{{short description|American jazz musician}}
'''Marlene Paula VerPlanck''' ''(née'' '''Pampinella'''; November 11, 1933 – January 14, 2018)<ref name=Myers/><ref>{{cite web|last1=Myers|first1=Marc|title=Marlene VerPlanck (1933-2018)|url=http://www.jazzwax.com/2018/01/marlene-verplanck-1933-2018.html|website=JazzWax|accessdate=17 January 2018|date=January 16, 2018}}</ref><ref name=langer20180119>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/marlene-verplanck-commercial-jingle-queen-and-singer-of-great-american-songbook-dies-at-84/2018/01/19/df94260e-fc62-11e7-a46b-a3614530bd87_story.html Langer, Emily, "Marlene VerPlanck, commercial ‘jingle queen’ and singer of Great American Songbook, dies at 84," washingtonpost.com, January 19, 2018.]</ref> was an American jazz and pop vocalist whose body of work centered on big band jazz, the American songbook, and cabaret.<ref name=langer20180119/>
==Life and career== VerPlanck was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, the eldest of three siblings.<ref name=langer20180119/><ref name=Myers>{{cite web |url=http://www.jazzwax.com/2013/01/interview-marlene-verplanck.html |title=Interview: Marlene VerPlanck |author=Marc Myers |date=January 10, 2013 |work=JazzWax |accessdate=January 25, 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115105536/http://www.jazzwax.com/2013/01/interview-marlene-verplanck.html |archivedate=January 15, 2013 }}</ref> Her father, Anthony J. Pampinella, operated a gasoline station there, and her mother was Pauline A. Biase, whose family ran an Italian restaurant.<ref name=langer20180119/><ref name="NYT">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/obituaries/marlene-verplanck-singer-of-jazz-and-jingles-dies-at-84.html|title=Marlene VerPlanck, Singer of Jazz and Jingles, Dies at 84|work=The New York Times|date=26 January 2018|author=Genzlinger, Neil}}</ref> She married trombonist, composer, and arranger J. William "Billy" VerPlanck (1930–2009) in 1955, and he became her musical collaborator and champion.<ref name=langer20180119/> They were married for 52 years, until his death in 2009.<ref name=langer20180119/><ref name=Myers/><ref>* ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ma1BpsFE1WoC&pg=PA665&lpg=PA665&dq The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz],'' edited by Leonard Feather & Ira Gitler, Oxford University Press, p. 665 (1999) {{OCLC|38746731}}</ref> VerPlank graduated from Bloomfield High School, and considered a career in journalism.<ref name="NYT"/> She began performing as a teenager at the age of 19, at a nightclub in Newark, the Well.<ref name="NYT"/> Her debut album, ''I Think of You with Every Breath I Take'', was released in 1955 when she was 21, and featured Hank Jones, Joe Wilder, Wendell Marshall, Kenny Clarke, and Herbie Mann (uncredited).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wusf.usf.edu/marlene_verplanck |title=Marlene VerPlanck |author=Gayle |date=November 29, 2012 |publisher=WUSF (University of South Florida) |accessdate=January 25, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/i-think-of-you-with-every-breath-i-take-mw0000405638 |title=I Think of You with Every Breath I Take |author=Scott Yanow |date= |work=Allmusic |accessdate=January 25, 2013}}</ref> VerPlanck then went to work as a vocalist for Charlie Spivak's band, and later sang with the Tommy Dorsey band<ref>''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Third edition,'' eight volumes, edited by Colin Larkin, Muze, London (1998) {{OCLC|39837948}}</ref><ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=sCH8GbRK214C&pg=PA240 Singing Jazz: The Singers and Their Styles],'' by Bruce Crowther (born 1933), Mike Pinfold, Miller Freeman, Inc., San Francisco, p. 240 (1997) {{OCLC|38562293}}, LCCN 98193811.</ref> and with Tex Beneke′s band.<ref name=langer20180119/>
A prolific studio vocalist for commercial jingles during the 1960s and 1970s,<ref name=langer20180119/> Ver Planck was once dubbed "the New York jingle queen" by ''Los Angeles Times'' jazz writer Leonard Feather.<ref name="LF re MVP 88">Feather, Leonard (May 7, 1988). [https://www.newspapers.com/image/404310363/?clipping_id=115632695 "Pop Music Reviews: Loves Ups, Downs With Marlene VerPlanck"]. ''Los Angeles Times''. pt. VI, pg. 5. Retrieved January 2, 2023.</ref> She recorded thousands of jingles, often for low pay, although her fortunes changed when she sang an arrangement of the 1930s Campbell's Soup "M'm M'm Good" song, which became widely known.<ref name=Myers/><ref>John S. Wilson, ''Familiar TV Voice Sings on 8th Street,'' ''New York Times'', May 30, 1918.</ref><ref name=langer20180119/> Other notable jingles she recorded included "Nationwide is on your side" for the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and "Weekends were made for Michelob" for Anheuser-Busch′s Michelob beer. She later told the press that the latter was highly lucrative for her, because she put a "Yeah!" at the end of the jingle that was used over and over again in versions of the jingle recorded by Billy Eckstine, Vic Damone, and Brook Benton, earning her continued royalties. Her jingle work allowed her to hone the clarity of her diction when singing, and she became known for her ability to enunciate the lyrics of songs clearly even while investing them with emotion.<ref name=langer20180119/> Although she toiled largely in obscurity, her voice became widely known to millions of people during the 1960s and 1970s through the familiarity and popularity of her jingles.<ref name=langer20180119/>
