Keely Smith is mostly known as the duet partner of Louis Prima, she took the straighter role in their raucous, just-this-side-of-parodical blends of jazz, jump blues, and Italian pop, on record and on their Vegas-oriented shows. Smith, however, was also a reasonably talented singer of straight pop material, although not in the same class as the leading female vocalists of the 1950s. Her most respected solo recordings are her earliest Prima-less outings, made for Capitol in the late '50s with orchestral direction by Nelson Riddle and Billy May.
Smith was only 15 when she first saw Prima perform in New York City.
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