Bea Wain Biography
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Beatrice Wain, 30 April 1917, New York City, New York, USA. A vocalist, with a warm, easy and very musical style, Wain was at the peak of her popularity with the Larry Clinton Band in the late 30s. She played the piano as a child, and sang on NBC Radio’s Children’s Hour. Later, after broadcasting with vocal groups led by Fred Waring, Ted Straeter and Kay Thompson, and spending some time with Gene Kardos And His Orchestra, she joined ex-Tommy Dorsey arranger Larry Clinton when he formed his first band, late in 1937. During the next year she sang on all the band’s vocal hits, including ‘True Confession’, ‘The One Rose (That’s Left My Heart)’, ‘I Double Dare You’, ‘Always And Always’, ‘Martha’, ‘Heart And Soul’, ‘Summer Souvenirs’, ‘Old Folks’, ‘Who Blew Out The Flame?’, ‘(I’m Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over’, ‘I Want My Share Of Love’, ‘My Heart Belongs To Daddy’, ‘Over The Rainbow’, ‘Deep Purple’ (one of the biggest Wain/Clinton smash hits) and Clinton’s own composition, ‘My Reverie’. After being voted the number 1 female band vocalist in the 1939 Billboard magazine college poll, Wain left Clinton to go solo in May of that year, and had several hits in the early 40s, including ‘I’m Nobody’s Baby’, ‘Do I Worry?’, ‘My Sister And I’ and ‘Kiss the Boys Goodbye’. At around the same time, she also appeared on radio in the Quaker Party and Your Hit Parade shows, and later co-starred with ex-Carmen Cavallaro vocalist Larry Douglas, who played a featured role in the Broadway musical The King And I in 1951, when he and Doretta Morrow introduced ‘We Kiss In A Shadow’ and ‘I Have Dreamed’. After Wain married radio announcer Andre Bruch, the couple had their own record programme, Mr And Mrs Music, on New York radio, and later moved to Florida, where they worked together into the 70s.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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