Ketty Lester - Biography
By Oliver Hall
Revoyda Frierson, born on August 16, 1934 in Hope, Arkansas, took the stage name Ketty Lester as a professional singer. Lester is best known for her 1962 hit “Love Letters.” She moved to California in the mid-50s to study at San Francisco State, and she began her singing career at the Purple Onion nightclub in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. Lester toured in Cab Calloway’s band before recording as a solo artist.
Victor Young wrote the music and Edward Heyman wrote the lyrics to “Love Letters” for the 1945 movie of the same name, which starred Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten in a screenplay by (gulp) Ayn Rand. The song was nominated for an Academy Award but lost to “It Might as Well Be Spring” from State Fair. Dick Haymes’s syrupy, string-laden, uncannily white rendition of “Love Letters” (Decca 1945) popularized the song, and Perry Como sang it, but Ketty Lester’s quiet delivery radically transformed “Love Letters,” dramatizing the story of loneliness and obsession inscribed in Heyman’s lyrics in an altogether new way. According to legend, Lincoln Mayorga and Ed Cobb of the Piltdown Men got the peculiar spook of the band’s performance on Lester’s “Love Letters” by recording in a Los Angeles garage; Mayorga arranged the record and played its memorable piano part.
“Love Letters” is alternately cited as the A-side or B-side of Lester’s first Era single. In fact the label of the 45 does not make it clear whether “Love Letters” or “I’m A Fool To Want You” is the A-side, but on the strength of “Love Letters” the single reached number two in the Billboard R&B chart in early 1962. It is also unclear whether “Love Letters” or “Queen for a Day / I Said Goodbye to My Love” (Everest 1962) is Lester’s first release, but Era released four more Ketty Lester singles following her hit, including “This Land Is Your Land.” Lester’s debut LP Love Letters (Era 1962) packaged the hit with more gorgeous vocal performances of pop standards arranged by Mayorga, who plays “When I Fall in Love” just like “Love Letters.”
Lester signed with RCA and released the albums The Soul of Me (RCA Victor 1964) and Where Is Love? (RCA Victor 1965). The Ronnie Brown Trio backed Lester on When A Woman Loves A Man (Tower 1967), featuring Lester’s gender-reversed version of Percy Sledge’s hit. Ketty Lester (Records by Pete 1969) was her last recording for some time as she turned from singing to acting in movies and television. As a singer, she had already appeared on American Bandstand at least five times between 1962 and 1968, and she had also performed on Shindig! and the UK’s Ready, Steady, Go! Lester’s film acting career began with a role in Jules Dassin’s Up Tight! (1968), and in 1969 she began acting in television dramas and sitcoms. She worked constantly in television through the next three decades, appearing on Green Acres, The Bill Cosby Show, Sanford and Son, Days of Our Lives, Lou Grant, Happy Days, Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, Quantum Leap, and L.A. Law, among many other programs. She also appeared in Blacula (1972).
Meanwhile, Ketty Lester’s biggest hit had a life of its own. Elvis Presley’s “Love Letters” single (RCA 1966) painstakingly recreated Mayorga’s arrangement and reappeared on the King’s studio album Love Letters from Elvis (RCA 1971). Lester’s “Love Letters” appeared on the soundtrack and in the dialogue of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986), and Alison Moyet had a UK hit with an exceedingly faithful cover of Lester’s record (CBS 1987). Elton John and Bonnie Raitt recorded the song for John’s Duets (MCA 1993).
The rumor that Lester will only sing sacred music these days seems to be borne out by her most recent record, the Christian hip-hop single “Let’s Talk About Jesus” (Mega 1984).
