Kay Starr (Katherine Laverne Starks, July 21, 1922 – November 3, 2016) was … Read Full Bio ↴Kay Starr (Katherine Laverne Starks, July 21, 1922 – November 3, 2016) was an American pop and jazz singer who enjoyed considerable success in the 1940s and 1950s.

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.

On a Slow Boat to China
Kay Starr Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I′d like to get you
On a slow boat to China
All to myself all alone

Get you and keep you
In my arms evermore
Leave all your lovers
On that faraway shore

Out on the briny
With the moon so big and shiny
Melting your heart made of stone

Well I'd love to get you
On a slow boat to China
All to myself alone

Melting your heart made of stone
Well I′d like to get you
On a slow boat to China

All to myself alone
All to myself alone

Overall Meaning

The song "On a Slow Boat to China" by Kay Starr is a love song that is about a man who wants to take his lover on a slow boat to China so that they can be all alone and spend time with each other. He wants to keep her in his arms forever and leave all her other lovers on the faraway shore. The lyrics of the song show that the man is deeply in love with his lady and is ready to take her away from everything so that they can have some privacy.

The lyrics also mention the moon being big and shiny, which shows that the man wants to take his lover on a romantic journey. He feels that the moon will set the perfect ambiance for them to be together and will be the perfect setting to melt her heart made of stone. The use of the phrase "heart made of stone" is interesting as it suggests that the woman has some emotional walls that need to be brought down, and the man believes that taking her on this journey will enable her to open up to him.

Line by Line Meaning

I'd like to get you
I want to have you

On a slow boat to China
On a peaceful and long journey, away from distractions

All to myself all alone
Without any interruptions or others getting in the way

Get you and keep you
Obtain and retain possession of you

In my arms evermore
To hold you tightly forever

Leave all your lovers
Leave behind all other romantic interests

On that faraway shore
In another place, far from here

Out on the briny
Out on the ocean

With the moon so big and shiny
The moon is bright and beautiful in the night sky

Melting your heart made of stone
Softening your heart that was once tough

Well I'd love to get you
I truly want to have you