Barbara McNair

Barbara McNair earned wider notice for her screen work than her recordings, even though a nearly twenty-year discography included time on the storied Motown roster and she headlined her own syndicated variety series. Born January 1, 1934, in Chicago and raised in Racine, Wisconsin, she sang from childhood; after one year at UCLA she moved to New York City, took a secretarial post at the National Foundation of Settlements, and endured repeated rejections for club work until impresario Max Gordon placed her at the Village Vanguard. Appearances on The Arthur Godfrey Talent Scout Show and The Ed Sullivan Show soon followed. While singing at Las Vegas’ Silver Slipper Casino she drew the attention of columnist Walter Winchell, whose endorsements secured a Coral Records contract; her first single, “Till There Was You,” appeared in 1958, and the B-side “Bobby” became a hit. That same year she made her Broadway bow in The Body Beautiful and later joined the cast of The Pajama Game.

Three further Coral singles arrived in 1958—“He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” “Indiscreet,” and “Too Late This Spring”—followed in 1959 by “Goin’ Steady With the Moon,” “Lover’s Prayer,” and the duet “Telephone Conversation” with Billy Williams. She also toured with Nat King Cole in the stage productions I’m with You and The Merry World of Nat King Cole. Three Signature releases appeared in 1960—“He’s a King,” “All About Love,” and “Kansas City”—then Roulette issued “That’s All I Want From You” in 1961 and “Honeymoonin’” the next year. A KC single, “Cross Over the Bridge,” came next, and in 1963 McNair made her screen debut opposite Henry Fonda in Spencer's Mountain while taking guest spots on Dr. Kildare, I Spy, and Hogan’s Heroes.

After the lone 1965 Warner Bros. release “Wanted Me,” she joined Motown later that year and scored her biggest success with the label debut “You’re Gonna Love My Baby.” “Everything Is Good About You” and “My World Is Empty Without You” followed in 1966, along with the recording of “Baby a Go-Go,” a track Berry Gordy rejected that remained vaulted for decades until Northern Soul collectors championed its bootlegs; Motown finally issued it officially on the 2002 compilation A Cellarful of Motown! Two final Motown singles, “Where Would I Be Without You” and “You Could Never Love Him,” appeared in 1968. Thereafter McNair concentrated more heavily on acting, returning to theaters in the crime drama If He Hollers, Let Him Go! and, in 1969, co-starring with Elvis Presley in Change of Habit.

The syndicated series The Barbara McNair Show debuted the same year and ran three seasons. In 1970 she landed her largest film part to date, opposite Sidney Poitier in They Call Me Mister Tibbs!, the sequel to the Oscar-winning In the Heat of the Night; she also appeared in its 1971 follow-up, The Investigation. For the balance of the decade she performed mainly onstage and in nightclubs with occasional television spots, pausing in 1976 to cut one last single, “Because of You,” for TEC. A recurring role on the daytime soap General Hospital began in 1984, and after a quarter-century absence from features she reappeared in the little-seen Neon Signs in 1996. Alongside her own club engagements she starred in Sophisticated Ladies, the stage tribute to Duke Ellington’s catalog.