Dinah Shore

One of America's most enduring entertainers well beyond the height of her commercial success in the mid-1940s, Dinah Shore became the first major vocalist to leave the big-band era behind and launch a career billed under her own name. Throughout the 1940s she cut several of that decade's most successful singles—"Buttons and Bows," "The Gypsy," and "I'll Walk Alone"—each of which remained at the top of the Hit Parade for more than a month. Once she premiered her own television variety program in 1951, she maintained a near-continuous presence on one series or another through the 1980s.

Raised in rural Tennessee, Dinah Shore was already singing on Nashville radio stations as a teenager. Her career soon carried her to New York, where she performed with Xavier Cugat. After unsuccessful auditions for Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey, she chose instead to pursue work as an independent solo artist. She signed with Bluebird and scored several hits between 1940 and 1941, among them "Yes, My Darling Daughter," "I Hear a Rhapsody," and "Jim." Her first million-selling record arrived in 1942 with the blues-tinged standard "Blues in the Night." Later that year she moved to Victor and achieved major success with "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" as well as her first chart-topping single, 1944's "I'll Walk Alone." She also began appearing in motion pictures, including the 1944 release Up in Arms and the 1946 film Till the Clouds Roll By.

The late 1940s marked her strongest period on record. From 1946 through 1949 she enjoyed substantial hits with "The Gypsy," "I Love You for Sentimental Reasons," "Anniversary Song," "I Wish I Didn't Love You So," "Buttons and Bows," and "Dear Hearts and Gentle People." Although her singles did not reach the same chart heights in the 1950s, Dinah Shore gained even wider visibility through her highly rated variety program, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show. To many viewers, her ritual opening and closing each episode by singing "See the USA in your Chevrolet, America's the greatest land of all" came to symbolize the decade itself. Her Chevrolet sponsorship continued until 1963, yet she reappeared in the 1970s with a fresh daytime talk-show format. In the 1980s she resumed live performing while also returning to television for another series that lasted two years. She died of cancer in 1994.