Jennie Smith

 

See this Rock Survey from 1958 when Jennie appeared:

Click on the image to see full size

 

 

From a Life Magazine article....

 

 

"I was born in a coal mining hollow in Burnwell, West Virginia in 1938. At an early age when my mother took me to movie musicals, I'd go right home and sing all the songs. Singing was what I wanted to do more than anything. My stepfather, John Kristof, was a newscaster at radio station WMON in Montgomery, WV. Eventually we moved from Montgomery to Charleston where my stepdad signed on with WCHS - doing news, weather, etc.

After graduating high school at age 17, I went to N.Y.C. Hugh McPherson (WCHS late night) put me in touch with the right person, Ray Ellis. I auditioned for RCA Records and got a contract. Steve Allen, who had an NBC Sunday night television show, heard one of the tracks on my album and invited me to do a guest shot on his show. This was my first national television performance.

I started working nightclubs around the country (with a chaperone, as I was under 21). My first nightclub date was at the Black Orchid in Chicago with Jonathan Winters, one of the funniest comedians ever. Later, I again worked the Black Orchid with a comedian who was doing his first nightclub performance - Bill Cosby. He talked a lot about a beautiful girl named Camille, that he wanted to marry. A few years later, Bill and I worked together again - this time at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe. By now, he had married Camille and they were expecting their first child. Bill had zoomed to stardom and I felt so lucky to be performing with him. I'm uncertain as to when it was, but for a few months I was a regular on Arthur Godfrey's radio show on CBS.

Steve Allen moved his television show from N.Y. to Los Angeles, and was syndicated five nights a week. His show kept asking me out to L.A. to perform and finally he hired me to work on his show as a regular. I moved from New York to L.A. and this was one of the happiest periods of my life. It was exciting meeting all the stars that guested on the show, and the musicians on the show were absolutely top notch, a pleasure to work with. Sometimes the entire entire show worked other places around the country doing concert dates.

After being on Steve's show for about two years, I started doing more nightclub dates. I worked with Red Skelton at the Sands in Vegas, Joey Bishop at Harrahs in Tahoe, the Smothers Brothers at the Flamingo in Vegas, Mickey Rooney at the Fairmont in Vegas, then toured with Buddy Hackett. Pat Boone, his musicians and I toured in Japan. Also, around 1968, I was lucky enough to land the national Chevy TV and radio commercials on which Frankie Randall and I sang together. It was exciting and fun.

Eventually, however, traveling began to lose its excitement for me. I longed to be in one place with my friends and my little pet dog. I didn't work for nearly a year and finally decided to live a more stable life by getting a secretarial job.

I worked for General Reinsurance Corporation for 31 years (I retired about ten years ago). During the time I was at General Re I met my husband, Arthur Brown, and we've been together since 1978.

Steve Allen and I collaborated on two songs - I wrote the music and he did the lyrics. To this day I have jazz artists calling to ask for a lead sheet on one of the songs, "After You." I recorded both the tunes on an album for Dot Records.

A while back, I collaborated with a gifted lyricist, Ruth Feeley and the fabulous writer, Jack Segal, who's written some of the world's treasured songs like "When Sunny Gets Blue" and "Scarlet Ribbons." Nearly every top artist has recorded his material. The song we collaborated on is called "The Best of Love", on which I wrote the melody, and Frankie Laine recorded it."

--- Jennie Smith Brown - 2009


Publicity Photos

SINGLES
* He's My Guy / We'll Be Together Again RCA 9628 (also on lp Jennie) (1957)
* Walkin 'neath the Moonlight/ My First Mistake - Columbia 4-41171 (1958)
* Huggin' My Pillow (sweet side) / Huggin' My Pillow (beat side) Columbia 4-41370 (1958)
* It's a Cryin' Shame/ Go Slow Little Heart - Columbia 4-41495 (1958)
* Your First Broken Heart / It’s Murder For Roberta - Canadian American 135 (1962)
* If You Should See Him/As I Love You - Canadian American 139 (1962)
* Go Away Little Boy / Let It Be Me - Canadian American 150 (1963)
* I'll Get By / My Man - Canadian American 156 (also on lp Nightly Yours) (1963)
* As Time Goes By / Never Trust a Stranger - GNP Crescendo 379 (1966)
* I Wanna Be Free / More Than You Know - GNP Crescendo 392 (1967)
* Feelin' Groovy / Our Song- GNP Crescendo 401 (1968)
* Why Don’t You Believe Me / Suspicion - Top Rank RA 2077


LPs
Jennie RCA LPT1047 (1957)
1.MY VERY GOOD FRIEND IN THE LOOKING GLASS 2.SOMETIMES I'M HAPPY 3. I'M A FOOL TO WANT YOU 4. WE'LL BE TOGETHER AGAIN 5. HE'S MY GUY 6.(YOU MAY NOT BE AN ANGEL BUT) I'LL STRING ALONG WITH YOU 7. YOU DO SOMETHING TO ME 8. ALL MY LIFE 9. THREE LITTLE WORDS 10.NO SUCH LUCK 11.I HEAR MUSIC 12.WHEN I FALL IN LOVE
Ray Ellis (arr,cond)Recorded in New York City,1957
(has also been issued twice in Japan on CD)
Love Among the Young Columbia CS 8028 (1958)
1.LOVE AMONG THE YOUNG 2.IMPOSSIBLE 3.A VERY SPECIAL LOVE 4.WHILE WE'RE YOUNG 5.YOUNG AND FOOLISH 6.TAKE ME IN YOUR ARMS 7 .CROSS YOUR HEART 8. A FINE ROMANCE 9.TEACHER, TEACHER 10.'S WONDERFUL 11.THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER YOU 12.ALL I DO IS DREAM OF YOU
Ray Ellis (arr,cond)Recorded in New York City,1958
Nightly Yours on the Steve Allen Show Canadian-American CALP 1010
1.THIS COULD BE THE START OF SOMETHING BIG 2.FLY ME TO THE MOON 3.I'LL GET BY 4.SPEAK LOW 5.AS LONG AS HE NEEDS ME 6.MY MAN 7.LET'S FACE THE MUSIC AND DANCE 8.THEY'VE GOT A LOT TO LEARN 9.MEAN TO ME 10.GRAVY WALTZ 11.SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME 12.NICE AND EASY
MORT GARSON (ARR)
Jennie DOT DLP 25586
1.SPRING IN MAINE 2.AFTER A WHILE 3.YOU'D KNOW IT 4.WITH YOU 5.AFTER YOU 6.I LOVE YOU TODAY 7.THE THINGS MY HEART TELLS ME 8.TONIGHT 9.NEVER HAD THIS FEELING BEFORE 10 .PRETEND YOU DON'T SEE HIM 11.LIFE IS BUT A DREAM12.WHEN I'M IN LOVE

CDs
Five J Ladies Sing. NORMA NOCD5688 CD Tracks 9-12: 9.I CONCENTRATE ON YOU 10.ONE NOTE SAMBA 11.QUIET NIGHTS 12.NICE 'N EASY
Jennie Smith on the Steve Allen Show (private issue) (1963-1964)
Imposible (w/ Bob Enevoldsen ts), It's Always You, Call Me Irresponsible, Witchcraft, You'd Know It, April's Fool, Lover Man, Our Day Will Come, When the World Was Young, In the Still of the Night, Sure Thing, Big Band Remote Spoof (w/ Steve Allen, Gary Crosby), Just Because We're Kids, Yesterday

 

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