Career
Kenney worked early in life for Western Union as a telephone birthday singer. After moving to New York City, she recorded a demo in 1954 with Tony Tamburello. The demo was released in its entirety in 2006 by SSJ Records in 2006 under the title Snuggled on Your Shoulder.
By the end of the year she had moved to Miami, where she landed a recurring engagement at the Black Magic Room.
Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey heard her and took her on tour in the orchestra they co-led. She worked with them for several months before breaking off to move back to New New York
Upon her return, she worked in clubs with George Shearing, Don Elliott, and Kai Winding. After a short tour of the Midwest with Larry Sonn, she signed to Roost Records and released her first album in 1956.
This recording, Beverly Kenney Sings for Johnny Smith with the quartet of the legendary jazz guitarist Johnny Smith, was a substantial success and as a result she was awarded a residency at the infamous Birdland jazz club, where she was accompanied by the Lester Young Quintet.
Her second release was Come Swing with Maine, and Jimmy Jones led an ensemble behind her for her third and final release for Roost in 1957. She moved to Decca Records, and released three further LPs with them, including Beverly Kenney Sings Foreign Playboys (1958), Born to Be Blue (1959), and Like Yesterday (1959). Beverly Kenney Sings Foreign Playboys featured liner notes by Steve Allen, which praised Kenney"s vocal style and stated, "A word to Playboys: I would not recommend this album as Music to Make the Romantic Approach By.
You’re apt to get more interested in Beverly than the girl you’re trying to impress." Kenney was a critically acclaimed musician, but she saw little widespread acceptance, due at least in part to the burgeoning rock & roll movement.
She had an intense personal dislike for this music, even going so far as to compose a song called "I Hate Rock and Roll", which she performed on The Steve Allen Show on May 18, 1958. On April 13, 1960, Kenney committed suicide by an overdose of alcohol and Seconal.
She was 28 years old. She remains a cult figure in Japan, where all of her albums have been reissued to Civil Defense and have remained in print on a relatively steady basis.
Japan"s SSJ Records have released three collections of unreleased Beverly Kenney material: Snuggled on Your Shoulder (2006), Lonely and Blue (2007), and (2009).
This first in the series, Snuggled on Your Shoulder, was reissued by Cellar Door Records in 2010. lieutenant features the SSJ Records release in its entirety plus bonus tracks from a recently discovered radio show. One track from Snuggled On Your Shoulder, "Tea Foreign Two", was released on the Vintage music compilation, This is Vintage Now (2011).
