Anita O'Day (born Anita Belle Colton; October 18, 1919 – November 23, 2006) was an American singer known for her work in the jazz genre. She was considered an influential jazz vocalist for her ability to keep up with fast-tempo arrangements and for her characteristic vocal delivery. Her music has been acclaimed by critics and writers.
O'Day spent her early years as a walkathon contestant before discovering a true calling for her singing. She got her start performing in jazz clubs across Chicago, Illinois, before being discovered by Gene Krupa and his big band. She was hired as their lead vocalist and had US hits with songs like "Let Me off Uptown" (1941). She also was a vocalist for Stan Kenton's band and had her highest-charting US hit with the top-10 "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine" (1944). She graduated to a solo career in 1947 where she cut records for various labels in a new jazz sub-genre called bebop. However, her use of drugs like marijuana and heroin led to several highly-publicized arrests during this period, including a six-month stint in prison in 1953.
She found success with a series of albums recorded for Verve Records between 1956 and 1964. Her LPs featured orchestras (as on 1956's Anita) and quartets, as on 1958's Anita Sings the Most. A notable performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 brought great attention to her music and career. A continued addiction to heroin led to a near-fatal overdose in 1966 that prompted O'Day to turn her life around. After getting sober, she reignited her career in the 1970s by touring in Japan and founding her own record label. A new manager, Alan Eichler, helped elevate her publicity and she made a series of US television appeared on programs like 60 Minutes and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
In 1981, O'Day's autobiography High Times Hard Times was published, chronicling her professional and personal setbacks. Her career continued during the decade with a series of albums on her own labels and in performances such as her 50th-anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall (1985). In 1996, the mistreatment of a broken arm led to O'Day developing pneumonia and nearly dying. She made a full recovery by 1999 and continued performing in concert into the 2000s decade. Her final album, Indestructible!, was released in 2006. A documentary about her life and career, titled Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer, premiered after her death in 2007.
Anita Belle Colton was born in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, on October 18, 1919, to James and Gladys (née Gill) Colton, both of whom were of Irish ancestry. The family moved to Chicago, Illinois, shortly after her birth. After relocating, her parents divorced and Anita was left in the care of her mother, whom she described in her autobiography as being emotionally distant: "I didn't realize at the time, of course, but she made me feel like I was keeping her from living her life." Each summer, Anita was also sent to her paternal grandparents in Kansas City, where she learned about religion and also took an interest in singing. When she was seven years old, her parents remarried and moved into a larger Chicago apartment that her father won on a round of poker. He also obtained a piano and the family learned to sing harmony together. Her father obtained a job as a printer, but spent most of his paycheck on alcohol, leading to her parents divorcing for the final time. Mrs. Colton sold the piano and moved with her daughter into a one-room Chicago apartment.
At school, Colton recalled having difficulties learning to read and was not interested in studying. After being told by a guidance counselor she would only be able to pass one subject, Colton hitchhiked to her grandparents' home in Kansas City. An uncle soon sent her back to Chicago where she returned to living with her mother and her mother's sister (who recently lost all of her finances). At the age of 14, Colton convinced her mother to leave school in order to become a contestant in the popular walkathons as a dancer. It was as a contestant that she changed her last name from Colton to "O'Day", which was Pig Latin for "dough" (in reference to the "dough" she hoped to make in the contests).
O'Day won first place in a Lindy Hop walkathon dance show, second place in an amateur show called "Dynamite Sprint" and second place in a walkathon that covered 4,000 miles over 97 days. In another contest, she was put into a mock wedding which ended abruptly after its promoter ran off. Instead, O'Day and her fellow contests raffled off a baby pig. She toured with the walk-a-thons circuits for two years, occasionally entering to specialized singing contests, including winning two Silver Dollars for performing "Is It True What They Say About Dixie?". A truancy officer soon discovered that O'Day was not attending school and sent her back to Chicago when she was 15 but she soon dropped out of school permanently at the age of 16.
1936–1946: Early singing and commercial success as a big band vocalist
Following leaving school altogether in 1936, O'Day became determined to become a professional singer, beginning as a chorus girl in such uptown venues as the Celebrity Club and the Vanity Fair. She then found work as a singer and waitress at clubs including the Ball of Fire, the Vialago, and the Planet Mars. After marrying drummer Don Carter, she was hired in 1938 by DownBeat editor Carl Cons to work at his new club, called the Off-Beat, in Chicago's state street neighborhood. Also performing at the Off-Beat was the Max Miller Quartet, which backed O'Day for the first ten days of her stay there. In 1939, she was hired as vocalist for Miller's Quartet, which had a stay at the Three Deuces club in Chicago. She also auditioned as a lead vocalist for Benny Goodman's orchestra, but lost to Helen Forrest. She briefly worked as the lead singer for Raymond Scott's band but was fired after forgetting the lyrics onstage.
While performing at the Off-Beat, she met Gene Krupa, who promised to call her if his current vocalist (Irene Daye) ever left his band. In 1941, Krupa's manager informed her that Daye was leaving the band to get married and O'Day joined his orchestra that year. Between March and May 1941, O'Day made 12 recordings in New York City with Krupa and his orchestra. From the recordings came the single, "Georgia on My Mind", which made the top 20 of the US pop chart. It was followed by the US top-10 entry, "Just a Little Bit South of North Carolina". Krupa then hired black trumpeter, Roy Eldridge. His hire signified one of the first examples of racial integration in American popular music. According to O'Day, Eldridge disliked her for consistently "upstaging him" by dancing to his trumpet solos during performances. Nonetheless, Eldridge and O'Day found commercial success with 1941's "Let Me off Uptown", which rose to number ten on the US pop chart.
With O'Day's commercial success, she was named DownBeat magazine's New Star of the Year and two of her Krupa hits were turned into soundies that played in American cinemas: "Let Me off Uptown" and "Thanks for the Boogie Ride". Because the Krupa band was in-demand, O'Day traveled with his group consistently throughout 1941 and 1942, including a series of one-night engagements. While Krupa received top pay, O'Day only received $7.50 per week as the band singer, which afforded her just enough to live on while touring.
O'Day recorded nearly 20 more selections with Krupa's orchestra through 1942, including a cover of the standard, "Skylark". However, none of these recordings became US hits for the band. In 1943, O'Day received approval to take time off to marry her second husband, Carl Hoff. After agreeing to appear temporarily with the band at the Chicago's Hotel Sherman, Krupa was arrested for marijuana possession and the band broke up in 1943. O'Day proceeded to join Woody Herman for a month-long gig at the Hollywood Palladium, followed by two weeks at the Orpheum. Unwilling to tour with another big band, she left Herman after the Orpheum engagement and finished out the year as a solo artist.