the music was good and the old footage on Louis was really good.

SE: Most of the TV footage was from the Ed Sullivan Shows?
KS: Yes. Well, the man that owns the Ed Sullivan shows is the one that did this.

SE: Well, I guess it’s time to make your own documentary.
KS: No, I’m making my own movie and actually this is going to be the life story of “Keely”, of which Louis is a part of. The reason for it being ….it’s time… According to the producers I’ve talked to, it’s time for a really strong woman’s story and this is because I have a very interesting life apart from everything  just with Louis.

SE: You took a nine-year hiatus, and I wondered where you were.
KS: Yeah, I did. I married a record producer named Jimmy Bowen and he was a wonderful stepfather to my kids. I took the time off and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed driving my kids to school, making lunches, making breakfast, stuff like that, pickin ’em up after school. It was something that I had missed. I had never been able to make dinner in my own kitchen. I always had to have somebody who could cook so that I could just eat and run, things like that, you know. I loved having my own home, and being in
my own kitchen after all those years. I’m not a good cook,  but I liked it.

SE: So, you went from Capitol, to Dot Records. How did you make the transition to Frank Sinatra’s label Reprise?
KS: Frank called me up and said  I want you to come over and do… actually we did the Repertory stuff first, (“Kiss Me Kate,” “Point Your Wagon”, etc.) …the duets that we did on Reprise. And then Mo Ostin, who was running Reprise at that time, wanted me to do… Actually, I don’t know if you remember or not, but a lot of us went and signed to Reprise because of Frank; a lot of singers did.

SE: Yeah, I understand that Frank created that label for himself and to save his friends from being pushed to the rear by Rock ‘n  Roll. It was a great label.
KS: Yeah it was. And they’re doing nothing with these albums. Besides mine, there’s a lot of good albums on Reprise.

SE: Do you own your own masters from Reprise? I’ve read that Frank always told his kids, and Dean, and Sammy… make sure you own your own masters.
KS: Gee, I don’t know if that’s true or not, you know why? Because in those days none of us were strong enough to demand to own our own masters, like Capitol, Louis and I didn’t own our own Masters. I wish to God that we did. Now at Dot we did own our masters,  but that was one of the biggest mistakes we made was leaving Capitol to go to Dot. Now I own my masters today on Concord, that’s my choosing. But, you own your masters Steve, if you go and pay for everything.

SE: Right.
KS: In those days, nobody had that kind of money to put up to go in and do that.

SE: So on your new album, which sounds great by the way…
KS: Thank you.

SE:  I was floored when I put it on.
KS: Oh good. Not bad for an ol’ broad right? (Laughing)

SE: Hey, there’s no such thing as age. (Laughing)
KS: I know, there isn’t, you’re right. (Laughing)

SE: Were all the tracks done live in one take?
KS: Oh yeah, sure. Not my vocals though because when we recorded the band I was sick with the flu and I barely got the vocals enough for the band to hear me because it’s hard to record and not have some kind of a lead vocal going on, you know. We got the band in four sessions; two days, we got all the tracks. And then I went in about a month and a half later and did the vocals, and I did 10 in one session and the rest in the second session.

SE: An album done in four days. You don’t hear that anymore.
KS: No you sure don’t. They had a group next door to us who was like, a month on one song and I couldn’t believe it. I can’t even figure out how that happens.

SE: How did you react to David Lee Roth scoring a hit with “Just a Gigolo/ I Ain’t Got Nobody”?
KS: Well, you know, when he came out with that… whenever someone copies somebody else, it always helps whom the person was, in this case it helped me.

SE: He did the same arrangement, note for note.
KS: Note for note. Like when ‘Sonny and Cher’ came out you know, and they copied our act, the parents went back and brought out our albums and said this is who they’re copying and I had kids asking me for my autograph that shouldn’t have known who I was! And I asked them, how in the world do you know who I am? They told me, you know, and it happened so many times that I had to finally believe it. Then David Lee Roth came out with “Just a Gigolo” and as long as he gave Louis credit for it I was fine, and he finally did do that in Rolling Stone Magazine. But what really started things for us was the Gap commercial. That really just blasted everything crazy and that’s why I did the swing album.

SE: Then Brian Setzer covered “Jump, Jive and Wail”…
KS:  That’s right. Then I worked the house of Blues in Hollywood. I had fourteen hundred people in there and eleven hundred of them were under 30 years old and they all knew who I was. As a matter of fact, they sang some of my ballads with me. They sang, “I Wish You Love”, they sang, “You Go To My Head.” These kids should’ve never known “You Go To My Head.” But anyway, that’s what prompted me to go do this swing album was the reaction at the House of Blues.

SE: You’re doing a tour as well.
KS: Not yet. I was going to do a tour and then we thought that the best way to the people was TV. I thought..”O.k., what the heck!”

SE: One thing that stands out in my mind about you… watching the old TV footage… was that you were the tannest lady on television.
KS: Well, I have Cherokee Blood you know and I tan easily, I mean really easy. I don’t have a tan right now. I haven’t had a tan in maybe two years. I haven’t had time to do it, if you can believe that. But I’m gonna get a little bit of color before I do the Conan Show because I don’t like make-up. I don’t like that pastey look that they give you.  Even when I work on stage I wear lip-gloss and mascara. I never wear any make up on my face so if I have a little bit of a tan going into the TV show, they don’t have to use a lot of make-up.

SE: So what’s the follow-up to this album? Maybe another intimate album?
KS: We’re gonna follow up this one… I’m almost 95% sure we’ll follow this one up with another swing album and then the third album will probably be the “Sinatra” album. The intimate album I did for myself. I had a spot in my show where I did a lot of songs just going one into the other not even having a break, all with just a piano and rhythm section and it went over so well on stage that I told my producer that I’d like to do this. So we did it exactly that way. The Disc Jockey’s wouldn’t play it because it had no cuts, no place for them to stop. It just went from one song to the other. So the record company had to bring it back, re-cut it, and put the spaces in there and uh… it was a good turntable hit, but it wasn’t a hit.

SE: Well, times have changed.
KS: Yeah, that’s true too.

SE: Albums like that are hip now.
KS: It’s kind of like what Diana Krall is doing isn’t it?

SE: Yeah, but I’d rather hear the original for my money.
KS: Yeah, thank you.

SE: I hope that they release “The Intimate Keely Smith” on CD. I listened to it recently and, I mean, your interpretations of some of those songs are just downright x-rated.
KS: (Laughing) Yeah that was one of my favorites. I’ve tried to buy it. I’ve tried to lease it, but I can’t get it, you know. I wish it would come out. They should do something with it. It’s crazy to sit there.

SE: The other Reprise album that impressed me was the “Lennon/ McCartney Songbook.” Now, were you a fan, or did your kids pressure you to do that one?
KS: No, no. I was a fan of the Beatles. That was a top ten-album in England. That was a big album for me.

SE: Well I hope your tour brings you to San Francisco…
KS: I come there every December to the Fairmont Hotel to do a fund raiser for Senator John Burton but we are talking to Bimbo’s actually so if we do come in there, be sure to come and say hello.

SE: I will. Thank you so much.
KS: Thank you. Bye, bye.