The band singer

Last week we said a sad farewell to one of the last survivors of the Big Band era, Plymouth-born Miss Beryl Davis, who sang with Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Ted Heath, George Shearing and even Frank Sinatra during the 1940s (and up until recently was still singing).

I have saved my little tribute to this fine-voiced lady till the proper home of "light music", Sunday.

Here's Beryl singing one of those typically innuendo-filled wartime numbers Milkman Keep Those Bottles Quiet with the Squadronnaires:

The Squadronnaires with Beryl Davis - Milkman Keep Those Bottles Quiet

Here she is in 1939 singing with Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli:

Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli with Beryl Davis - Undecided

Bizarrely, Beryl joined the already established screen stars Rhonda Fleming [the only one now still with us] and Jane Russell and fellow Big Band vocalist Connie Haines to form "The Four Girls" in the 1950s to sing close-harmony gospel songs. An odd career move for all concerned, but it just goes to show that the Fifties was indeed a schizophrenic decade in America - on one hand, the liberated, consumerist "anything goes" decade of teen beach movies and rock'n'roll, and on the other it was the most prudish decade since the Hays Code was introduced in the 30s. Here are the girls, looking stunning yet singing religious nonsense:

Connie Haines - Beryl Davis - Rhonda Fleming - Jane Russell

I prefer to leave religion out of Sundays, thank you very much! So let's end with the lady herself at the ripe old age of 85, doing what she did best...

Beryl Davis at the Glenn Miller Festival, 2003

RIP, Beryl Davis (16th March 1924 – 28th October 2011)