Biography
From fall 1935 through fall 1939, Edythe “Dee Dee” Wright ranked as Tommy Dorsey’s foremost singer, her striking looks routinely labeled “sultry.” Live broadcasts by the band spotlighted her during those years. Although competent on ballads, she never brought much emotional depth to slower material; instead her strongest moments arrived on brisk novelty tunes, above all when the Clambake Seven supplied the accompaniment. While instrumentalists such as Bud Freeman soloed, she supplied relaxed, poised interjections that lent the ensemble a borrowed yet welcome touch of urban sophistication. On other occasions the Three Esquires—crooner Jack Leonard, arranger Axel Stordahl, and trumpeter Joe Bauer—joined her in vocal support. In February 1939 she contributed two articles to Bandstand magazine, one of them titled “The Female Viewpoint.”
Her temper matched Dorsey’s in volatility, a trait that surfaced whenever the pair traded curses offstage. Repeated performances of trite, undignified routines, occasionally alongside Skeets Herfurt’s heavy-handed novelty vocals, gradually eroded her standing. After departing the orchestra in late 1939 she was succeeded by Connie Haines and by Jo Stafford, who arrived as a member of the Pied Pipers. Even after leaving Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra, Wright kept contact with several of its musicians; she reportedly undermined an emerging rapport between Buddy Rich and Frank Sinatra by planting discord between the two notoriously self-absorbed young performers. Details of her life before and after the Dorsey years remain scarce. Born on an unknown date in Bayonne, NJ, she died on October 28, 1965, at a location that has not been disclosed.
Her temper matched Dorsey’s in volatility, a trait that surfaced whenever the pair traded curses offstage. Repeated performances of trite, undignified routines, occasionally alongside Skeets Herfurt’s heavy-handed novelty vocals, gradually eroded her standing. After departing the orchestra in late 1939 she was succeeded by Connie Haines and by Jo Stafford, who arrived as a member of the Pied Pipers. Even after leaving Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra, Wright kept contact with several of its musicians; she reportedly undermined an emerging rapport between Buddy Rich and Frank Sinatra by planting discord between the two notoriously self-absorbed young performers. Details of her life before and after the Dorsey years remain scarce. Born on an unknown date in Bayonne, NJ, she died on October 28, 1965, at a location that has not been disclosed.