Eartha Kitt

Eartha Kitt's voice had a distinctive purr that made even familiar songs sound like secrets being shared. She started as a dancer in the 1952 Broadway revue "Leonard Sillman's New Faces," but it was her singing that caught attention, with a style that mixed cabaret flair with a jazz singer's timing. Her 1954 debut album "That Bad Eartha" introduced that sound, and while "Santa Baby" became her holiday standard, songs like "I Want to Be Evil" and "Mack the Knife" better captured her playful, knowing delivery.

In 1968, her outspoken criticism of the Vietnam War during a White House luncheon led to professional difficulties in the United States. She kept performing internationally after that, touring through the 1970s and 1980s and recording albums like "Back in Business" in 1981. Her repertoire often leaned toward sophisticated, sometimes sly material, as heard in tracks like "Where Is My Man?" and "I Love Men."

She worked primarily as a solo artist with changing groups of session musicians. There was always a theatrical edge to her performances, a carryover from those early stage roles, that made her recordings feel like intimate nightclub sets.