1942–1943: Early career Vaughan was frequently accompanied by a friend, Doris Robinson, on her trips into New York City. In the fall of 1942, by which time she was 18 years old, Vaughan suggested that Robinson enter the
Apollo Theater Amateur Night contest. Vaughan played piano accompaniment for Robinson, who won second prize. Vaughan later decided to go back and compete as a singer herself. She sang "
Body and Soul" and won—although the date of this victorious performance is uncertain. The prize, as Vaughan recalled to
Marian McPartland, was $10 and the promise of a week's engagement at the Apollo. On November 20, 1942, she returned to the Apollo to open for
Ella Fitzgerald. During her week of performances at the Apollo, Vaughan was introduced to bandleader and pianist
Earl Hines, although the details of that introduction are disputed.
Billy Eckstine, Hines' singer at the time, has been credited by Vaughan and others with hearing her at the Apollo and recommending her to Hines. Hines claimed later to have discovered her himself and offered her a job on the spot. After a brief tryout at the Apollo, Hines replaced his female singer with Vaughan on April 4, 1943. Vaughan's recording success for Musicraft continued through 1947 and 1948. Her recording of "
Tenderly"—she was proud to be the first to have recorded that
jazz standard—became an unexpected pop hit in late 1947. Her December 27, 1947, recording of "
It's Magic" (from the
Doris Day film
Romance on the High Seas) found chart success in early 1948. Her recording of "
Nature Boy" from April 8, 1948, became a hit around the time the popular
Nat King Cole version was released. Because of a second recording ban by the musicians' union, "Nature Boy" was recorded with an
a cappella choir.
1948–1953: Stardom and the Columbia years The musicians' union ban pushed Musicraft to the brink of bankruptcy. Vaughan used the missed royalty payments as an opportunity to sign with the larger
Columbia record label. After the settling of legal issues, her chart successes continued with "
Black Coffee" in the summer of 1949. While at Columbia through 1953, she was steered almost exclusively to commercial pop ballads, several with success on the charts: "
That Lucky Old Sun", "Make Believe (You Are Glad When You're Sorry)", "
I'm Crazy to Love You", "
Our Very Own", "
I Love the Guy", "Thinking of You" (with pianist
Bud Powell), "
I Cried for You", "
These Things I Offer You", "Vanity", "I Ran All the Way Home", "
Sinner or Saint", "My Tormented Heart", and "Time". She won
Esquire magazine's New Star Award for 1947, awards from
Down Beat magazine from 1947 to 1952, and from
Metronome magazine from 1948 to 1953. Recording and critical success led to performing opportunities, with Vaughan singing to large crowds in clubs around the country during the late 1940s and early 1950s. In the summer of 1949, she made her first appearance with a symphony orchestra in a benefit for the
Philadelphia Orchestra entitled "100 Men and a Girl." Around this time, Chicago disk jockey
Dave Garroway coined a second nickname for her, "The Divine One", that would follow her throughout her career. One of her early television appearances was on
DuMont's variety show
Stars on Parade (1953–54) in which she sang "
My Funny Valentine" and "Linger Awhile". In 1949, with their finances improving, Vaughan and Treadwell bought a three-story house on 21 Avon Avenue in Newark, occupying the top floor during their increasingly rare off-hours at home and moving Vaughan's parents to the lower two floors. However, business pressures and personality conflicts led to a cooling in Treadwell and Vaughan's relationship. Treadwell hired a road manager to handle her touring needs and opened a management office in Manhattan so he could work with other clients. Vaughan's relationship with Columbia soured as she became dissatisfied with the commercial material and its lackluster financial success. She made some small-group recordings in 1950 with Miles Davis and Bennie Green, but they were atypical of what she recorded for Columbia.
Radio In 1949, Vaughan had a radio program,
Songs by Sarah Vaughan, on
WMGM in New York City. The 15-minute shows were broadcast in the evenings on Wednesday through Sunday from The Clique Club, described as "rendezvous of the bebop crowd."
