Doris Day


 * Doris Day (born Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff in 1924) was one of the most popular female singers of the 1940s and 1950s, with a parallel career as a leading actress in Hollywood films, where she became the leading box-office star in the years 1960-64. Known (and sometimes derided) for her wholesome, all-American girl-next door image, she began her singing career with a big band (Les Brown and his Band of Renown) before starting a solo career and achieving great success with Columbia Records between 1947 and 1967. Her repertoire encompassed classic American popular songs, nostalgic material from earlier decades, and novelty songs which were characteristic of the 1950s pop charts.
 * Towards the end of that period Day began to seem old-fashioned to the audience of teenage record-buyers whose tastes dominated the pop charts. She was rooted in the pop music of the pre-rock'n'roll era and, despite a British hit in 1964, "Move Over Darling", could not adapt to the post-Beatles era, and stopped making records in 1967. Her successful early sixties films also appeared out of touch with the new, open portrayal of sex on the screen in the second half of the decade, and for some she became a figure of fun, representing the conventional morality that the younger generation in the USA was rebelling against.
 * She retired from show business in the 1970s, underwent protracted legal battles over the mismanagement of her earnings and became an animal rights activist. In recent time her films have been re-evaluated by feminist and gay critics who take a less scornful attitude to her "virginal" film persona; her records too are still available and she retains a loyal following. She prefers to avoid the public eye and lives quietly in California.

Links to Peel
JP: ''Well, I bought a lot of Doris… See, it’s difficult to get the timescale right, because when you check the records, you find actually these records were from years and years later. But I remember buying Doris Day records, The Purple Cow – do you remember The Purple Cow?''

JW: “I never thought I’d see a purple cow…”

JP: ''That’s the one. Even Doris Day buffs don’t remember that one – there are such things as Doris Day buffs.'' (from: Peeling Back The Years 1)
 * Doris Day's son, Terry Melcher, became a staff producer at Columbia Records in the 1960s and was responsible for the most successful records by the Byrds, a favourite band of Peel's despite the hostility he felt after meeting them in 1966 at a concert he introduced in San Bernardino while working for the radio station KMEN.
 * Peel began to revisit the music of his pre-rock'n'roll childhood in the Pig's Big 78 feature of his later shows. Several Doris Day tracks were featured.

Sessions

 * Number of sessions? Any commercial release of sessions?

1. Recorded: YYYY-MM-DD. First broadcast: DD Month YYYY. Repeated: DD Month YYY 2. Recorded: YYYY-MM-DD. First broadcast: DD Month YYYY. Repeated: DD Month YYY etc
 * Song title / Song Title / Song Title / Song Title
 * Song title / Song Title / Song Title / Song Title

(Please correct mistakes and add any missing info)

Other Shows Played
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 * DD Month YYYY: Song (single/album) Label