Marlene VerPlanck
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Marlene Paula VerPlanck ''(née'' Pampinella; November 11, 1933 – January 14, 2018)
/ref> was an American jazz and pop vocalist whose body of work centered on
big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...
jazz, the American songbook, and
cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...
.


Life and career

VerPlanck was born and raised in
Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...
, the eldest of three siblings. Her father, Anthony J. Pampinella, operated a
gasoline station A filling station (also known as a gas station [] or petrol station []) is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold are gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Fuel dispensers are used to ...
there, and her mother was Pauline A. Biase, whose family ran an Italian restaurant. She married trombonist, composer, and arranger J. William "Billy" VerPlanck (1930–2009) in 1955, and he became her musical collaborator and champion. They were married for 52 years, until his death in 2009. VerPlank graduated from Bloomfield High School, and considered a career in journalism. She began performing as a teenager at the age of 19, at a nightclub in Newark, the Well. Her debut album, ''I Think of You with Every Breath I Take'', was released in 1955 when she was 21, and featured
Hank Jones Henry Jones Jr. (July 31, 1918 – May 16, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians have described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts h ...
, Joe Wilder, Wendell Marshall, Kenny Clarke, and
Herbie Mann Herbert Jay Solomon (April 16, 1930 – July 1, 2003), known by his stage name Herbie Mann, was an American jazz Flute, flute player and important early practitioner of world music. Early in his career, he also played tenor saxophone and clarinet ...
(uncredited). VerPlanck then went to work as a vocalist for Charlie Spivak's band, and later sang with the
Tommy Dorsey Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombone, trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-to ...
band and with Tex Beneke′s band. A prolific studio vocalist for commercial jingles during the 1960s and 1970s, Ver Planck was once dubbed "the New York jingle queen" by ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' jazz writer
Leonard Feather Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing. Biography Feather was born in London, England, into an u ...
.Feather, Leonard (May 7, 1988)
"Pop Music Reviews: Loves Ups, Downs With Marlene VerPlanck"
''Los Angeles Times''. pt. VI, pg. 5. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
She recorded thousands of jingles, often for low pay, although her fortunes changed when she sang an arrangement of the 1930s Campbell's Soup "M'm M'm Good" song, which became widely known. John S. Wilson, ''Familiar TV Voice Sings on 8th Street,'' ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', May 30, 1918.
Other notable jingles she recorded included "Nationwide is on your side" for the
Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and affiliated companies, commonly shortened to Nationwide, is a group of large U.S. insurance and financial services companies based in Columbus, Ohio. The company also operates regional headquarters in ...
and "Weekends were made for Michelob" for
Anheuser-Busch Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC ( ) is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple ...
′s Michelob beer. She later told the press that the latter was highly lucrative for her, because she put a "Yeah!" at the end of the jingle that was used over and over again in versions of the jingle recorded by
Billy Eckstine William Clarence Eckstine (July 8, 1914 – March 8, 1993) was an American jazz and pop singer and a bandleader during the swing and bebop eras. He was noted for his rich, almost operatic bass-baritone voice. In 2019, Eckstine was posthumously a ...
,
Vic Damone Vic Damone (born Vito Rocco Farinola; June 12, 1928 – February 11, 2018) was an American traditional pop music, pop and big band singer and actor. He was best known for his performances of songs such as the number one hit "You're Breaking My ...
, and
Brook Benton Benjamin Franklin Peay (September 19, 1931 – April 9, 1988), known professionally as Brook Benton, was an American singer and songwriter whose music transcended rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music genres in the 1950s and 1960s, with ...
, earning her continued royalties. Her jingle work allowed her to hone the clarity of her
diction Diction ( (nom. ), "a saying, expression, word"), in its original meaning, is a writer's or speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a piece of writing such as a poem or story.Crannell (1997) ''Glossary'', p. 406 In its c ...
when singing, and she became known for her ability to enunciate the lyrics of songs clearly even while investing them with emotion. Although she toiled largely in obscurity, her voice became widely known to millions of people during the 1960s and 1970s through the familiarity and popularity of her jingles. VerPlanck also sang backup for
Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023), known professionally as Tony Bennett, was an American jazz and traditional pop singer. He received many accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, ...
,
Perry Como Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer, actor, and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, from 1943 until 1987 ...
,
Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
, and Mel Torme, and she performed around the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
and internationally as a
cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...
singer. Despite her long and successful career in jingles and as a studio backing vocalist, her second solo album, ''This Happy Feeling'', was not recorded and released until 1969, 14 years after her first album. Her solo career then began in earnest, and she released more than 20 albums, mostly on the
Audiophile An audiophile (from + ) is a person who is enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction. The audiophile seeks to achieve high sound quality in the audio reproduction of recorded music, typically in a quiet listening space in a room with ...
label, and toured extensively as a soloist. She specialized in the Great American Songbook, especially the works of
Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Isidore Beilin; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-born American composer and songwriter. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Berlin received numerous honors including an Acade ...
,
Jerome Kern Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over ...
,
Johnny Mercer John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Wallichs Music Cit ...
,
Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became Standard (music), standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway the ...
, and
Richard Rodgers Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American Musical composition, composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway theatre, Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers wa ...
, and gained a reputation as one of the most accomplished interpreters of the genre. In January 1983, VerPlanck took part in recording ''In the Digital Mood'', an early all-digital recording of the music of
Glenn Miller Alton Glen "Glenn" Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band conductor, arranger, composer, trombonist, and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the United States Army Air Forces ...
by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. The album included two vocal tracks – " Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and " (I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", and VerPlanck was invited to sing the female vocals in a recreation of the singing group The Modernaires, which consisted of one female and four male vocalists, and to bring four male colleagues with her to sing the four male vocal parts. The album's producers expected her to bring unknown session and back-up singers with her, but she surprised and delighted the producers and the orchestra by arriving with Julius LaRosa, Mel Torme, Michael Mark, and Marty Nelson for the recording session on January 20, 1983.Anonymous, Liner notes for "The Glenn Miller Orchestra: In the Digital Mood," GFRP Records, 1983. VerPlanck last performed in December 2017 at a jazz club in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. She died of
pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
at a hospital in
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
, New York City on January 14, 2018, aged 84 and was buried at Mt. Olivet cemetery in Bloomfield.