VerPlanck also sang backup for Tony Bennett, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, and Mel Torme, and she performed around the United States and internationally as a cabaret singer. Despite her long and successful career in jingles and as a studio backing vocalist, her second solo album, ''This Happy Feeling'', was not recorded and released until 1969, 14 years after her first album. Her solo career then began in earnest, and she released more than 20 albums,<ref name=langer20180119/> mostly on the Audiophile label, and toured extensively as a soloist. She specialized in the Great American Songbook, especially the works of Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers, and gained a reputation as one of the most accomplished interpreters of the genre.<ref name=langer20180119/>
In January 1983, VerPlanck took part in recording ''In the Digital Mood'', an early all-digital recording of the music of Glenn Miller by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. The album included two vocal tracks – "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", and VerPlanck was invited to sing the female vocals in a recreation of the singing group The Modernaires, which consisted of one female and four male vocalists, and to bring four male colleagues with her to sing the four male vocal parts. The album's producers expected her to bring unknown session and back-up singers with her, but she surprised and delighted the producers and the orchestra by arriving with Julius LaRosa, Mel Torme, Michael Mark, and Marty Nelson for the recording session on January 20, 1983.<ref name=inthedigitalmood>Anonymous, Liner notes for "The Glenn Miller Orchestra: In the Digital Mood," GFRP Records, 1983.</ref>
VerPlanck last performed in December 2017 at a jazz club in New York City.<ref name=langer20180119/> She died of pancreatic cancer at a hospital in Manhattan, New York City on January 14, 2018, aged 84 and was buried at Mt. Olivet cemetery in Bloomfield.<ref name=langer20180119/><ref name="NYT"/>
== Discography == ===As leader=== * ''I Think of You with Every Breath I Take'' (Savoy, 1956) * ''A Breath of Fresh Air'' (Mounted, 1968) * ''This Happy Feeling'' (Mounted, 1969) * ''You'd Better Love Me'' (Audiophile, 1977) * ''Marlene VerPlanck Loves Johnny Mercer'' (Audiophile, 1978) * ''A New York Singer'' (Audiophile, 1980) * ''A Warmer Place'' (Audiophile, 1982) * ''I Like to Sing!'' (Audiophile, 1984) * ''All Aglow Again'' with Steve Clayton (Sovereign, 1986) * ''Marlene VerPlanck Sings Alec Wilder'' (Audiophile, 1986) * ''Pure & Natural'' (Audiophile, 1987) * ''A Quiet Storm'' (Audiophile, 1990) * ''Live! in London'' (Audiophile, 1993) * ''You Gotta Have Heart: The Songs of Richard Adler'' (Varese Sarabande, 1997) * ''What Are We Going to Do with All This Moonlight?'' (Audiophile, 1998) * ''My Impetuous Heart'' (DRG, 2000) * ''Speaking of Love'' (Audiophile, 2002) * ''It's How You Play the Game'' (Audiophile, 2004) * ''Now'' (Audiophile, 2005) * ''Once There Was a Moon'' (Audiophile, 2009) * ''One Dream at a Time'' (Audiophile, 2010) * ''Ballads, Mostly'' (Audiophile, 2013) * ''I Give Up, I'm in Love'' (Audiophile, 2014) * ''The Mood I'm In'' (Audiophile, 2016)
===As guest or part of ensemble=== '''With J. J. Johnson''' *''Goodies'' (RCA Victor, 1965)
'''With the John LaSalle Quartet''' * ''Jumpin' at the Left Bank'' (Capitol, 1959) * ''Potluck'' (Capitol, 1959)
'''With the Glenn Miller Orchestra''' * ''In the Digital Mood'' (GRP, 1983)<ref name=inthedigitalmood/>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{Archival records|title=Billy and Marlene VerPlanck papers, circa 1950s-2000|location= Music Division, Library of Congress|description_URL=https://lccn.loc.gov/2020570068}} * [https://www.marleneverplanck.com/index.html VerPlanck's website] * {{AllMusic|mn0000979752}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Verplanck, Marlene}} Category:1933 births Category:2018 deaths Category:Jazz musicians from Newark, New Jersey Category:American women jazz singers Category:American women pop singers Category:Big band singers Category:American jazz singers Category:Bloomfield High School (New Jersey) alumni Category:People from Bloomfield, New Jersey Category:Savoy Records artists Category:American people of Italian descent Category:21st-century American women