Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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BREWER, Teresa

(b 7 May 1931, Toledo OH; d 17 October 2007) Pop singer. On radio age two; won Major Bowes talent show age five, toured with it seven years. Won another talent show age 15, two-week booking at NYC's Latin Quarter, other clubs; hid when the law visited because she was under age. Signed to London label: 'Music! Music! Music!' a world-wide hit '50. Further hits 'Choo'n Gum' '50, 'Longing For You' '51; switched to Coral label for top 20 hits '52-7: 'You'll Never Get Away' (duet with Don Cornell) and no. 1 'Till I Waltz Again With You', 'Ricochet', 'Bell Bottom Blues', 'Jilted', 'Let Me Go Lover', 'Pledgin' My Love', 'Silver Dollar', 'Banjo's Back In Town', 'A Tear Fell', 'A Sweet Old Fashioned Girl', 'Empty Arms' (C&W hit for Sonny James, '71). With the advent of crossover hits in the mid-'50s Brewer's spirit and incredibly bright, accurate voice made better covers of country and R&B than most; her cover of Fats Domino's 'Bo Weevil' '56 was not a disgrace. She had a major role in film Redheads From Seattle '53.

She continued with minor hits, touring, playing clubs; had a contract '70s with Howard Hughes, who owned five Las Vegas venues. She married Bob Thiele '72, who had produced some of her early hits; he then produced adventurous albums for her with Count Basie (Songs Of Bessie Smith), Duke Ellington (It Don't Mean A Thing), Stéphane Grappelli (On The Road Again), Bobby Hackett (What A Wonderful World), Svend Asmussen (On The Good Ship Lollypop), also Teresa Brewer And Earl 'Fatha' Hines, I Dig Big Band Singers, another with The World's Greatest Jazz Band. Backed by Oily Rags (Chas and Dave) with all-star sidemen on In London, including a remake of 'Music, Music, Music', songs by Chas and Dave, Robbie Robertson, Kris Kristofferson, Chuck Berry, Van Morrison, others. Doctor Jazz: Live At Carnegie Hall And Montreux '85 was a two-LP set on Thiele's Dr Jazz label, with Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry. But she'll be best remembered for her hit singles in the '50s.