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.
The Hungry Years
Kay Starr Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
We went so high we couldn't stop
We climbed the ladder leading us nowhere
Two of us together
Building castles in the air
We spun so fast we couldn't tell
The gold ring from the carousel
Everything we wanted
Was everything we had
I miss the hungry years
The once upon a time
The lovely long ago
We didn't have a dime
Those days of me and you
We lost along the way
How could I be so blind
Not to see the door
Closing on the world
I now hunger for
Looking through my tears
I miss the hungry years
We shared our daydreams one by one
Making plans was so much fun
We set our goals and reached the highest star
The things that we were after
Were much better from afar
Here we stand just me and you
With everything and nothing, too
It wasn't worth the price we had to pay
Honey take me home
Let's go back to yesterday
I miss the hungry years
The once upon a time
The lovely long ago
We didn't have a dime
Those days of me and you
We lost along the way
How could I be so blind
Not to see the door
Closing on the world
I know hunger for
Looking through my tears
I miss the hungry years
I miss the hungry years
Kay Starr's song The Hungry Years is a poignant reflection on the passage of time and the nostalgic longing for a simpler, happier past. The lyrics describe the journey of two individuals who started from humble beginnings but through hard work, determination, and a shared vision for their future, were able to achieve great success. They climbed the ladder of success together, building castles in the air, and looking towards a brighter future. But in the end, they lost sight of what was truly important and now find themselves alone, with everything and nothing at the same time.
The song is filled with vivid imagery and metaphors that give the listener a sense of the highs and lows of the journey. The spinning carousel and the golden ring represent the dizzying excitement of success before the climb to the top becomes a meaningless exercise. The hunger that the lyrics refer to is not just a physical hunger for food but an emotional hunger for the sense of purpose and fulfillment that the two characters felt during their leaner years. They long for the simplicity and purity of their love in the past, in the lovely long ago, when the lack of material possessions did not matter.
Line by Line Meaning
Girl we made it to the top
We achieved great success
We went so high we couldn't stop
We achieved more than we thought possible
We climbed the ladder leading us nowhere
Our success did not bring happiness or fulfillment
Two of us together
Together we accomplished great things
Building castles in the air
We had unrealistic dreams and plans
We spun so fast we couldn't tell
Our pace was too fast to keep up with
The gold ring from the carousel
We chased after rewards that were not worth the effort
How could we know the ride would turn out bad
We did not anticipate the negative consequences of our actions
Everything we wanted
Our desires and ambitions
Was everything we had
Despite our achievements, we were still unfulfilled
I miss the hungry years
I long for a time when we were less successful but more content
The once upon a time
The days when we were struggling but optimistic
The lovely long ago
The nostalgia for a happier time
We didn't have a dime
When we had nothing, we had each other
Those days of me and you
The memories of our shared struggles and triumphs
We lost along the way
Our focus on success caused us to forget what was truly important
How could I be so blind
I failed to realize the true cost of our pursuit of success
Not to see the door
I failed to recognize the opportunity to turn back before it was too late
Closing on the world
The feeling of being trapped in our pursuit of success
I now hunger for
I long for a simpler, more fulfilling life
Looking through my tears
With regret and sadness
I miss the hungry years
I miss the time when we were hungry for success but content with each other
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Neil Sedaka, Howard Greenfield
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind