Ken Deutsch writes: Anita Kerr was a woman that I admired for
many years before I finally had the opportunity to talk with her on
the phone and sell CDs of her radio IDs in the early 2000s. But
jingles (for stations like WLS, KQV, KMPC, WLW, WMCA, WOHO and so
many more) were just a tiny part of the music that she wrote,
conducted and sang over a 40-year period.
In her early years she and her first quartet backed up every major
recording artist in Nashville. The list is far too long to cover,
but here are three of my favorite hits that benefited from the Anita
Kerr sound:
Jingle Bell Rock (Bobby Helms)
Forever (Pete Drake and his Singing Steel Guitar)
Big Bad John (Jimmy Dean)
She also sang with Perry Como, Chet Atkins, Brenda Lee, Pat Boone,
Bobby Vinton and so many others, as she transitioned from strictly
country to any other type of music that needed a classy background
vocal group. Anita also released dozens of her own albums over the
years in every style imaginable.
Anita Kerr
In time she would move to Chicago and Los Angeles and continue to
create great music, pick up every industry award there is and in
general, reach heights that few have obtained. And through it all
she remained soft-spoken and kind. In a field dominated by men,
Anita didn't waste time demanding equal treatment, she just did her
thing and left everyone else in the dust.
Anita Kerr died October 10, 2022. She was 94.
Ken R, LLC
released five collectors compact discs of Anita Kerr radio
jingles.
To honor her
extraordinary work in the radio ID business,
we have posted zipped MP3 versions of those discs as free
downloads.
The original
Ken R, LLC CD descriptions are below.
Anita Kerr WLS Platinum
Through a special arrangement with Ms. Kerr, we are proud to
present the ultimate collection of these jingles, taken
directly from her master tapes. You get 99 cuts (58 minutes)
from the historic packages created for WLS (AM), Chicago.
Each cut on the CD has its own index for easy cueing. The
label lists titles for all cuts and some jingles are
presented in shorter edits as well as full versions. These
are the cleanest sounding versions of these jingles ever
heard as we have worked from original source material and
used slight CEDAR noise reduction where required. The CD
comes with a full-color picture of Anita Kerr on the cover
and only a 200 will be pressed. A real collector’s item!
Download It
Anita Kerr Treasury Volume I You get wonderful ID
packages created for KMOX-FM (St. Louis), KMPC (1969 in
stereo) and KMPC 1973 (Los Angeles), WBNS (Columbus, Ohio),
WHLO (Akron, Ohio) and WLW (Cincinnati, Ohio). The fidelity
on these makes you feel like you’re in the room with the
group! Over an hour!
Download It
Anita Kerr Treasury Volume II You get over an hour of
custom packages for stations including KOB (Albuquerque, in
stereo!), KQV (Pittsburgh), WBT (Charlotte), WIOD (Miami),
WKIS (Orlando) and WOHO (Toledo). The WKIS package is a real
departure for Ms. Kerr.
Download It
Anita Kerr Treasury Volume III KDEN (Denver) 1973;
KEZY (Anaheim) 1968 with unusual lyrics and custom cuts;
KMBZ (Kansas City) 1967; KTOK (Oklahoma City) 1967; WFBR
(Baltimore) from the late 1950s; WIOD (Miami) which is
different from the a capellas in AK-3 from 1968; WMCA (New
York) 1958 and WSBA (Harrisburg) 1968. By the way, the KMBZ
package has a “not for broadcast cut” sung especially for
the DJs "from the Anita Kerr Singers." It’s an hour and four
minutes. Download
It
Anita Kerr Treasury Volume IV Another hour and three
minutes of wonderful jingles, very different from PAMS and
TM product of the same era. You get a capellas for KACY,
KAYQ and KDEO (the latter with a bigger vocal group),
followed by a unique custom package for KFI, Los Angeles.
Then the 1967 WTAE "Personality" package and the Bonneville
beautiful music jingles and instrumentals in stereo.
Download It
We hope you enjoy this Anita Kerr print tribute, originally
published by Billboard magazine in 1979. Click on an image below to
enlarge.