1954–1959: Mercury years In 1953, Treadwell negotiated a contract for Vaughan with
Mercury in which she would record commercial material for Mercury and jazz-oriented material for its subsidiary,
EmArcy. She was paired with producer
Bob Shad, and their working relationship yielded commercial and artistic success. Her debut recording session at Mercury took place in February 1954. She remained with Mercury through 1959. After recording for
Roulette from 1960 to 1963, she returned to Mercury from 1964 to 1967. Her commercial success at Mercury began with the 1954 hit "
Make Yourself Comfortable", recorded in the fall of 1954, and continued with "
How Important Can It Be" (with
Count Basie), "
Whatever Lola Wants", "
The Banana Boat Song", "You Ought to Have a Wife", and "
Misty". Her commercial success peaked in 1959 with "
Broken Hearted Melody", a song she considered "corny" which nevertheless became her first gold record, and a regular part of her concert repertoire for years to come. Vaughan was reunited with Billy Eckstine for a series of duet recordings in 1957 that yielded the hit "
Passing Strangers". Her commercial recordings were handled by a number of arrangers and conductors, primarily
Hugo Peretti and
Hal Mooney. The jazz "track" of her recording career proceeded apace, backed either by her working trio or combinations of jazz musicians. One of her favorite albums was a
1954 sextet date that included
Clifford Brown. In the latter half of the 1950s, she followed a schedule of almost non-stop touring. She was featured at the first
Newport Jazz Festival in the summer of 1954 and starred in subsequent editions of that festival at Newport and in New York City for the remainder of her life. In the fall of 1954, she performed at
Carnegie Hall with the Count Basie Orchestra on a bill that also included
Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker,
Lester Young and the
Modern Jazz Quartet. That fall, she again toured Europe before embarking on a "Big Show" U.S. tour, a succession of performances that included
Count Basie, George Shearing,
Erroll Garner and
Jimmy Rushing. At the 1955 New York Jazz Festival on
Randalls Island, Vaughan shared the bill with the
Dave Brubeck quartet,
Horace Silver,
Jimmy Smith, and the
Johnny Richards Orchestra. Although the professional relationship between Vaughan and Treadwell was quite successful through the 1950s, their personal relationship finally reached a breaking point and she filed for a divorce in 1958. Vaughan had entirely delegated financial matters to Treadwell, and despite significant income figures reported through the 1950s, at the settlement Treadwell said that only $16,000 remained. The couple evenly divided the amount and their personal assets, terminating their business relationship. She made her UK debut in 1958 on
Sunday Night at the London Palladium with several songs including "Who's Got the Last Laugh Now".
1959–1969: Atkins and Roulette The exit of Treadwell from Vaughan's life was precipitated by the entry of Clyde "C.B." Atkins, a man of uncertain background whom she had met in Chicago and married on September 4, 1958. Although Atkins had no experience in artist management or music, Vaughan wished to have a mixed professional and personal relationship like the one she had with Treadwell. She made Atkins her manager, although she was still feeling the sting of the problems she had with Treadwell and initially kept a closer eye on Atkins. Vaughan and Atkins moved into a house in
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. The Tivoli recording would be the brightest moment of her second stint with Mercury. Changing demographics and tastes in the 1960s left jazz musicians with shrinking audiences and inappropriate material. Although she retained a following large and loyal enough to maintain her career, the quality and quantity of her recorded output dwindled as her voice darkened and her skill remained undiminished. At the conclusion of her Mercury deal in 1967, she lacked a recording contract for the remainder of the decade.
1970–1982: Fisher and Mainstream and Vaughan perform at the
White House in honor of the
Shah of Iran on November 15, 1977. In 1971, at the Tropicana in Las Vegas, Marshall Fisher was a concession stand employee and fan when he was introduced to Sarah Vaughan. They were attracted to each other immediately. Fisher moved in with her in Los Angeles. Although he was white and seven years older, he got along with her friends and family. Although he had no experience in the music business, he became her road manager, then personal manager. But unlike other men and managers, Fisher was devoted to her and meticulously managed her career and treated her well. He wrote love poems to her. ==Death==