Biography

Marlene VerPlanck paid tribute to the Great American Songbook. VerPlanck, who grew up in Newark, New Jersey listening to Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald on WNEW radio, collaborated throughout her long career with her husband, arranger, composer, and conductor Billy VerPlanck. Her 17th album, 2000's My Impetuous Heart, reunited her with some old friends, including jazz pianist Hank Jones and special guests jazz pianists George Shearing and Marian McPartland and guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli. VerPlanck's career was a long string of success stories, which showcased her as a versatile singer with a gorgeous, pliable voice that knew how to tell a story. She started singing at age 19. Her career stretched back to the '50s when she worked with Tex Beneke and Charlie Spivak. Her first big break came in 1955 when she teamed up with pianist Hank Jones, flutist Herbie Mann, trumpeter Joe Wilder, bassist Wendell Marshall, and drummer Kenny Clarke on I Think of You with Every Breath I Take on Savoy Records. She met her husband while performing with Charlie Spivak's band, then both moved over to the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. Tommy Dorsey died in 1956, so the VerPlancks decided to stay in New York City to pursue studio work with the likes of Sinatra, Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and even Kiss. Millions of people outside the jazz world first heard VerPlanck's voice, though, doing jingles in the '60s: "Weekends were made for Michelob/Yeah!" and "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should!" and "Mmm good/Mm-mm good/That's what Campbell's Soups are/Mm-mm good." After thousands of commercial jingles and hours and hours of studio session work in New York, the VerPlancks decided to settle down in their house in Clifton, New Jersey, and began performing and recording together. Their first recording together was A Breath of Fresh Air, arranged, produced, and conducted by Billy VerPlanck in 1968. In 1976, Marlene VerPlanck hooked up with North Carolina-based composer/pianist Loonis McGlohon, who hired her to do two installments of a radio show he co-hosted called Alec Wilder's American Popular Song. Afterwards, she recorded Marlene VerPlanck Sings Alec Wilder, and later, after Wilder's death, she appeared on the radio show The American Popular Singers, co-hosted by McGlohon and opera singer Eileen Farrell. Ver Planck performed at Carnegie Hall, Michael's Pub, and the Rainbow Room in New York City. She appeared on Entertainment Tonight, The Today Show, and CBS Sunday Morning. In the Digital Mood, featuring VerPlanck, Mel Tormé, and Julius La Rosa with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, became the first big-band CD to go gold in the '90s. VerPlanck remained active as a live performer and recording artist in the 2000s and 2010s, following up the aforementioned My Impetuous Heart with such albums as Once There Was a Moon (2008), One Dream at a Time (2010), Ballads... Mostly (2013), and The Mood I'm In (2016), all released by the Audiophile Records label. Marlene VerPlanck died in January 2018 in Manhattan at the age of 84. ~ Robert Hicks, Rovi