She is best known for her 1954 solo recording '"Little Things Mean a Lot" — a song that stayed at the U.S. number one spot for nine consecutive weeks, charted in the U.S. for almost seven months, hit #1 on the UK singles chart, and sold more than two million copies. AllMusic called the recording a "monster hit", music historian Jonny Whiteside said the song "ably characterizes Kallen’s impressive, and graceful, transition from classic big band swing to modern post-war pop".
Voted "most popular female singer" in 1954 in both Billboard and Variety polls, Kallen lost her voice at the Palladium in 1955 at the top of her career and left singing for four years, suffering paralyzed vocal cords. After testing her voice under a pseudonym in small town venues, she ultimately returned and went on to achieve 13 top-ten career hits.
Kallen performed at numerous prominent live venues including Manhattan's Copacabana, Morris Levy's Versailles, the Capitol Theater, the Maisonette Room at the St. Regis, the Cafe Rouge at the Hotel Pennsylvania and the Plaza Hotel's Persian Room. As well, she starred on Broadway in Finian's Rainbow; in the 1955 film The Second Greatest Sex and on numerous television shows including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Big Beat with singer-host Richard Hayes, American Bandstand, and Fred Allen's Judge for Yourself. In 1951, Kallen appeared with Buster Crabbe as the Queen and King of Winter at the Lake Placid resort.
During the height of her popularity, three imposters billed themselves as "Kitty Kallen". When one of them — Genevieve Agostinello — died in 1978, it was incorrectly reported that Kallen herself had died. On February 8, 1960, Kallen received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (located on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard at #7021), and in 2009 she was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
Some sources give Kallen's birth name as Katherine Kalinsky, but according to records cited by her son, the name was Katie Kallen. She was born May 25, 1921, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, one of seven children, to Russian Jewish immigrants Samuel and Rose Kalinsky (later Kallen). As a child, she won an amateur contest by imitating popular singers. When she returned home with her prize, a camera, her father did not believe her, and punished her for stealing the camera. Only when neighbors subsequently visited to congratulate her, did Kallen's father realize she had actually won it.
While performing with Jack Teagarden's band, she married Clint Garvin, the band's clarinet player. When Teagarden fired Garvin, Kallen left as well, later annulling the marriage. In 1948, Kallen married Bernard "Budd" Granoff, a publicist, agent, and television producer. He later became a pioneering television syndicator. The couple, married for over forty-five years until Granoff's death in 1996, had a son, Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute and Adjunct Professor of International Law at Widener University School of Law.
In 1977, Kallen sued her dermatologist, Norman Orentreich, after he prescribed an estrogen drug, Premarin, for her small facial wrinkles. She subsequently suffered blood clots in her lungs, caused directly by the drug, and won $300,000 by the court's decision.
In 2008, Kallen joined artists Patti Page, Tony Martin, Dick Hyman, Richard Hayman and the estates of Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Sarah Vaughan, Woody Herman, Les Brown, the Mills Brothers, Jerry Murad, Frankie Laine, and the gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe in a suit against the world's then largest music label, Universal Music Group, alleging the company had cheated them on royalties.
Kallen died on January 7, 2016 at her home in Cuernavaca, Mexico at the age of 94.
As a young girl Kallen sang on The Children's Hour, a radio program sponsored by Horn & Hardart, an automat chain. As a pre-teen, Kallen had a radio program on Philadelphia's WCAU, and sang with the big bands of Jan Savitt in 1936, Artie Shaw in 1938, and Jack Teagarden in 1940.
Shortly before her 21st birthday, on May 5, 1942, she sang the vocals for "Moonlight Becomes You" with Bobby Sherwood and His Orchestra at the second every session for what was then still called Liberty Records but would soon be renamed Capitol Records. It was her only session for the label.
Just 21, she joined the Jimmy Dorsey band, replacing Helen O'Connell. In every theater of World War II, a favorite of American servicemen, "They're Either Too Young or Too Old". In 1944, Kallen performed the vocals for Dorsey's number-one hit "Besame Mucho". Most of her singing assignments were in duets with Bob Eberly, and when Eberly left to go into the service toward the end of 1943, she joined Harry James' band.
Between January and November 1945, Kitty Kallen had two songs recorded with the Harry James Orchestra in the top twenty, six in the top ten, and two at the #1 spot—"I'm Beginning to See the Light" and "It's Been a Long, Long Time", which remains deeply associated with the end of World War II and the returning troops.
