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Fans of music from the 1950's may want to put another nickel in...in the nickelodeon
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washingtonpost.com
I have enjoyed her music through the years. May she rest in peace.
.washingtonpost.com
Teresa Brewer, 76, a bold-voiced singer whose novelty hit "Music! Music! Music!" established her as a jukebox favorite in the 1950s and secured her four-decade career performing in nightclubs and on Las Vegas stages, died Oct. 17 at her home in New Rochelle, N.Y. She had progressive supranuclear palsy, a brain disorder.
Ms. Brewer was a veteran radio performer at 19, when "Music! Music! Music!" became a pop-chart smash in 1950 with its bouncy Dixieland-ensemble backup and command to "put another nickel in, in the nickelodeon."
After a period of similar fare, she won over audiences as a balladeer singing "Till I Waltz Again With You" (which reportedly sold more than 1.4 million copies), "Let Me Go, Lover" and "A Sweet Old-Fashioned Girl."
Her voice was startlingly brassy for a 5-foot-2, 100-pound singer, and the disparity prompted jokes. Referring to a brash nightclub performer, entertainer Bing Crosby joked that Ms. Brewer was the "Sophie Tucker of the Girl Scouts." Time magazine called Ms. Brewer "a topnotch singer with a voice somewhere between a blowtorch and a cello."
A striking brunette -- later a blond -- she was cast as a star of the musical western film "Those Redheads from Seattle" (1953) and was a mainstay of television variety shows for several years.
Ms. Brewer was a veteran radio performer at 19, when "Music! Music! Music!" became a pop-chart smash in 1950 with its bouncy Dixieland-ensemble backup and command to "put another nickel in, in the nickelodeon."
After a period of similar fare, she won over audiences as a balladeer singing "Till I Waltz Again With You" (which reportedly sold more than 1.4 million copies), "Let Me Go, Lover" and "A Sweet Old-Fashioned Girl."
Her voice was startlingly brassy for a 5-foot-2, 100-pound singer, and the disparity prompted jokes. Referring to a brash nightclub performer, entertainer Bing Crosby joked that Ms. Brewer was the "Sophie Tucker of the Girl Scouts." Time magazine called Ms. Brewer "a topnotch singer with a voice somewhere between a blowtorch and a cello."
A striking brunette -- later a blond -- she was cast as a star of the musical western film "Those Redheads from Seattle" (1953) and was a mainstay of television variety shows for several years.
I have enjoyed her music through the years. May she rest in peace.
