Anita Kerr

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Anita Kerr (born Anita Jean Grilli on October 31, 1927, in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American singer, composer and music producer.

Kerr's career peak was during the 1960s, a time when women in her field were rare.^{[citation needed]} Among her works were jingles for WLS-AM in Chicago^{[citation needed]}, a trilogy of albums with poet Rod McKuen, titled The Sea, The Earth, and The Sky (each featuring the San Sebastian Strings), and choral music for the first season of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (directing her own group, The Anita Kerr Singers)^{[citation needed]}.

The Anita Kerr Singers also had a hit record called "Forever", released under the name The Little Dippers on the University record. Anita also recorded the #91 charting record Joey Baby (released as by Anita And Th' So-And-So's) by overdubbing her voice 4 times to create a group sound.

The Anita Kerr Singers also sang backup for some of Roy Orbison's biggest hits in the early 1960s^{[citation needed]}, when he was recording for Monument Records in Nashville^{[citation needed]}. The group sang background vocals for Brenda Lee, Perry Como, Pat Boone, Rosemary Clooney, Bobby Vinton, Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson, Jim Reeves, Bobby Bare, Floyd Cramer, Al Hirt and many more.

Anita Kerr was both composer and conductor of the Swiss entry "Piano, piano" in the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 in Gothenburg, Sweden. She is one of the very few female conductors in the history of the contest. In 1998 Anita was credited as a co-author of the song "Drowned World/Substitute for Love", which appeared on Madonna's album Ray of Light.