My musical background in Tyler, Texas was quite outstanding. Uh, I grew up with, uh, with high school teachers who were in bands, they could play music. And we had a nine piece band there in Tyler, and I joined them when I was about, oh, 15 years old and traveled all over Texas in that band, playing for the elite oil people. Hah. And um, I was making about 50 bucks a night, and uh, it taught me, they taught me how to find my timing and to learn the songs that I wanted.
I was singing when I was five years old. My sister and I both had the talent from mom and dad, and she was in opera and I was into pop and uh, rhythm and blues, anything, I was about a four octave singer.
I knew when I left to go to start my career, you don't want to get in front of a band and say, uh, give me "Stardust" without saying D-flat.
The music I wanted to get into when I went to California, was to, uh, get into, uh, pop, mostly. And the big band era was on at that time. I was doing the "Mona Lisa"s, the "Stardust"s, "Stars Fell On Alabama," all this kind of stuff. And that was my thing that I wanted.
I did not want vocal groups. I was not interested in singing with a group because there's too much problem with groups in the first place.
Being from Texas, I didn't know anything about gangsters and people like that, I had no fear of people.
Most artists don't know a hit. You can say I want this one to be a hit but it never become that way. The public decides that for you.
