Fun Facts About Keely Smith

1. Keely Smith’s distinctive appearance and unusual presence on stage resulted from her Irish and Cherokee background.


2. She started singing professionally at just 15 years old, touring Norfolk, Virginia, under a military air station band before Louis Prima found her.

3. Her birth name was Dorothy Jacqueline Keely, but she adopted “Keely Smith” as a stage name, drawing on her mother’s maiden name, Keely.

4. While performing with Louis Prima, she gained notoriety for her deadpan expression and unwavering composure, which contrasted with Prima’s crazy energy, therefore making their act even more funny and interesting.

5. Elvis Was a Fan—Elvis Presley performed a duet of “Loving You with Keely Smith backstage at one of her events in the late 1950s, much as he really admired her.

She was among the first-ever Grammy Award winners, having collaborated with Louis Prima on That Old Black Magic to win Best Performance by a Vocal Group or Chorus in 1959.

One of the few musicians personally signed by Frank Sinatra to his Reprise Records company, where she recorded several highly regarded solo albums, Keely Smith

8. Declined a Bond Theme—Reportedly asked to perform a James Bond theme song in the 1960s, she rejected it because she felt it would not fit her style.

Performing sold-out events for years at The Sahara and other prominent venues, Keely and Louis Prima were among the first significant artists to establish the Las Vegas residency tradition.

10. Late-Career Comeback Keely had an unexpected and successful reappearance in the 1990s and 2000s, even garnering a Grammy nomination in 2001 for her album Keely Sings Sinatra, even though she withdrew from the public for many years.

With her distinctive soft vocals, she was really one of a kind, combining jazz, pop, and humor!