Eartha Kitt

Eartha Kitt

• Ceremony was on February 8, 1960

Recording Star for Eartha Kitt

Location: 6656 Hollywood Boulevard
https://www.google.com/maps/place/6656+Hollywood+Boulevard

Bad But Beautiful

Stars are born in trunks, on stages, in films, on television screens, in hospitals and in assorted, unclassifiable locales. Earthy Eartha Kitt had her first significant moment of glory in Leonard Sillman's NEW FACES OF 1952, a perking potpourri of sketches by Ronny Graham and Mel Brooks and music by a string of pros including Sheldon Harnick. Clad in a figure-hugging lounging outfit, the temptress from South Carolina outlined the weary routine of an international sophisticate in a ditty titled MONOTONOUS. Endowed with alluring curves and a voice that penetrated the far reaches of the balcony, she turned sex into much more than a three-letter word. During the decade since that smashing victory, Miss Kitt sighed, cooed and shouted her way to fame as one of the primary exponents of love appreciation expressed in song. Her repertoire touches on most facets of the mating game, from pursuit to profitable retreat. And as a former Katherine Dunham dancer, Miss Kitt is more than able to sell a musical story on gestures and movement alone. Ten years removed from the domain of NEW FACES, she's gone on to take her place alongside other Sillman graduates, including Imogene Coca, Henry Fonda, Van Johnson, Eve Arden, Richard Carlson and John Lund. On records and concert stages, she's come to personify all knowing seductresses, alternately lashing out at or loving the men depicted in her enticing repertoire.

BAD BUT BEAUTIFUL best defines the sizzling point of view she sings about. In this outing, she serves up an array of refrains all related to the battles of the senses.

ALL I WANT IS ALL THERE IS AND THEN SOME is the anthem of an ambitious siren, whose taste runs to platinum and Paris and then some. DO IT AGAIN, written in 1922 by Buddy DeSylva and Ira Gershwin for the Broadway show THE FRENCH DOLL, seems tailor-made for the soothing tones of Miss Kitt. A languorously-expressed, but warm-hearted plea, it belies its age, particularly when Miss Kitt oozes its compelling command. IT'S SO NICE TO HAVE A MAN AROUND THE HOUSE illustrates her skill in transforming a lyric into a personalized statement of fact, in this case about woman's favorite necessary evil, man. LA DOLCE VITA, from Fellini's classic film tale of decadence in contemporary Rome, is comparably well-suited to Miss Kitt's sensual tack. Her approach to it recalls the vivid and varied scenes from the memorable film. As adept at expressing jaded love as she is at communicating coyness, Miss Kitt movingly portrays the professional princess of pleasure in LOLA-LOLA. In A LADY LOVES, she provides another endorsement of the pleasures of sophistication and unlimited passion; inhibitions are not for her.

LOVE FOR SALE, Cole Porter's enduring declaration first voiced in the 1930 Broadway production, THE NEW YORKERS, is similar in mood to LOLA-LOLA; again, Miss Kitt is both actress and singer. ALWAYS TRUE TO YOU IN MY FASHION, another Porter gem (from the 1948 production of KISS ME KATE), finds Miss Kitt at her wittiest, portraying the fickle femme via some of the best lyrics ever written to delineate that genre. WHATEVER LOLA WANTS, from the Richard Adler - Jerry Ross score for DAMN YANKEES (1955), is a worldly interpretation of the power of positive thinking. DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND, from the Leo Robin - Jule Styne score for the 1949 show, GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, is a mercenary's sermon on the combat between the sexes; Miss Kitt states it as an opportunist's credo, complete with Kittenish nuances. NEVER ON SUNDAY revives memories of Jules Dassin's film, one of the best human comedies in years, and gives Miss Kitt the opportunity to flavor her songbook with foreign spice.

GOOD LITTLE GIRLS, as Miss Kitt wisely asserts, go to heaven, but smart little girls don't wait; they make hay on earth in a manner deftly and intriguingly outlined by Miss Kitt.

Throughout, she sings with a flair for the sophisticated, an understanding of the subtleties of lyrics, a striking sense of wit and a vocal strength that lends impact to her incisive messages. In her forceful singing, she reminds women of the power of sorcery and men of the wiles-and rewards-of women. Few singers have so attractive a mission. And few singers fulfill that mission so attractively.
- Notes by Don Gold

Side One

• All I Want Is All There Is and Then Some
• Please Do It Again
• It's So Nice to Have a Man Around The House
• La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life)
• Lola-Lola
• A Lady Loves

• Love For Sale
• Always True to You in My Fashion
• Whatever Lola Wants Lola Gets
• Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend
• Never on Sunday
• Good Little Girls