Get Out of My Head!

[rejectomorph]

One of those things where you try to recall a name and can't quite dredge it up has visited me this evening, leading me to waste an hour on the Internet trying to find the name in question. It's the name of a female singer, never popular, but who made several obscure recordings in the 1950s and 1960s. She was genre-free, for the most part, though I suppose her work might have been classified as art song. I think the songs she recorded were usually pop/jazz standards, but done in ways to frequently render them all but unrecognizable. She was noted for her bizarre singing style and her large vocal range. I can't even remember so much as her initials, or the name of a single song she recorded, but something reminded me of her and now the fact that she existed is stuck in my head and won't go away. What the freaking hell was her name? Nope, there's not a clue. There's just a freaky demented glissandoid earworm playing over and over like a screaming autistic kid. Go away! Go away,... whatsyourname! ARRRRH!

Comments

[phillennium.livejournal.com]

Anita O'Day? Peggy Lee? Rita Reys? Abbey Lincoln?

I understand that all of these guesses are very unlikely to be true, but I want to help you and I have no better ones &:-)

[rejectomorph]

Thanks, though you're right that it's none of these singers. It's someone with a far more eccentric style than any of them. I did finally remember her name, though, as is revealed in my next entry.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

i was about to say blossom dearie, though she'd have been somewhat later, until you said "large vocal range." yma sumac? uhhhh...

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

it's yma sumac, I was just going to say that

[rejectomorph]

Not Yma, but someone who was certainly influenced by her. I finally remembered her name, and it is revealed in my next entry.

[rejectomorph]

Blossom surely had an unusual style, but not as unusual as my mystery singer (though she's a mystery no longer. Not Yma, either, but you'll find out who in my next entry.)