This was previously uploaded on Dailymotion but somehow became corrupted so this is merely a retake. Lee Wiley was born in Cherokee County, Oklahoma in 1908. She left home as a teen to sing with the Leo Reismann Orchestra. Lee was forced to take several years off to recover from a serious horse riding accident~the recovery included regaining her sight. She returned to Reismann's, still only 19, and quickly moved to new successes, singing first with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra and then the Casa Loma Orchestra.
Lee wrote several compositions with the brilliant composer Victor Young (Around the World in 80 days, etc.) who worked with Brunswick Records in the 1930s where he arranged popular and classical music. Lee performed as vocalist for Young's Orchestra and was involved with Young both professionally and personally. Young's Orchestra also provided the music for the Vitagraph Baby Rose Marie films uploaded here. Wiley followed Young to California in 1935 to remain near him at great sacrifice to her own career. Young had moved west to become musical director for Cecil B deMille's Paramount Studios. Lee recorded several Gershwin songs in 1939 for exclusive sale through Liberty Music Shops in New York. Liberty specialized in sophisticated music for the more savvy set of jazz lovers. The Gershwin sets were very successful and so were followed by sets of the music of Cole Porter, Rogers and Hart, Harold Arlen, Vincent Youmans, and Irving Berlin. The musicians for those sets, in addition to Max Kaminsky, were Fats Waller, Bud Freeman, Bobby Hackett, Stan Freeman, Bunny Berigan and Jess Stacey, to whom she was married. After parting ways with Young, Lee had a torrid four year affair with Bunny Berigan which was disastrous for both.
Lee opened the first Newport Jazz Festival with Bobby Hackett in 1954. She continued to record throughout the 50s and retired in 1960. Her final appearance was at Carnegie Hall in 1972 as part of the New York Jazz Fest. She died in 1975 in New York.
