CATHY CARR

b. 28 June 1936, Bronx, New York, USA. Carr was a sweet-voiced and bubbly MOR/pop singer who had some brief success when climbing on the rock 'n' roll bandwagon in the mid-50s. As a child, Carr appeared on her local Horn & Hardart Children's Hour. She was later a singer and dancer with a USO troupe and, for a time, fronted the orchestras of Sammy Kaye, Johnny Dee and Larry Fontaine. She joined Coral Records in 1953, but no hits were forthcoming. Carr then signed to the Cincinnati label Fraternity Records in early 1955, and her third single for them, a cover version of Otis Williams And The Charms' R&B number 1, "Ivory Tower", took her to the US Top 10 in 1956, for the only time. She never made the Top 40 again but had three small US hits, the later two coming on Roulette in 1959. Carr joined Smash Records in 1961 and Laurie in 1962, where she re-recorded "Ivory Tower", and later signed to Dot Records in 1966.

She was born in the New York borough of The Bronx. As a child, she appeared on The Children's Hour, a television show locally aired in New York, sponsored by Horn & Hardart;, a cafeteria chain which had locations in New York and Philadelphia. She later became a singer and dancer with the USO and joined big band orchestras such as those of Sammy Kaye, Johnny Dee, and Larry Fontaine. In 1953 she signed with Coral Records, but had no hits for them, later switching to Fraternity Records, a small company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, in early 1955. It was for Fraternity that she had her only major hit, "Ivory Tower", which was her third record for Fraternity, done in 1956. The song was a cover of a rhythm & blues; song done by Otis Williams & the Charms;, and another artist who also had a hit covering this song was Gale Storm. She never again had another big hit, though in 1959 she had two small successes for Roulette Records. She later switched to Smash Records (in 1961), Laurie Records (in 1962), and finally Dot Records (in 1966).