Songwriters Hall of Fame

Singer-actress Doris Day was born Doris Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Day’s first success came while singing with Bob Crosby's band, she first worked with many of the sidemen - Bob Haggart, William Stegmeyer, Billy Butterfield, and Zeke Zarchy - who would later work on her own recording sessions. But tt was with Les Brown's band, that the public first got to hear her voice and know her name, initially on the radio and then on Brown's recordings. From 1940 until 1946, Day was a star vocalist, most notably on hits like "Sentimental Journey" and "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time," both of which were monster hits for the band. "Sentimental Journey" also became especially popular among American soldiers stationed overseas during World War II. By the end of the war and her time with Les Brown, when she was barely into her 20s, Day was considered one of the top band vocalists in the world.

After her second marriage broke up, Day planned on returning to Cincinatti when her agent persuaded her to attend a party in Hollywood where she impressed songwriters Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn with an impromptu performance of "Embraceable You." They were writing the score for a Warner Bros. movie called Romance on the High Seas. Sammy Cahn got Day an audition and she was cast in the lead role of the film. Thus beginning her remarkable film success, which would eventually make her the #1 box office star of the late 50’s and early ’60’s.

Among her 60 plus charted hits include the classic recordings of “Love Somebody” (#1, 1948), “A Guy Is a Guy” (#1, 1952), “Secret Love” (#1, 1954), “My Darling, My Darling” (#7, 1948), “Bewitched” (#9, 1950), “Would I Love You (Love You, Love You)” (#10, 1951), “Shanghai” (#7, 1951), “Sugarbush” (#7, 1952), “Mister Tap Toe” (#10, 1953), “If I Give My Heart To You” (#3, 1954), “I’ll Never Stop Loving You” (#13, 1955), “Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)” (#2, 1956), and “Everybody Loves a Lover” (#6, 1968).

In the 1970’s Day also starred in a television series and in the 80’s had her own variety shows.