Fran Warren
Frances Wolfe (March 4, 1926 – March 4, 2013), known by her stage name, Fran Warren, was an American popular singer.
Life and career
She was born into a Jewish family in the New York City borough of the Bronx, taking singing lessons in the public schools.
After some time on a chorus line at New York's Roxy Theater, she auditioned with the big band of Duke Ellington at age 16; though she never made it into Ellington's band, she soon became a singer with bands led by Woody Herman, Randy Brooks, Art Mooney, Billy Eckstine, Charlie Barnet, and Claude Thornhill. It was Eckstine who gave her the stage name of Fran Warren. With Charlie Barnet, she replaced Kay Starr as featured vocalist. In 1947, she made the charts for the first time, with the Thornhill band's recording of "A Sunday Kind Of Love" (written by Warren's manager, Barbara Belle) on Columbia Records. She made a number of other records with Thornhill that year.
In 1948 she went solo, signing with RCA Records. On RCA she made a number of recordings, but her biggest hit was a duet with Tony Martin, "I Said My Pajamas (and Put On My Pray'rs)" which reached No. 3 on the charts.
