Ward, Helen
Ward, Helen
Ward, Helen, jazz singer best remembered for her association with Benny Goodman; b. N.Y., Sept. 19, 1916; d. Arlington, Va., April 21,1998. She studied piano as a child and began singing in her teens. After performing on radio station WOR in N.Y. (1933), she became a staff musician at NBC and sang with Benny Goodman on his radio show “Let’s Dance/’ She toured and made recordings with Goodman from 1934-36; her signature song was the perky “Goody Goody,’ Between 1937 and 1942 she sang exclusively on recordings, accompanied by various musicians. She continued to tour and record through the 1940s and 1950s, including three reunions (1953,1957,1958) with Goodman. After a long period of inactivity, in 1979 she resumed performing and recording sporadically through the mid-1990s.
Discography
B. GOODMAN: “Goody Goody” (1936); Zi’s Been So Long (1954); The Helen Ward Song Book (1981). —JC/LP
—John Chilton/Lewis Porter