Kay Starr was successful in every field of music she tried, jazz, country and pop. But her roots were in jazz, Billie Holiday, considered by many the greatest jazz singer of all time, called Starr "the only white woman who could sing the blues."
She is best remembered for introducing two songs that became #1 hits in the 1950s, "Wheel of Fortune" and "The Rock And Roll Waltz".
Kay Starr was born on a reservation in Dougherty, Oklahoma. Her father, Harry, was a full-blooded Iroquois Indian; her mother, Annie, was of mixed Irish and American Indian heritage. When her father got a job installing water sprinkler systems, the family moved to Dallas, Texas.
While her father worked for the Automatic Sprinkler Company, her mother raised chickens, and Kay used to sing to the chickens in the coop. As a result of the fact that her aunt, Nora, was impressed by her singing, she began to sing at the age of seven on a Dallas radio station, WRR, first in a talent competition where she finished third one week and won every week thereafter, then with her own weekly fifteen minute show. She sang pop and "hillbilly" songs with a piano accompaniment. By the age of ten, she was making $3 a night, a lot of money in the Depression days.
As a result of her father's changing jobs, her family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and she continued performing on the radio, singing "Western swing music," still mostly a mix of country and pop. It was while she was on the Memphis radio station WMPS that, as a result of misspellings in her fan mail, she and her parents decided to give her the name "Kay Starr". At the age of fifteen, she was chosen to sing with the Joe Venuti orchestra. Venuti had a contract to play in the Peabody Hotel in Memphis which called for his band to feature a girl singer, which he did not have; Venuti's road manager heard her on the radio, and suggested her to Venuti. Because she was still in junior high school, her parents insisted that Venuti take her home no later than midnight.
Although she had brief stints in 1939 with Bob Crosby and Glenn Miller (who hired her in July of that year when his regular singer, Marion Hutton, was sick), she spent most of her next few years with Venuti, until he dissolved his band in 1942. It was, however, with Miller that she cut her first record: "Baby Me"/"Love with a Capital You." It was not a great success, in part because the band played in a key more appropriate for Marion Hutton, which was less suited for Kay's vocal range.
10 There’s A Lull In My Life
Kay Starr Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's just a void and empty space
When you are not in my embrace
Oh, there's a lull In my life
The moment that you go away
There is no night, there is no day
The clock stops ticking
The world stops turning
That keeps burning, burning
Oh, oh, oh
There's a lull In my life
No matter how I may pretend
I know that you alone can end
Kay Starr's song "There's a Lull in My Life" is a beautiful and melancholic ballad that speaks about the feelings of emptiness and sadness a person experiences when they are not with their beloved. The song begins with the words, "Oh, there's a lull in my life, it's just a void and empty space when you are not in my embrace." The song suggests that the person's life feels incomplete without their beloved, and that they find it difficult to function when their beloved is not with them.
The second verse of the song further emphasizes this theme by stating that when the person's beloved is not with them, there is no night, no day, and everything stops except for the flame of love that keeps burning in their heart. The song suggests that the love between the two individuals is what keeps them together and that without it, life feels dull and insipid.
The final verse of the song expresses the futility of pretending that the person is content without their beloved; the lyrics state, "No matter how I may pretend, I know that you alone can end the ache in my heart, the call of my arms." The song ends with the same phrase as the first verse, "There's a lull in my life," indicating that the feeling of emptiness and sadness persists without the person's beloved.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh, there's a lull in my life
I feel a sense of emptiness and sadness in my life.
It's just a void and empty space
My life feels meaningless and unfulfilling without you in it.
When you are not in my embrace
I feel incomplete and yearn for your physical presence and affection.
Oh, there's a lull In my life
The feeling of emptiness and sadness persists until we are reunited.
The moment that you go away
My happiness and contentment with life evaporates as soon as you leave my side.
There is no night, there is no day
My concept of time becomes irrelevant and blurred as I wait for your return.
The clock stops ticking
Time seems to standstill and lose its normal rhythm without you here with me.
The world stops turning
The outside world becomes irrelevant and it feels like nothing else matters except for you and our love.
Everything stops but the flame in my heart
Despite the emptiness and sadness, my love for you never fades and remains constant.
That keeps burning, burning
The flame of love inside me continues to burn strongly, fueled by my desire and longing for you.
Oh, oh, oh
Expressing a deep feeling of pain and longing for the one I love.
There's a lull In my life
The feeling of emptiness and sadness remains until I am reunited with you.
No matter how I may pretend
Trying to hide and deny my true feelings of sadness and emptiness without you by my side.
I know that you alone can end
Recognizing that only you have the power to make me feel complete and happy again.
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind