Vegas '58 -- Today

Read About This Recording

During the second half of the 1950s, Louis Prima, Keely Smith and Sam Butera & The Witnesses teamed together to make music history. Their Las Vegas shows, billed accurately as "The Wildest Shows In Vegas," combined together swing standards, Prima's dixieland trumpet, Butera's honking R&B tenor, Keely Smith's ballad vocals, a shuffling rhythm, Italian humor and a rock and roll sensibility in very winning fashion.

Through the years, Keely Smith has been best known for her warm voice and sensitive renditions of lyrics. In 2004, she revived the format she had had with her former husband for this happy live recording. She performs several of Prima's classic settings (including "Jump, Jive an' Wail," "Lazy River" and a medley of "I Wish You Love" and "That Old Black Magic") along with a few ballads. In addition, her talking to the audience is humorous and informative.

With fine backup from an excellent band, Keely Smith is in excellent form throughout Vegas '58 which is arguably her finest recording since her Louis Prima days.

—Scott Yanow

Extended Article

Vocal diva Keely Smith takes a trip down memory lane in a musical joy ride through Las Vegas, circa 1958. And, as Lady Luck would have it, Keely invites listeners and dancers along for the exhilarating ride. Revisiting and reinventing the songs that she and iconic entertainer Louis Prima popularized during their celebrated reign of the desert oasis, the Queen of Swing affectionately looks back while swinging ahead in a sinfully hot new recording of Smith/Prima favorites. Captured live at Feinstein's at the Regency in New York City, Keely's golden pipes are heard in top form, revealing a fascinating and unparalleled combination of clarity, power, expression and swing, as she jumps, jives an' wails from the first note to the last.

Features all newly recorded versions of Keely Smith/Louis Prima classics, including Jump, Jive and Wail and That Old Black Magic. The “Queen of Las Vegas” has never sounded better.

Contents

While supplies last!

Opener: I Wish You Love (Instrumental); When You're Smiling/The Sheik of Araby; I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues; Basin Street Blues/When it's Sleepy Time Down South; More Than You Know; Lazy River; Don't Take Your Love From Me; Jump, Jive and Wail; Sweet and Lovely; Buona Sera; Angelina/Che La Luna/Zooma Zooma; Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody; I Wish You Love/That Old Black Magic; What Kind of Fool Am I; Closer: I Wish You Love (Instrumental).

Keely Smith, Vocals; Dennis Michaels, Piano; Joe Cocuzzo, Drums; Chip Jackson, Bass; Ken Ascher, Synthesizer; Jerry Vivino, Tenor Sax; Jack Bashkow, Alto Sax; Ben Williams, Trombone; John Chudoba, Jim O'Connor, Trumpets.