Aired on Treasure Island Oldies – Dec 07, 2025
Throughout the 40s and the 50s there was a plethora of female artists in the R&B, jazz, and pop genres, including Rosemary Clooney, Joni James, Jo Stafford, Peggy Lee, Dinah Shore, Julie London, Sarah Vaughan, and Ella Fitzgerald to name a few.
Also making a mark for herself during that period was a performer who was of Iroquois and Irish heritage.
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Born on an American Indian reservation in Dougherty, Oklahoma in 1922, Katherine Laverne Starks really established herself as a singer with a #1 record that was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. That song was “Wheel Of Fortune,” which remained on the top of charts for nine straight weeks in 1952.
From 1948 thru 1954 she made it onto the Billboard Pop charts eighteen times, including “If You Love Me (Really Love Me),” which reached the #4 position.
With Rock & Roll displacing the existing forms of pop music in the mid-50s, our featured artist, better known as Kay Starr, made an attempt to sing Rock & Roll. She ended up in the #1 spot again in the winter of 1956 with a song poking fun at it. Remember “The Rock And Roll Waltz”?
In December of 1950 she got on the Christmas bandwagon and introduced us to a tune that quickly became a holiday classic and continued to appear on Billboard’s list of most popular Christmas songs during the early 50s.
The song was co-written by Hal Stanley, Starr’s husband at the time. The song was published under Stanley and Starr’s publishing company, StarStan.
As Christmas Eve approaches, Kay Starr is quick to explain why “(Everybody’s Waitin’ For) The Man With The Bag,” this week’s Tom Locke moment in time.
YouTube listing of the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfzK-pXE5-A
This “Moments In Time” story is yet another example of a “golden oldie” or forgotten favorite that earned its place in the evolution of Rock & Roll.