Discography


As leader

* ''I Think of You with Every Breath I Take'' (Savoy, 1956) * ''This Happy Feeling'' (Mounted, 1969) * ''You'd Better Love Me'' (Audiophile, 1977) * ''Marlene VerPlanck Loves Johnny Mercer'' (Audiophile, 1978) * ''A New York Singer'' (Audiophile, 1980) * ''A Warmer Place'' (Audiophile, 1982) * ''I Like to Sing!'' (Audiophile, 1984) * ''All Aglow Again'' with Steve Clayton (Sovereign, 1986) * ''Marlene VerPlanck Sings Alec Wilder'' (Audiophile, 1986) * ''Pure & Natural'' (Audiophile, 1987) * ''A Quiet Storm'' (Audiophile, 1990) * ''A Breath of Fresh Air'' (Mounted, 1993) * ''Live! in London'' (Audiophile, 1993) * ''You Gotta Have Heart: The Songs of Richard Adler'' (Varese Sarabande, 1997) * ''What Are We Going to Do with All This Moonlight?'' (Audiophile, 1998) * ''My Impetuous Heart'' (DRG, 2000) * ''Speaking of Love'' (Audiophile, 2002) * ''It's How You Play the Game'' (Audiophile, 2004) * ''Now'' (Audiophile, 2005) * ''Once There Was a Moon'' (Audiophile, 2009) * ''One Dream at a Time'' (Audiophile, 2010) * ''Ballads, Mostly'' (Audiophile, 2013) * ''I Give Up, I'm in Love'' (Audiophile, 2014) * ''The Mood I'm In'' (Audiophile, 2016)


As guest

With J. J. Johnson *'' Goodies'' (RCA Victor, 1965) With the John LaSalle Quartet * ''Jumpin' at the Left Bank'' ( Capitol, 1959) With the Glenn Miller Orchestra * ''In the Digital Mood'' (GRP, 1983)


References


External links


VerPlanck's website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Verplanck, Marlene 1933 births 2018 deaths Jazz musicians from Newark, New Jersey American women jazz singers American women pop singers Big band singers American jazz singers Bloomfield High School (New Jersey) alumni People from Bloomfield, New Jersey Savoy Records artists American people of Italian descent 21st-century American women