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.
The Heel
Eartha Kitt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Is on the town and I'm alone;
In his blue suit and his new tie
He slammed the door without goodbye!
Tonight my eyes are jealous green,
Tonight I'm melancholy mean!
He meets, in secret rendezvous,
The heel!
He'll promise her most anything,
A sable coat, a diamond ring;
She'll find him out when it's too late,
And all she gets will be a date!
But while the dawn's a distant thing,
In his embrace her heart will sing;
Her dizzy head will spin with lies,
And all too soon a woman cries,
"The heel!".
The neon lights that flash below
Ignite my room with double glow;
And in the room I hear a laugh,
It's coming from his photograph!
I ring my hands and walk the floor,
And swear to even up the score!
For where a kitten cried tonight,
A panther waits to claw and bite
The heel!
I dare not play my radio,
One more complaint and out I go!
I'm sick of playing solitaire,
The ace of spades is everywhere!
There'll be no sleep for me tonight,
The sheep I count are never white!
They all turn out to be jet black,
And who's the leader of the pack?
The heel!
At dawn I know he'll stagger in,
Demanding coffee black as sin,
And as I take it from the tin,
I slip a little powder in!
He'll look at me and start to cry,
And cross his heart and hope to die!
And mumble "I know how you feel,
But I've been on a business deal!",
The heel!
Then as the pot begins to perk,
I know my plan will never work!
But when he starts to drink it up,
I'll grab his hand and break the cup!
It's only jealousy, I know,
That brought my thinking down so low!
Why must I wait for him and grieve?
Why don't I just pack up and leave
The heel?!
But no he's really on the stair,
I'll try to act like I don't care!
For in my heart's arithmetic
I find it takes two heels to click!
We're in a web of love and hate,
Where it will end is up to fate!
I'll let him have his little fling;
I'll be the chewing gum that clings
To the heel!
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
The lyrics of Eartha Kitt's song, The Heel, tell the story of a woman who is left alone by her man as he goes out to meet other women in secret rendezvous. The woman is hurt and jealous but also has a hint of anger towards him. She imagines him promising those women everything and leaving them with nothing but heartache. She tells us that she surely wants to take revenge but does not know how. While struggling to suppress her jealousy and anger, she also questions why she loves this man who does not love her back and thinks of herself as nothing but a clingy gum attached to his heel.
The song presents a picture of a woman who is stuck in a toxic relationship where the man cheats on her and she is left alone to suffer. She is unable to break free from this cycle of love and pain, and even her thoughts about revenge are uncertain as she cannot decide what the best course of action is. Her jealousy and anger towards him are evident in the lyrics, but she also seems to be aware of her own flaws. This mixture of emotions makes for an insightful portrayal of a situation that many women find themselves in.
Line by Line Meaning
The one who has me for his own
Is on the town and I'm alone;
I am alone tonight because my partner is out, possibly cheating on me.
In his blue suit and his new tie
He slammed the door without goodbye!
My partner left in a hurry without saying goodbye, dressed in a new suit and tie.
Tonight my eyes are jealous green,
Tonight I'm melancholy mean!
I am feeling jealous and angry tonight.
He meets, in secret rendezvous,
Some dame to tell his troubles to,
The heel!
My partner meets other women in secret to talk about his problems, he is a cheater.
He'll promise her most anything,
A sable coat, a diamond ring;
She'll find him out when it's too late,
And all she gets will be a date!
My partner promises other women things he cannot deliver, and they end up being deceived.
But while the dawn's a distant thing,
In his embrace her heart will sing;
Her dizzy head will spin with lies,
And all too soon a woman cries,
The heel!
Even though my partner lies to other women, they still fall for his charms and later end up hurt.
The neon lights that flash below
Ignite my room with double glow;
And in the room I hear a laugh,
It's coming from his photograph!
I see the city lights flashing from my window, and his photograph seems to be mocking me with laughter.
I ring my hands and walk the floor,
And swear to even up the score!
For where a kitten cried tonight,
A panther waits to claw and bite
The heel!
I am angry and want revenge against my cheating partner, and I will not be a meek kitten but a fierce panther.
I dare not play my radio,
One more complaint and out I go!
I'm sick of playing solitaire,
The ace of spades is everywhere!
I can't even listen to music or complain or risk being thrown out, and even when I play solitaire, I am plagued with the bad luck of the ace of spades.
There'll be no sleep for me tonight,
The sheep I count are never white!
They all turn out to be jet black,
And who's the leader of the pack?
The heel!
I cannot sleep and even counting sheep offers no relief, as all I can think of is my cheating partner, the leader of the pack of my problems.
At dawn I know he'll stagger in,
Demanding coffee black as sin,
And as I take it from the tin,
I slip a little powder in!
My partner will come home drunk and demand coffee, so I will put a little something extra in his cup.
He'll look at me and start to cry,
And cross his heart and hope to die!
And mumble "I know how you feel,
But I've been on a business deal!
The heel!"
When my partner sees me, he will apologize and make an excuse about a business deal, but I know he is lying and still a cheater.
Then as the pot begins to perk,
I know my plan will never work!
But when he starts to drink it up,
I'll grab his hand and break the cup!
Although I know my plan won't work, I will still try to sabotage my partner's coffee by breaking the cup when he starts to drink it.
It's only jealousy, I know,
That brought my thinking down so low!
Why must I wait for him and grieve?
Why don't I just pack up and leave
The heel?!
I know my jealousy and anger are taking over, and I should leave my cheating partner behind and not wait for him.
But no he's really on the stair,
I'll try to act like I don't care!
For in my heart's arithmetic
I find it takes two heels to click!
Despite my attempts to leave, my partner returns and I cannot help but be drawn back to our toxic relationship.
We're in a web of love and hate,
Where it will end is up to fate!
I'll let him have his little fling;
I'll be the chewing gum that clings
To the heel!
Our relationship is a tangled mess of both love and hate, and I will allow my partner to cheat while I continue to hold onto him like chewing gum on a shoe.
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
This shows the sarcastic laughter of the singer at the end of the song.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ALBERT ASKEW BEACH, LEO ALBERT C.A. FERRE, WILLARD ROBISON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind