Eddy Howard

Mild-mannered crooner Eddy Howard ranked among the era's most prominent vocalists throughout the 1940s and the opening years of the following decade. Across the postwar period he tallied several dozen chart entries while seldom shifting away from gentle, heartfelt declarations of romantic contentment. In the early 1930s he abandoned studies at Stanford Medical School to become the featured singer with Dick Jurgens' orchestra, and together they placed eight singles on the charts in 1939 and 1940. At the same time he cut a handful of small-group jazz recordings for Columbia under John Hammond's supervision, with Teddy Wilson and Charlie Christian among the accompanists. By 1941 Eddy had formed his own ensemble, which reached its commercial peak when the 1946 release "To Each His Own" climbed to number one. Additional major successes prior to the mid-1950s included "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons," "My Adobe Hacienda," "I Wonder, I Wonder, I Wonder," "Room Full of Roses," "Sin (It's No Sin)," and "Auf Wiedersehn Sweetheart." The arrival of rock & roll eventually removed him from radio playlists, though he remained a steady attraction on the casino circuit until suffering a fatal cerebral hemorrhage in 1963.