Anita Kerr, groundbreaking 'Nashville Sound' vocalist and arranger, remembered

Anita Kerr -- the woman in many ways largely responsible for the globalization of the Nashville Sound -- died on October 10 at the age of 94.

Beyond Nashville and country music, few artists achieved Kerr's world-traveled success in the history of American-crafted popular music worldwide. "At a time when women rarely led recording sessions, she worked alongside key producers Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley, and was intimately involved in shaping the hits of Eddy Arnold, Skeeter Davis, Brenda Lee, Jim Reeves and many more that gave the world the enormously popular Nashville Sound. Her voice and her creativity expanded the artistic and commercial possibilities for country music," stated Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young upon her passing.

Presume that at the height of her domestic-based success -- an era between 1955-1970 -- Kerr sang on or wrote for roughly 1,000 sessions a year. Via her website, she recalled being "tired at times, but happy" during that period.

Via her website, Kerr, born in Memphis in 1927 as Anita Jean Grilli, writes that she was the daughter of a classically trained operatic vocalist mother who insisted that she take piano lessons. By the age of 10, she was a Catholic church organist playing three times a weekend and writing arrangements for a 14-voice female group that she rehearsed in her own home several days a week.

Financially unable to attend college, she allowed her musical aspirations to lead her to work everywhere from country club dances to radio stations.

At the age of 20, Kerr moved to Nashville after marrying WKDA radio deejay Al Kerr. Three years later, her own talents as a vocalist and vocal arranger spurred Top 20 Billboard pop chart success alongside Red Foley via the single "Our Lady of Fatima," a folk track credited to "Red Foley With The Anita Kerr Singers."

For a decade, the Anita Kerr Singers were signed to Decca Records. The person responsible for their signing? Owen Bradley. At the time, Bradley worked as a music arranger and songwriter at the label, busying himself with crafting a smooth, hybrid style that melded strings, choruses, sophisticated background vocals and pre-rock and roll aimed pop. Regarding what evolved into the "Nashville Sound," Bradley once stated, "Now we've cut out the fiddle and steel guitar and added choruses to country music. But it can't stop there. It always has to keep developing to keep fresh."

Kerr's skillset was uniquely important to Bradley's ability to excel in his aspirations.

A decade of timeless pop standards including Patsy Cline's "Walking After Midnight" (1957), Bobby Helms’s “Jingle Bell Rock” (1957), Brenda Lee’s “I’m Sorry” (1960) and Roy Orbison's "Only The Lonely" (1960) benefitted from her work. Moreover, her success grew outside of Nashville during this period. In 1956, the Anita Kerr Singers also frequently appeared on the CBS television and radio variety show “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.”

From 1961-1963, the Anita Kerr Singers signed with RCA Victor -- the label was home to Chet Atkins, another key "Nashville Sound" proponent.

By 1964, the singers paired with Atkins, Bobby Bare and Jim Reeves on a European tour. Noteworthy as well about the late 1960s for Kerr, her talents emerged as well in the realm of "easy-listening" music. This led to her achieving Grammy Award-winning success in the Best Performance By A Vocal Group category in 1966 and 1967, besting The Beatles, Beach Boys, The Mamas & The Papas, plus more in the process.

"Jim Reeves: His Untold Story" author Larry Jordan noted to Yahoo that Kerr's skill as a composer and arranger in three-hour sessions where four songs were cut was notable in that she could "fit pieces together musically with little time to spare." He also added that Kerr told him she was rarely credited for her production work -- she often ran sessions while Atkins was not present.

In 1965, after divorcing Al Kerr and marrying Swiss businessman Al Grob, Kerr moved from Nashville to Los Angeles. There, she wrote orchestral scores and expanded her scope of work into jazz and Latin music, alongside making albums celebrating songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Also, in 1967, she served as the choral director for the first season of “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.”

From the realm of country and beyond, artists including Hank Snow, Perry Como, Pat Boone, Rosemary Clooney, Bobby Vinton, Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson, Floyd Cramer, Al Hirt and Ann-Margret benefitted from her work in this era.

Key as well to note is Kerr's work revisiting her Memphis roots and expanding into the R&B scene in the city during the time frame. Atlantic, Duke and Lenox Records sessions on tracks including Carla Thomas’s “Gee Whiz” (1960), Esther Phillips’s “Release Me” (1962) and Bobby Bland’s “Share Your Love With Me” (1963) highlight that period.

By 1970, Kerr, alongside her husband and two daughters from her first marriage, moved to her husband's native Switzerland. Five years later, after what likely amounts to some 20,000 recording sessions during the era's height, she received a special award from the music licensing organization ASCAP noting her “contributions to the birth and development of the Nashville Sound.”

Barry Pugh, the author of “Anita Kerr: America’s First Lady of Music,” a 2022-published biography has noted that Kerr was "an exceptionally gentle, quietly spoken individual, who has always kept a very low profile in the music industry," plus highlighted that Burt Bachrach -- who wrote the foreword of the new book -- felt she was "one of those rare people to function at different levels [of the music industry]."

Outside of Elvis Presley's beloved Jordanaires, it is widely believed that The Anita Kerr Singers sang background on numerous Nashville-recorded Billboard hit singles released between 1955-1965.

According to Kerr's own reflections, her life was one lived well with regard to her dreams and hopes.

"I did everything regarding music. I couldn’t get enough," she wrote in her website's autobiography. "I never had the problem of wondering what I was going to do when I grew up. I always knew that it would be music."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Anita Kerr dies: groundbreaking 'Nashville Sound' vocalist, arranger