Kathy Linden (born 1938) is an American pop singer, mainly active in the 1950s. She is known for her Top 20 Billboard hits, “Billy” and “Goodbye, Jimmy, Goodbye”. The childlike-voiced singer also had scored Top 100 hits such as “You Don’t Know Girls” (#92) and “You’d Be Surprised” (#50).
Linden was born as Marion Londres in Moorestown, New Jersey and grew up in nearby Burlingtown, living on the town’s Elm Avenue. Although her exact date of birth remains unknown, according to most sources she was born in 1938. Kathy developed an early interest in music, danced ballet-style on stage at age four, took piano lessons during first grade and sang for an audience a few years later, then gravitated towards the violin and spent her high school years playing and singing with an all-girl string quintet called the Singing Strings.
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| The Singing Strings. (Kathy far right). |
She attended the University of New Hampshire Summer Youth Music School in 1954, was a soprano soloist with the All State Chorus in 1955, and studied at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. As featured vocal soloist with the Singing Strings, she appeared in many well-known spots in Philadelphia and New Jersey. She also sang with several local bands.
At 19, she was discovered by record producer and trumpeter Joe Leahy when she auditioned for him. He was so intrigued with her sound that he recorded her and her first release was "It's Just My Luck to Be Fifteen." He transferred her recording contract to Felsted Records, a subsidiary of London Records which had just set up shop that year. She debuted on Felsted with "Billy". "Goodbye Jimmy, Goodbye" became an international hit, not least in Sweden, where Linden's version peaked at no 3, where it stayed for many weeks in September and October 1959.
At the time of her first hit single Kathy was a married woman in her 20s, but her record company wanted her to appear as a child due to her childish voice. Largely because Kathy wanted to record country music and to work with the top creative people in that field, she signed with Monument Records in 1960.
While recording at their RCA Studios, Kathy was backed by the absolute cream-of-the-crop personnel including guitarist Chet Atkins, pianist Floyd Cramer, saxaphonist Boots Randolph, bass player Bob Moore and the Anita Kerr Singers. Several songs that Kathy recorded in Nashville became regional hits, most notably "Midnight" - her personal favourite - which was written by Chet Atkins and Boudleaux Bryant and, according to Kathy, is still getting significant airplay in Texas.
Kathy moved to California in 1961 and re-united with Joe Leahy, releasing "Put This Ring On My Finger," a song that she wrote by herself, on the R.P.C. label: it received a lot of regional attention across the country. She then signed with Capitol Records in Hollywood. After a few releases, she decided to retire from show business. She lived on a ranch with her husband and their three sons. They had three horses and her favorite was Shane. Her greatest joy during those years was riding Shane on an English saddle all over the valleys and mountains near their ranch.
In 2015, Linden gave her first and only radio interview since her retirement. She told former Casey Kasem interviewer Ronnie Allen that her life had changed enormously around 1980 when she became a Christian and started writing inspirational songs and singing and leading worship at many churches. In 1985, she was interviewed and sang on the Joy Program on TV. In 1992, she made a pilgrimage to Israel and led worship on the boat on the Sea of Galilee. She also led worship in both maximum and minimum security prisons of Southern California for three years.
In 2019, Linden recorded a new album of original inspirational, country and instrumental songs called The Love That's In My Heart, her first release in more than 55 years.
(Edited from Wikipedia, Jersey Girls Sing & Way Back Attack)