Billy Daniels

Billy Daniels and wife Marsha Braun Daniels at airport in Los Angeles, 1950

William Boone "Billy" Daniels (September 12 1915 – October 7 1988), was a singer active in the United States from the mid-1930s to 1986, two years before his passing. He was popular in Europe after he headlined at 'The London Palladium' in 1952, having broken the house records. He toured the Moss Theatre circuit of the UK in the 1950s as 'America's most exciting singer' He first toured the United States with the Erskine Hawkins Band in 1936 as their featured vocalist. He sang every day of 1938 on New York radio, for 12 different sponsors. 'It was me or the horse racing', Daniels remarked. His forte was as a nightclub entertainer and he was the biggest cabaret draw in New York throughout the 1950s alongside the comedian Jimmy Durante. In 1958 Daniels was the first entertainer to sign a long term contract to appear in Las Vegas for 3 years at The Stardust . He had performed in musicals on Broadway early in his career a minor role to the famous Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson the legendary tap dancer in a short lived musical 'Memphis Bound' in 1945. More notable was the long running, over 700 performances , of 'Golden Boy' with Sammy Davis Jr. in 1964 directed by Arthur Penn. Daniels toured the US in 1975 with Pearl Bailey in the all black Hello, Dolly!. In London's West End he headlined a 1978 presentation of Bubbling Brown Sugar. He appeared on television in the US and UK and Australia and Canada throughout the 1950s and 1960's. He was popular in Australia where he first toured with The Andrews Sisters in 1954.

Daniels was born in Jacksonville, Florida. His father was a railroad mailman, his mother a school teacher and organist. Daniels had a heritage of Portuguese sailor, Native American (Choctaw) African American and pioneer white frontiersman Daniel Boone. Daniels moved to New York Harlem from Jacksonville in 1935. He originally moved to New York to attend Columbia University to become a lawyer, but was side-tracked, during the Depression. Daniels grandmother was a seamstress in Harlem for the Ziegfeld Follies and encouraged her grandson to sing without a microphone, like the others to diners in the club where he was a busboy, a singing waiter. He served bandleader Erskine Hawkins and was hired.

Daniels toured with The Erskine Hawkins Band in 1936 as their featured vocalist. He performed frequently on New York's famous 52nd Street, where he was one of the first singers to leave the big band scene and pursue a solo career. He had several accompanists including Nat Cole while in New York where he often made three 52nd Street club performances per night. Daniels played intermission with Charlie Parker on 52nd Street in 1945. But it was with another ex-big-band pianist Benny Payne, who he teamed with in 1948, that Daniels remained with for the rest of his career. Benny Payne was Cab Calloway's pianist in the Cotton Club. Billy Daniels first trademark song from his time on New York Radio was the song "Diane", from 1948 with "That Old Black Magic", after his Mercury recording of a song by Harold Arlen and Johnnie Mercer. It was a hit, and complete with what became Daniels' trademark dancing style, he was widely imitated by the impressionists of the era. He first recorded 'That Old Black Magic' for Apollo in 1948, and later in 1950 for Mercury Records "That Old Black Magic" is reputed to have sold in excess of 12 million copies. His sensational performance in 1950 in Bill Miller's Riveria Club led to holdover appearances. Following Park Avenue residences Daniels record holdover at 1952 New York Copacabana Club still stands. Columbia's movie "When You're Smiling", and in 1951 in Columbia's "Sunny Side of the Street", plus television guest performances (the "Milton Berle" and "Ed Sullivan" Shows) that led to a national TV Show The Billy Daniels Show (1952 ABC TV Sponsored by the Rybutol Corporation of America, Rybutol was a popular vitamin tablet at the time). This was a fifteen-minute show, on Sunday evening and marked one of the first television programs to star a black performer. His recordings cover the period of transition from 78-rpm to the dawn of microgroove recording. Remembered mostly for his charistmatic live performances he made an album at Abbey Road 'The Magic of Billy Daniels' in 1978 that contained a disco version of 'That Old Black Magic'. He recorded one of the first 'soul' records 'Woe Woe Woe'a now rare recording. He died aged 73 in Los Angeles, California. Often accompanied by negative publicity as Billy Daniels was one of the first African-American entertainers to cross over into the mainstream. Billy Daniels' star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame lies alongside Jerry Lewis.

Trivia

• Danels recorded a disco version of "That Old Black Magic" in 1975.^[1]
• Daniels' daughter Yvonne followed in her father's footsteps in some ways. She was a disc jockey in Chicago, notable for her stint at WLS between 1973 and 1982. Yvonne's urban midday radio show on Gannett-owned WGCI-FM Radio from 1982-1989 was ranked #1 in the Chicago market's Arbitron ratings. She finished her broadcast career co-hosting morning drive with jazz great Ramsey Lewis on Chicago's WNUA-FM Radio, a smooth jazz station. After she died of breast cancer in 1991, a street in downtown Chicago was named for her. She was known as Chicago's "First Lady of Radio." Like her father, Yvonne was a barrier-breaker, but even more so because she broke the gender as well as the racial barrier, being the first woman to host a music show on a major Chicago radio station in the 1970s.^[2]

References

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External links

• Billy Daniels at the Internet Movie Database
• Billy Daniels at Find a Grave

Further reading

• "The Street That Never Slept" by Arnold Shaw, copyright 1971, Coward, McCann & Geoghan,Inc. Chapter 14 all about Daniels, plus other references throughout the book.