Mary Mayo Riker Ham (born July 20, 1924 in Statesville , North Carolina , † December 1985 in New York City ) was an American singer in the field of jazz , folk , exotica , easy listening and pop music. She had an amazing voice with a range of four octaves. She could sing baritone, tenor, alto soprano and high violin.
Mary Mayo, the daughter of Lois Long and Franklin Riker, both opera singers, attended high school in Statesville and then Peace College in Raleigh. In 1945 She studied voice, piano and musical theory at New York's Juilliard School. The following year she won a talent show.Mayo first got started as a singer appearing on broadcasts from radio station WBT in Charlotte, North Carolina just after the end of World War Two. Gifted with a four-octave range, she was soon spotted by talent scouts and wound up working for Tex Beneke, who was leading the post-war version of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. While singing with Beneke, she married Al Ham, an arranger and bass player in the band. Regarding her voice she said: "My voice runs from low to high, but it's not something you ever need."
Frank Sinatra heard her cover version of Blue Moon and brought her as a guest on his first TV show. This was followed by appearances at Cavalcade of Stars (1952) and in the shows of Jackie Gleason (1953), Perry Como and Jack Parr. She then became a member of the Tex Beneke led Glenn Miller Orchestra. During this time she married Al Ham, who worked as an arranger and bassist in the Beneke band.
After the birth of their daughter Lorri, the couple was in 1956 in New York City down where her husband Al Ham in the music studios of Columbia Records worked as a producer. He also worked in 1965 on the Paramount production of B-movie Harlow (directed by Alex Segal), for which Mayo participated in the film music, which came from Ham and Nelson Riddle. In the following years
she appeared sporadically on other film productions and soundtrack albums from Broadway musicals as a session singer for
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Johnny Mathis and Tony Bennett. She also sang alongside Don Elliott in the short-lived vocal ensemble The Manhattanaires.
she appeared sporadically on other film productions and soundtrack albums from Broadway musicals as a session singer for
Her biggest hit was Dick Hyman's album Moon Gas (MGM Records, 1963) in the space-age-pop genre that features Mayo's mostly wordless spherical vocals, Hyman's Theremin- like sound effects on the Moog synthesizer, and Vinnie Bell's signature guitar.
When Duke Ellington was honoured at the White House on his 70th birthday, Mary Mayo was the female vocalist chosen to sing in his honour. The event was recorded and released on Blue Note Records as "1969 All Star Tribute To Duke Ellington at the White House.” (see photo below)
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In the 1970s, she appeared as a member of the folk group The Hillside Singers, which became popular in the United States through the jingle I'd Like to Give the World a Coke. The group had Ham as a replacement for The New Seekers composed of studio musicians, including Mayo and her daughter Lorri. Another success story was I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, which was also published by the New Seekers soon after.
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| The Hillside Singers |
The Metromedia label subsequently released two full-length Hillside Singers LPs, including a Christmas recording, both featuring Mayo. In the following years, Mayo appeared on the radio show The Music of Your Life, mainly Easy Listening Music offered.
In the late 1970's, Mary Mayo performed to sold out crowds at several prominent nightclubs in New York City including the Copacabana, Michael's Pub, and the Roseland Ballroom. Mary Mayo also teamed frequently with North Carolina composer Loonis McGlohon. The Land Of Oz theme park on Beech Mountain and the annual production of McGlohon's classic musical, "A Child's
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Christmas" at Oven's Auditorium in Charlotte featured both Mary Mayo and her daughter Lorri.
Mary Mayo and Loonis McGlohon performed at jazz clubs in Japan and did several radio shows for the "American Popular Song" series with Alec Wilder on NPR. Selections from that radio series were recorded and released on Audiophile Records as "Time Remembered." Unfortunately, Mayo did not live to see the album's release in 1986. She continued to work professionally until her death from cancer in December 1985.
(Edited from Wikipedia , All Music & Statesville History)