Birth name Beatrice Weinsier Role Singer Also known as Beatrice Wayne Genres Big band | Occupation(s) Singer Associated acts Larry Clinton Name Bea Wain | |
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Born April 30, 1917 ( 1917-04-30 ) Origin The Bronx, New York, U.S. Albums Do I Worry, The Very Best Of, Deep Purple, My Reverie, You Started Something, Jubilee Similar People Larry Clinton, Artie Shaw, Larry Carlton | ||
Bea wain larry clinton heart and soul 1939
Beatrice Ruth Wain (April 30, 1917 – August 19, 2017) was an American Big Band-era singer and radio personality born in the Bronx, New York City. She had a number of hits with Larry Clinton and his Orchestra. After her marriage she and her husband became involved in radio, helming a show titled "Mr. and Mrs. Music".
Contents
- Bea wain larry clinton heart and soul 1939
- Bea wain larry clinton orchestra over the rainbow 1939 wizard of oz songs
- Career
- Radio
- Recordings
- Mr and Mrs Music
- Personal life
- Death
- Listen to
- References
Bea wain larry clinton orchestra over the rainbow 1939 wizard of oz songs
Career
On a 1937 recording with Artie Shaw, she was credited as Beatrice Wayne, which led some to assume that was her real name. On record labels, her name was shortened (without her permission) to "Bea" by the record company, ostensibly for space considerations. As she explained, "They cut it to 'Bea' Wain. They cut the 'Beatrice' out to 'Bea.' I was just a little old girl singer, but that's the truth. So that's how my name became 'Bea Wain'".
She led the vocal group Bea and the Bachelors (with Al Rinker, Ken Lane, and John Smedberg) and the V8 (seven boys and a girl) on the Fred Waring show. In 1937, Wain joined former Tommy Dorsey arranger Larry Clinton and His Orchestra, which she joined after doing chorus work with Fred Waring and Ted Sttraeter.
Her debut with Clinton was made in the summer of 1938 at the Glen Island Casino, New Rochelle, New York. She was featured with Clinton on a number of hit tunes, including "Martha" and "Heart and Soul". In 1939, she was voted the most popular female band vocalist in Billboard annual college poll, and that same year she began her solo career. Her first theater tour as a solo led to her being signed for the Your Hit Parade and RCA Victor records.
Radio
Wain made her debut on radio at age six as a "featured performer" on the NBC Children's Hour. As an adult, she sang regularly on The Larry Clinton Show (NBC 1938), Monday Merry-Go-Round (NBC Blue 1941-1942),:238 Starlight Serenade (Mutual 1944),:314 and Your Hit Parade.:362
Recordings
Wain had four No. 1 hits: "Cry, Baby, Cry", "Deep Purple", "Heart and Soul", and her signature song, "My Reverie". My Reverie (Victor 26006) stayed at the top of the chart for eight weeks in 1938.
Wain was also the first artist to record the Harold Arlen-Yip Harburg classic "Over the Rainbow" (on December 7, 1938, with Clinton's orchestra), but MGM prohibited the release until The Wizard of Oz (1939) had opened and audiences heard Judy Garland perform it.
Wain rarely made recordings after she left the Clinton orchestra in 1939, focusing primarily on her work on radio instead.
Mr. and Mrs. Music
Following her musical career, Wain worked with Baruch as a husband-and-wife disc jockey team in New York on WMCA, where they were billed as "Mr. and Mrs. Music". An article in the May 1945 issue of Radio Best magazine noted, "In the trade she is looked upon as an accurate picker of hits and is a favorite song plugger of tunesmiths like Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen and Harry Warren."
In 1973, the couple moved to Palm Beach, Florida, where for nine years they had a top-rated daily four-hour talk show from 2 p.m. - 6 p.m. on WPBR before relocating to Beverly Hills. During the early 1980s, the pair hosted a syndicated version of Your Hit Parade, reconstructing the list of hits of selected weeks in the 1940s and playing the original recordings.
In a 2004 interview with Christopher Popa, Wain reflected: "Actually, I've had a wonderful life, a wonderful career. And I'm still singing, and I'm still singing pretty good. This past December, I did a series of shows in Palm Springs, California, and the review said, "Bea Wain is still a giant." It's something called Musical Chairs. I did six shows in six different venues, and I was a smash. And I really got a kick out of it."
Personal life
On May 1, 1938, Wain married radio announcer André Baruch. Their honeymoon in Bermuda was cut short when Fred Allen called Baruch asking him to return to New York to substitute for his ailing announcer, Harry von Zell. They were married for 53 years. Baruch died in 1991. The couple had two children, Bonnie and Wayne.
Death
Wain died of congestive heart failure at a retirement home on August 19, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 100.