Top Ten Songs by Eartha Kitt

There are some CDs I reach for when I feel like dancing, others I grab when I’m pensive or thoughtful but the one artist whose CD I grab whatever my mood is Eartha Kitt. She’s captured an audience that spans five generations. Nicknamed the Dinosaur Diva, Eartha has poured out hit songs since the late 1940s when she got her first break as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company. This was the first African American modern dance company consisting of a touring troupe of dancers, singers, actors and musicians. In 1950 she was spotted by Orson Welles, who gave her the role of Helen of Troy in his stage version of Dr Faust. He reportedly called her ‘the most exciting woman on the world.”

Have you listened to Eartha Kitt’s songs? She purrs out everything from bouncy cabaret numbers to sexy lullabies. She’s tiny and her head seems too big for her body but not big enough for this enormous voice which emanates from deep down inside her soul. The songs never date and it’s the rare kind of music you listen to over and over and just never get sick of.

My favorite of her songs is “Monotonous”, which she first performed in New Faces of 1952 at The Village Vanguard, a famous New York City jazz club. Her voice, as it warbles and dives, is like spicy honey as she sings about woman who has the world at her beckoning but despite it all, everything is still dull, dull, dull. She croons, “Chaing Kai-shek sends me pots of tea, Gaylord Hauser sends me vitamin D and furthermore Ike likes meâÂ?¦ monotonousâÂ?¦”

“I Want to Be Evil” was also a best-selling record. She sings of a virtuous girl who dreams of being bad, saying the only bar she knows is the one at ballet class, and how she wants to “wake up in the morning with that dark brown taste.” She sings, “In the theater I want to change my seatâÂ?¦just so I can step on everybody’s feet.” It puts me in a sexy mood without fail.

You know that famous Eartha Kitt growl? It originated in 1967 when she was cast in Batman as Catwoman. It put her into pop culture but the wave she was riding took an unexpected dip. Between 1968 and 1978 Eartha was professionally exiled from the US for making anti-war statements at a White House luncheon. She apparently had Lady Bird Johnson in tears. Not a good career move. But it did enable her to learn French when she performed in Europe. In fact, she sings in 10 different languages. “C’est Si Bon” and “Apres Moi” are sung in impeccable French. “Uska Dara – A Turkish Tale”, is a bouncy and full of Middle Eastern flavor. I have no idea what she’s saying but it’s catchy and definitely in my top-ten.

Many of her songs have strong theatrical roots because she spent and still spends a lot of time on the stage in both cabaret shows and on Broadway. Among them is “Just an Old Fashioned Girl”, where she sings about a cynical take on life and again, boredom. “I want an old-fashioned house with an old-fashioned fence and an old-fashioned millionaire.” Then there are the songs oozing sultry romance like “Under the Bridges of Paris”, “Lazy Afternoon” and “Lilac Wine”. Guaranteed to add style to any dinner party.

Eartha is still a fixture of the cabaret set in New York and if you check out her website at www.earthakitt.com you’ll find her live listings for next year.