Born in tiny North, South Carolina to Mamie Kitt, who was of Cherokee and African-American descent, and an American father (surname Kitt) of German and Dutch descent, she was raised by her maternal aunt Anna Mae Riley, whom she believed was her mother up until after Riley's death, when she was sent to live in New York City with her real mother.
Kitt began her career as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company and made her film debut with them in Casbah (1948). A talented singer with a distinctive voice, her hits include Let's Do It, C'est Si Bon (It's So Good), Just an Old Fashioned Girl, Monotonous, Love for Sale, I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch, Uska Dara, Mink, Schmink, Under the Bridges of Paris, and arguably her most recognizable hit, the sexily sung Christmas song Santa Baby. She sang quite a few songs in French, a language she picked up during her years performing in Europe, but she never lost her American accent, which made her French songs sound rather amusing to native French speakers. She dabbled in other languages as well, which she demonstrated in many of the live recordings of her cabaret performances.
In 1950, Orson Welles gave her her first starring role, as Helen of Troy in his staging of Dr. Faustus. A few years later, she was cast in the revue New Faces of 1952, introducing "Monotonous", "C'est Si Bon" and "Santa Baby", three songs with which she continues to be identified. During her run, 20th Century Fox filmed a version of the play. Welles and Kitt allegedly had a torrid affair during her run in Shinbone Alley, which earned her the nickname by Welles as "the most exciting woman in the world". In 1958, Kitt made her feature film debut opposite Sidney Poitier in The Mark of the Hawk. Throughout the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s, Kitt would work on and off in film, television and on nightclub stages. In the late 1960s television series Batman, she played Catwoman after Julie Newmar left the role. This was the role for which she would best be remembered, owing to her purring feline drawl.
In 1968, however, Kitt encountered a substantial professional setback after she made anti-war statements during a White House luncheon that reportedly made First Lady Lady Bird Johnson weep uncontrollably. Professionally exiled from the U.S., she devoted her energies to overseas performances before returning to New York in a triumphant turn in the Broadway spectacle Timbuktu! (a version of the perennial Kismet set in Africa) in 1978. In the musical, one song gives a 'recipe' for mahoun, a preparation of cannabis, in which her sultry purring rendition of the refrain "constantly stirring with a long wooden spoon" was distinctive.
In 1984, she returned to hit music with a dance song, Where Is My Man; the first certified Gold record of her career. Kitt found new audiences in nightclubs across the country, including a whole new generation of gay male fans, and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of HIV/AIDS organizations.
In 2000, Kitt again returned to Broadway in the short but notable run of the revival of the 1920s-themed, The Wild Party, opposite Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette. In 2003, she replaced Chita Rivera in Nine. In recent years she had also appeared as the Wicked Witch in the North American national touring company of The Wizard of Oz.
One of her more unusual roles was as Kaa the python in a 1994 BBC Radio adaptation of The Jungle Book. Kitt lent her distinctive voice to the role of Yzma in Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and also did other voiceover work such as the voice of Queen Vexus on the animated TV series My Life as a Teenage Robot. She continued her role as Yzma on the spin-off TV series of The Emperor's New Groove, The Emperor's New School.
In recent years, Kitt's annual appearances in New York made her a fixture of the Manhattan cabaret scene. She took the stage at venues such as the Ballroom and, more recently, the Café Carlyle to explore and define her highly stylized image, alternating between signature songs (such as "Old Fashioned Millionaire"), which emphasized a witty, mercenary world-weariness, and less familiar repertoire, much of which she performed with an unexpected ferocity and bite that presented her as a survivor with a seemingly bottomless reservoir of resilience - her version of Here's to Life, frequently used as a closing number, was a sterling example of the latter. This side of her later performances is reflected in at least one of her recordings, Thinking Jazz, which preserves a series of performances with a small jazz combo that took place in the early 1990s in Germany, and which includes both standards (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes) and numbers (such as Something May Go Wrong) that seem more specifically tailored to her talents; one version of the CD includes as bonus performances a fierce, angry Yesterdays and a live take of "C'est Si Bon" that good-humoredly satirizes her sex-kitten persona.
Personal life
Kitt was married to John William McDonald, an associate of a real-estate investment company, from 1960 to 1965. They had one child, a daughter, Kitt (b. 1962, married Charles Lawrence Shapiro); and two grandchildren, Jason and Rachel Shapiro.
Eartha Kitt died of colon cancer on Christmas Day, December 25, 2008.
Careless Love
Eartha Kitt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You've fly through my head like wine
You've wrecked the life of a many poor girl
And you nearly spoiled this life of mine
Love, oh love, oh careless love
In your clutches of desire
You've made me break a many true vow
Love, oh love, oh careless love
All my happiness bereft
You've filled my heart with weary old blues
Now I'm walkin', talkin' to myself
Love, oh love, oh careless love
Trusted you now, it's too late
You've made me throw my old friend down
That's why I sing this song of hate
Love, oh love, oh careless love
Night and day, I weep and moan
You brought the wrong man into this life of mine
For my sins, till judgment I'll atone
In Eartha Kitt's song "Careless Love," she personifies love as a destructive force that has caused havoc in her life and the lives of others. Kitt sings about how love has intoxicated her and led her to break promises and become consumed in desire. She acknowledges that love has caused her to lose happiness and fill her life with misery and regret. Furthermore, she blames love for making her turn on a friend, leading her down a path of hate and despair.
Overall, the song is a reflection of the power that love can have over an individual, both in positive and negative ways. On one hand, love can bring great joy and happiness, but on the other, it can lead to heartache, betrayal, and isolation. Through "Careless Love," Kitt gives voice to the common experience of falling in and out of love, showing how it can shape the course of one's life, for better or worse.
Line by Line Meaning
Love, oh love, oh careless love
The singer addresses love, calling it careless.
You've fly through my head like wine
The singer compares the effect of love on her to being drunk with wine.
You've wrecked the life of a many poor girl
Love has ruined the lives of many girls.
And you nearly spoiled this life of mine
Love almost ruined the singer's life as well.
In your clutches of desire
Love is personified as having a desire, which the singer is helpless against.
You've made me break a many true vow
The singer has broken many promises because of love.
Then you set my very soul on fire
Love has ignited a passionate fire in the singer's soul.
All my happiness bereft
Love has taken away all the singer's happiness.
You've filled my heart with weary old blues
The singer's heart is now filled with sadness and regret because of love.
Now I'm walkin', talkin' to myself
Love has made the singer feel lonely and isolated.
Trusted you now, it's too late
The singer trusted love, but now it's too late to go back.
You've made me throw my old friend down
Love has caused the singer to abandon a longtime friend.
That's why I sing this song of hate
The singer is filled with hate towards love because of its destructive effects.
Night and day, I weep and moan
The singer is constantly crying and in pain because of love.
You brought the wrong man into this life of mine
Love has brought the wrong person into the singer's life.
For my sins, till judgment I'll atone
The singer believes she must atone for the sin of loving the wrong person.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: ANGELO BADALAMENTI, JOHN MAYBURY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind