Diana Trask

Diana Trask (born 23 June 1940) is an Australian country and pop singer born in Melbourne, Australia. She was a popular country singer during the 1970s in the United States and also was a popular star in her native Australia. In the U.S., she charted eighteen singles on the country charts, of which the highest was the number 13 "Lean It All on Me" in 1974.

Early career

Born in Camberwell, an inner eastern suburb of Melbourne, Trask learned to sing at an early age, performing at school functions and for her family. At the age of 16, she became a part of a singing group and she soon opened for top stars, including Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., who were touring Australia - Sinatra and Davis wanted Trask to move to America to further her solo career there. She became a regular on Don McNeill's Breakfast Club TV show and appeared as a dancer and singer on the Jack Benny TV show. She was soon noticed by the conductor Mitch Miller, who in 1960 decided to give her a recording contract with Columbia Records and also make her a regular on his show Sing Along with Mitch. Trask released two albums in 1961 and 1962 geared towards the pop market but neither were successful. After Miller's show was cancelled in 1964, Trask and her new husband, Thom McEwen, decided to move back to Australia so that she could restart her career there.