Teresa Brewer

Teresa Brewer (born Theresa Veronica Breuer; May 7, 1931 – October 17, 2007) was an American singer whose style incorporated pop, country, jazz, R&B, rock 'n roll, musicals, and novelty songs. She was one of the most prolific and popular female singers of the 1950s, recording around 600 songs.

Brewer was born in Toledo, Ohio, the eldest of five siblings. Her father Ludwig Breuer, a German immigrant, was a glass inspector for Libbey-Owens-Ford (later acquired by Pilkington Glass), and her mother Helen (nee Kasap) Breuer, a housewife, was of Polish ancestry. The family were practicing Catholics, and she was a member of the Roman Catholic Church most of her life.

Her singing career began almost as soon as she was able to walk and talk. When Brewer was two years old, her mother entered her in The Uncle August Kiddie Show on Toledo's WSPD and she was a hit with audiences. At the age of seven, Brewer entered The Major Bowes Amateur Hour and was soon touring around the country with them. When she was 12, her mother pulled her from the road to finish school.

As she progressed through high school she was able to skip a grade. She would have graduated from grade 12 in 1948 at age 17, a year early. Around January 1948 she won a contest in Toledo that led her to the Stairway To The Stars contest show in New York. There she was a winner and the prize was a week's performance at the Latin Quarter club. It was there that she met her first husband, Bill Monahan. Accompanied by her aunt Mary, she decided to stay in New York and do more performing. Being the legal age of 16 she was able to leave school, which she had disliked, and she did not receive a graduation diploma.

An agent, Richie Lisella, heard her sing and took her career in hand, and in 1949 she was signed to a contract with London Records. The same year she recorded the song "Copenhagen" with the Dixieland All-Stars along with a number of other recordings. For the B side she recorded the song "Music! Music! Music!". Unexpectedly, it was not the A side but this B side which took off, selling over a million copies and becoming Teresa's signature song. Another novelty song, "Choo'n Gum", hit the top 20 in 1950, followed by "Molasses, Molasses". Like many singers, she preferred ballads as they offered more opportunity to show off her vocal abilities, but the only ballad she recorded to make the charts was "Longing for You" in 1951.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.