Vikki Carr

Pop, then Spanish

Vikki Carr was born Florencia Vicenta de Casillas-Martinez Cardona on July 19 in El Paso, Texas, to Mexican parents, in 1940 by Wikipedia, Texas Standard and a Brooklyn College page and 1941 by the Walk of Fame and MusicBrainz. She grew up in the Los Angeles area and graduated from Rosemead High School in 1958. After school she sang in English and Spanish with a Mexican-Irish band as Carlita until the bandleader suggested a shorter name. She signed with Liberty Records in 1961 or 1962 and had a hit with "He's a Rebel" (number 3 in Australia on Wikipedia, 115 in the US).

"It Must Be Him" reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967 and went gold, and the album of that name was nominated for three Grammys. She sang for Queen Elizabeth II at a command performance in London that year, toured South Vietnam with Danny Kaye in 1966, and made six specials for London Weekend Television in 1968. "The Lesson" (1968) and "With Pen in Hand" (1969) were US top 40 hits; For Once in My Life (1969, live) reached 29. She founded the Vikki Carr Scholarship Foundation in 1971, sang at a White House state dinner in November 1974 and has a Hollywood Walk of Fame star dated September 23, 1981.

Columbia released her first Spanish-language album, En Espanol, in 1972, and she told the Deseret News in 1994 it opened the door for her in Mexico and all of Latin America. Her Latin success followed: Simplemente Mujer (1985, number 3 Regional Mexican), Dos Corazones (1987, with Vicente Fernandez), Esos Hombres (1988, number 4 Latin Pop) and Cosas del Amor (1991, number 1 Latin Pop). "Cosas del Amor", a duet with Ana Gabriel written by Roberto Livi and Rudy Perez, was her first number 1 on the Billboard Top Latin Songs chart, on August 31, 1991. She won Grammys in 1986 (Simplemente Mujer), 1992 (Cosas del Amor) and 1995 (Recuerdo a Javier Solis), the Latin Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement award in 2008 and entered the Texas Women's Hall of Fame in 2018. Dean Martin called her the best girl singer in the business.