Jill Corey obit

Jill Corey Obituary

 

She was not on the list.

Jill Corey, 85, of Pittsburgh, formerly of Los Angeles, Calif., and New York City, N.Y., passed away Saturday, April 3, 2021, at UPMC Shadyside, Pittsburgh. She was born Norma Jean Speranza, Monday, Sept. 30, 1935, in Avonmore, the daughter of the late Bernard and Clara Grant Speranza. Before her good-bye performance for a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall, she signed a contract to the Columbia Records label, she appeared on our "Hit Parade" and was on the cover of Life Magazine in 1953. It was said that she had a voice that would break your heart. She was an avid bird watcher in Central Park, had a dazzling wit, was a loving mother and devoted wife to the late Donald Albert Hoak. Jill took an eight-year hiatus in her singing career to travel with her husband of eight years. He had the distinction of playing for both the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates, being part of both of the 1955 and 1960 World Series. After the death of the love of her life she made a comeback in her career. She is survived by her only daughter and best friend, Clare Hoak (Greg Damjanovic) and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, three brothers, Bernard, Dominic and Earl, and a sister, Alice Yockey. At her request, all services are private. Interment will take place at the family plot in Westview Cemetery, in Avonmore. At the convenience of the family, a celebration of her life will be held at a later date. Arrangements have been entrusted to the KELLY L. CORRIDONI FUNERAL HOME LTD., 400 Indiana Ave., Avonmore, PA 15618.

She was a 1953 graduate of Bell-Avon High School. Corey began singing as an imitator of Carmen Miranda at family gatherings, on amateur shows in grade school, and contralto in the local church choir. At the age of 13, she began to develop her own style. She won first prize at a talent contest sponsored by the Lions Club, which entitled her to sing a song on WAVL in Apollo, Pennsylvania. This got her an offer to have her own program. By the age of 14 she was working seven nights a week, earning $5-$6 a night, with a local orchestra led by Johnny Murphy By the age of 17 she was a local celebrity talent.

At the home of the only owner of a tape recorder in town, with trains going by in the background and no accompaniment, she made a tape recording to demonstrate her singing skills to the outside show business world. The tape came to the attention of Mitch Miller, who headed the artists & repertory section at Columbia Records. He normally received over 100 record demos a week, and this one, with a 17-year-old girl and its train background, would not have been likely to gain his attention.

Corey was a regular on the television variety programs Robert Q's Matinee (1950–1956) The Dave Garroway Show (1953–1954), and the 1958–1959 version of Your Hit Parade. She was co-host of Music on Ice, a variety program on NBC (1960).

She also worked on television with Ed Sullivan. In 1956 she became a regular on Johnny Carson's CBS-network comedy-variety show from California. In addition, she had her own syndicated radio and television shows, like The Jill Corey Show hosted by the National Guard Bureau, the Jill Corey Sings radio show, and episodes of "Stop the Music" radio show. She also appeared at a Delta Gamma gathering in 1957, where she sang and greeted guests. She is known for her cover of a French song, "Let It Be Me", in 1957 for Columbia Records and her 1956 song, Egghead, which focuses on "failed masculinity" of an egghead. In 1959 she starred in a feature-length musical film for Columbia Pictures, entitled Senior Prom, which was co-produced by Moe Howard of The Three Stooges

Discography

Singles

Robe of Calvary

Minneapolis

Cleo and Meo (with the Four Lads)

Do You Know What Lips Are For? (with the Four Lads)

A Good Night Kiss Is a Good Night's Work (with Percy Faith)

One God

He Is a Man (with Percy Faith)

Where Are You? (with Percy Faith)

Number One Boy . .

I'm Not at All in Love

Edward

That's All I Need

Come to Me for Everything

Look Look (with Ray Conniff)

Ching-Ching-a-Ling

Nobody's Heart (with Ray Conniff)

Cry Me a River (bigger hit for Julie London)

First Love (with Buddy Cole)

Wait for Tomorrow (with Buddy Cole)

Summer Night

Your Prayers Are Always Answered

Let Him Know

What Am I to Do?

I Love My Baby (My Baby Loves Me) (US #28, 1957)

Egghead

Let It Be Me (US #57, 1957)

Make Like a Bunny, Honey (US #95, 1957)

Love Me to Pieces (her biggest hit) (US #18, 1957)

Love

I Feel Pretty

How Can I Tell?

Exactly Like You

I Told a Lie to My Darlin'

Give It All You've Got

Uh Huh, Oh Yeah

Sweet Sugar Lips

Loveable

Big Daddy (US #96, 1958)

Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo?

My Reverie 1958

I Found a New Baby 1958

Love Will Find Out the Way

Dream Boy . .

Have I Told You Lately that I Love You?

The President Song

Seems Like Old Times

I Can't Hide a Mountain

Have You Ever Been Lonely?

I Gotta Have My Baby Back

Lonely Life

One Boy

Ten Gallon Hat/Stick 'Em Up, Stuck up!