Grammy-winning singer and arranger Anita Kerr, whose vocal group Anita Kerr Singers became a staple of pop and country records in the 1950s and 1960s, has died at the age of 94.
Her daughter Kelly Kerr confirmed the death on a social media site, writing: “What a sad news and what a great loss to the music industry. Anita was a legend in her era but she was my mother first and foremost. I hope you rest in peace. I will miss you forever, But I feel relieved knowing that you are now singing with angels. You have always been in my heart.”
Kerr’s vocal-arrangement sound was considered a major component of the “countrypolitan” or “Nashville sound” era, where the music saw the addition of strings and background vocals lending graceful elements to the recordings of some of the genre’s biggest stars, perhaps most notably Patsy Cline. and Jim Reeves. A smoother approach to country gave way to less rough cross strokes.
Her influence on pop music was also significant, with the band Anita Kerr Singers behind the vocal chants on Roy Orbison’s “Only the Lonely,” among many other recordings.
Other songs featured on the group include Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock”, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee, “I’m Sorry”, “Make the World Go Away” by Eddy Arnold, and Reeves’ “He’s Going to Have to Go” and ‘Running with Fear’ by Orbison. Kerr also hit the pop top 10 as a member of the short-lived 1960’s Little Dippers with the song Forever.
“Anita Kerr has helped Nashville achieve global status as a music hub through her roles as talented DJ, producer and leader of the singing quartet Anita Kerr Singers,” said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. . While women rarely led the recording sessions, she worked alongside lead producers Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley, and was closely involved in shaping the songs of Eddie Arnold, Skeeter Davis, Brenda Lee, Jim Reeves and others who have given the world the Nashville Sound so popular. Her voice and creativity expanded the artistic and commercial potential of country music.”
The first Anita Kerr Singers Grammy Awards came in 1965, for Best Performance by a Lyrical Group for “We Dig Mancini” – an album containing interpretations of Henry Mancini’s film/TV work that had already beaten the Beatles’ “Help!” Album in Category – and Best Gospel or Other Religious Recording for ‘Southland Favorites’ album. The following year’s third Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Lyrical Group came for “Man and a Woman”, the cover of the theme song for the French film.
Born Anita Jean Greely in 1927 in Memphis, she moved to Nashville with husband DJ Al Kerr in 1948 and formed a vocal quintet that became a staple of WSM’s show “Sunday Down South”. The band, known before the name change as the Sunday Down Southern Choir, was signed to a record deal by famed producer Owen Bradley in 1951, and he soon used it for other sessions as well. Chet Atkins also preferred the sound that Kerr Singers brings to his productions. They supported Reeves on his five-day-a-week run on WSM, and Kerr estimated that the group was having eight sessions a week by 1955, and later, at its peak, 12-18 sessions each week.
In 1965, after divorcing her first husband, Kerr moved to Los Angeles and found plenty of pop work there, in addition to being the choral director of the first season of the prime-time television show The Smothers Brothers.
Artists who can listen to Kerr’s recordings and collection include Hank Snow, Willie Nelson, Perry Como, Brenda Lee, Carla Thomas, Herb Albert, Tijuana Brass, Bert Bacharach, Pat Boone, Ernst Taub, Bobby Bland and countless others.
In the 1970s, Kerr moved with her second husband to Switzerland, where the New York Times reported that she was living in a nursing home in Geneva at the time of her death.
In 1992, the Recording Academy awarded Kerr the Governors Award for her contribution to American music.
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