Kay Starr was the first and only full blooded Red Indian to top the UK charts in January 1953 with this hit. Born on a reservation in Dougherty, Oklahoma on July 21st 1922 Katherine Laverne Starks was the only daughter of Harry, a full blooded Iroquois Indian and Annie, a mixed Irish and American Indian heritage. Kay used to serenade her mothers chickens once the family had moved to Dallas and Kay’s aunt, Nora arranged for her to sing on the local Dallas radio station, WRR. Kay won talent shows week after week eventually securing her own 15 minute show where she sang pop and hillbilly songs with a piano for accompaniment. She was only 10 years old and earned $3 a night.
The family moved to Memphis, Kay continued to perform on the radio where she now sang Western Swing Music. It was here that she changed her name to Kay Starr due to misspellings of it in her fan mail.
Miss Starr’s career continued and she sang with the Joe Venuti Orchestra and had brief stints singing for Bob Crosby and Glenn Miller, who hired her while his regular singer Marion Hutton was sick. While with Miller she cut her first record, “Baby Me/Love with a Capital You” which was not a great success. She moved to Los Angeles and sang with two more bands, Wingy Manone’s band and Charlie Barnet’s band before becoming a soloist in 1946 signed to Capitol Records whose female singers also included Jo Stafford and Peggy Lee.
Kay Starr started to record on a regular basis from 1948, mainly in the US where she achieved moderate success in the Us charts, reaching the giddy heights of number 2 with “Hoop-de Doo” in 1950, the same year she started recording with Tennessee Ernie Ford with whom she had a US number three hit with “I’ll Never Be Free.” Kay recorded 13 songs before she struck gold, literally, with “Wheel of Fortune”, a US number one and gold record which lasted 22 weeks on the Billboard charts. Three more recordings followed before Kay Starr topped the UK charts, her 18th recording.
In 1952 Kay Starr recorded “Comes A-Long A-Love” a song written by Al Sherman and produced by Mitch Miller and the song topped the charts in January 1953 for 1 week. This was the last song that Sherman would write before handing over the reins to his sons, Bob and Dick Sherman who were just starting their songwriting careers, they would eventually write Mary Poppins.
The song has been used in several movie soundtracks including the 2006 movie Confetti.
Kay Starr was to enjoy to more UK chart entries, “Side by Side”, “Changing Partners” and “Am I a Toy or a Treasure” as well as lots more US chart success before she hit the top spot again in 1956 (see no 44). Kay Starr shares with Marvin Rainwater (see no 70) the distinction of being the only full bloodied Indians to top the charts in the UK. Cher and Johnnie Ray both have Indian blood in them but not as much as Kay or Marvin. She also shares with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John the honour of reaching number one with their first and last chart discs.
Kay Starr now lives in Bel Air, California, she has been married six times and has a daughter and a grandchild.
Charting The Charts 