With the 1954 hit "Little Things Mean a Lot", Kallen was voted most popular female singer in Billboard and Variety polls. She followed up this song with "Chapel in the Moonlight", another million selling record, and a version of "True Love" for Decca. In 1959, she recorded "If I Give My Heart to You" for Columbia Records, and in 1963, she recorded a top-selling version of "My Coloring Book" for RCA. Her final album was Quiet Nights, a bossa nova–flavored release for 20th Century Fox Records. Subsequently, Kallen retired due to a lung ailment.
A compilation of her hits on various labels remains available on the Sony CD set The Kitty Kallen Story.
My Coloring Book
Kitty Kallen Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
As certain people do
He's a new one for you
A most unusual coloring book
The kind you never see
Crayons ready, very well
Begin to color me
As he walked away
Color them gray
This is the heart that thought
He would always be true
Color it blue
These are the arms that held him
And touched him then lost him somehow
Color them empty now
These are the beads I wore
Until she came between
Color them green
This is the room I sleep in
And walk in and weep in
Hiding that nobody sees
Color it lonely, please
This is the man
The one I depended upon
Color him go...
"My Coloring Book" by Kitty Kallen is a song that's filled with heartbreak and longing. The opening lines speak to those who find comfort in coloring books, as they're presented with a "most unusual" one. The song then takes a turn as the singer asks the listener to begin coloring in the various parts of her life. She starts with her eyes, which have watched her love walk away. She asks the listener to color them gray, a clear indication of her sadness.
The singer then moves on to her heart, which had believed in her love's faithfulness. She asks the listener to color it blue, symbolizing her sorrow. The next lines speak to the loss of physical connection with her lover, asking the listener to color her arms as empty. The singer continues with the beads she once wore, which have since lost their significance. She tells the listener to color them green, likely in reference to jealousy.
The last lines of the song are perhaps the most heart-wrenching. The singer speaks of the room she sleeps and weeps in, hiding it from the eyes of others. She asks the listener to color it lonely, a clear indication of her emotional state. Finally, the singer speaks of the one man she once depended on. She asks the listener to color him "go," implying that he has abandoned her and left her broken-hearted.
Line by Line Meaning
For those who fancy coloring book
For those who enjoy coloring, this song is similar to a coloring book.
As certain people do
Just as some people enjoy coloring, some enjoy expressing themselves through music.
He's a new one for you
This song is something new for the listener.
A most unusual coloring book
This song is not a conventional piece of music.
The kind you never see
This song is unique and different from what the listener normally hears.
Crayons ready, very well
Get ready to express yourself through this song.
Begin to color me
Interpret the song in your own way and make it your own.
These are the eyes that watched him
The singer is reminiscing about the eyes that saw the person who left.
As he walked away
The person in question left the singer's life.
Color them gray
The singer wants the listener to color in their image of those sad and grey eyes.
This is the heart that thought
The singer is describing their own heart that believed in the person who left.
He would always be true
The heart believes that the person would always be loyal.
Color it blue
The singer asks the listener to color their own interpretation of the sad and blue heart.
These are the arms that held him
The singer describes the arms that embraced the person who left, and now miss him.
And touched him then lost him somehow
The touch of the person who left was lost somehow and the singer still misses it.
Color them empty now
The singer asks the listener to color the arms as empty because they no longer have the person's touch.
These are the beads I wore
The singer now describes the beads they wore before the person who left.
Until she came between
The person who left had someone else come between them and the singer.
Color them green
The person who came between them can be colored based on the listener's interpretation with jealousy or envy.
This is the room I sleep in
The singer now describes the room where they sleep in.
And walk in and weep in
The singer is describing how they feel in that room.
Hiding that nobody sees
The singer hides their sadness from everyone and no one knows the truth.
Color it lonely, please
The singer asks the listener to color the room based on loneliness, which is how they feel in it.
This is the man
The singer is now describing the man in detail.
The one I depended upon
The man was someone who the singer relied on for support.
Color him go...
The singer asks the listener to color the man leaving, with their own interpretation of why he left.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Fred Ebb, John Kander
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
John James
Kitty does a fantastic job on this number - she puts her heart and soul into this song as she always did.
Condy Love
I love both versions of this song
Rene LeClerc
Even as a kid - maybe 9 or 10 - this recording grabbed me.
John Welch
Best version