Eileen Barton

Eileen Barton, a pop vocalist, is chiefly recalled for the 1949 novelty smash "If I Knew You Were Comin', I'd've Baked a Cake." She entered the world in Brooklyn, New York, on November 24, 1929, as the child of the vaudeville song-and-dance team Benny and Elsie Barton, stepping into the family routine at two-and-a-half by delivering a memorable take on "Ain't Misbehavin'." The Bartons performed twice each day at Broadway's Palace Theatre, sharing bills with Eddie Cantor, Rudy Vallee, and Milton Berle. Berle placed her in the role of the troublemaking Jolly Gillette on his CBS radio program in 1936, after which she made her screen bow the next year in Show for Sale. Following her stint as Nancy Walker's understudy in the 1941 production Best Foot Forward, she joined Elaine Stritch on tour in Angels in the Wings. As Benny Barton's own stage work faded, he shifted into song-plugging and, in 1943, brought the Al Hoffman/Carl Lampi/Jerry Livingston number "Close to You" to Frank Sinatra. The star admired the piece enough to back a publishing venture under Barton's direction, and Barton Music later issued several of Sinatra's major successes, among them "Nancy with the Laughing Face" and "Put Your Dreams Away." Sinatra further advanced Eileen's profile by featuring her in his 1944 run at New York's Paramount Theatre and by pairing with her on radio's Lucky Strike Presents Your Hit Parade, where they cut duets such as "Together" and "Come Out Wherever You Are."

Barton joined Capitol Records in 1947 and cut her first single, "Would You Believe Me," backed by the Skitch Henderson Orchestra. When the record drew little notice she returned to radio work, first hosting Teen Timers and then fronting a brief NBC series of her own. She reappeared in late 1949 on the independent National label with "If I Knew You Were Comin', I'd've Baked a Cake," a buoyant, R&B-tinged number written by Bob Merrill, the novelty specialist also responsible for "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?" After its introduction on radio's Don McNeill's Breakfast Club, the track became an immediate phenomenon, holding the top U.S. chart position for three months despite rival recordings by Ethel Merman and Georgia Gibbs. The hit secured her headline engagements at New York's Copacabana and Las Vegas' Flamingo, yet the follow-up "Dixieland Ball" did not repeat the triumph. Subsequent releases including "You Brought a New Kind of Love for Me" and "En-Thus-E-Uz-E-As-M (Enthusiasm)" attracted scant attention, but a 1951 move to Decca's Coral subsidiary yielded a Top Ten cover of Johnnie Ray's "Cry." She next reached the charts in 1953 with her version of Perry Como's "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes." Additional entries in 1954, "Don't Ask Me Why" and "Sway (Quien Sera)," also charted, though the rise of rock & roll soon ended her recording activity. She resurfaced on television as a regular panelist on the 1960 game show Video Village and made her last screen appearance three years later in Jayne Mansfield's Promises! Promises! Barton passed away at her West Hollywood residence on June 27, 2006.