Put another nickel in...

Had she lived, the delightful Teresa Brewer would have been 80 years old today.

Miss Brewer was one of those eternally chirpy artists so beloved of the pop world in the early 50s. A child star during WW2, she hit the big time principally as a singer of novelty songs (although one of her hits Gonna Get Along Without You Now has subsequently become a much-covered classic) - a genre that was emulated, with greater success, here in the UK by Alma Cogan. In many ways, she was the "child star who never grew up".

Once the mood of music changed with the advent of rock'n'roll, Teresa Brewer found it harder and harder to achieve the success of those early years, and it wasn't until the 1980s that she re-emerged as a jazz cabaret artiste - and, as is the wont of perceived kitsch female singers d'un certain age, a bit of a gay icon. She died only four years ago, aged 76.

Teresa Brewer - Music Music Music

Teresa Brewer fan site