Palm Beach Pops 2009

Those of us who have been privileged to share many musical moments with Lynn Roberts, are grateful that she has prevailed as one of the few stars to bridge the decades. Her dedication and success have provided us with a legacy of an endless flow of wonderful music from the Big Band Era to the present. It takes only one short session with her to convince anyone, that Lynn Roberts is their favorite singer, and one of the super songbirds of all time. 

Lynn started her exciting career with Charlie Spivak at the age of 15. Songbird Roberts spent one year with Charlie, a year with Vincent Lopez, five years with Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, ten years with Benny Goodman and four years with Harry James. She also shared the spotlight with Sammy Kay for a year and a half, on the ABC-TV show “Music From Manhattan.” Lynn also sang with the Pied Pipers for many years. Her career momentum led her to stellar performances throughout the United States, Europe, Japan and Israel. Many famous clubs became routine stops on her busy schedule; the Café Rouge at the Statler Hotel in Manhattan, the Coconut Grove and the Paladium in L.A., and the renowned Paramount Theatre in New York with the fabulous Dorsey Brothers and Frank Sinatra. Lynn has the distinction of being the only girl singer to have sung with all these superstar band leaders. 
In 1978 producer Michael Bennett featured her as “Marlene” the girl singer in the Broadway production of “Ballroom.” It was there that critic Rex Reed said, “Lynn Roberts sings like an angel, and the way she handles “Dreams” the evening’s best song, is a thing of pure beauty.” 

In recent years Lynn has been deluged with requests for special appearances at Jazz Festivals, on Major Cruise Lines, and Television specials. The symphony orchestras of Buffalo, Palm Beach, Phoenix, San Diego, Corpus Christi, Toronto, Hawaii, Myrtle Beach, Denver, and others have featured Lynn in major productions ranging from specials dedicated to Judy Garland, and to the Big Band Era as a whole. 

Lynn released “The Men in My Life,” a CD dedicated to the talented musicians with whom she has worked over the years. Lynn used the spectacular big band “Reunion,” made up of musicians from the “Air Men of Note,” and the “US Navy Commanders.”

Back in the 60’s, Lynn worked with another student of the legendary Tommy Dorsey. They were studio performers in New York City, she singing commercials and Doc Severensen blowing his trumpet in the background. Like Lynn, he paid his dues in those recording studios, and she and Doc became friends. After his retirement from the Tonight Show, Doc toured the world with his “Big Band” show. And, yes, he chose Lynn Roberts has his featured singer. They are still performing with symphony’s both here and abroad.

Well…she is still as pretty as her pictures, enjoying the best “voice” of her career, and constantly winning over a growing fan club of listeners throughout the world. Recently, she performed in England, and while there gave a wonderful interview with the late “Benny Green” on the BBC Radio Network in London.

Born Leonore Theresa Raisig in Brooklyn, New York in 1935, Lynn was raised in Queens by parents at opposite poles of support for their precocious, pre-school singing daughter. Dad…an accountant who always longed for his own show-biz career, prevailed, and at the age of eight, Lynn began performing in vaudeville during summer vacations. It was there that she performed in the company of such greats as Abbott & Costello and Rody McDowell.

Make no mistake, the Songbird is still going strong and singing better than ever. Last year she released her new CD “I’ll Never Stop Loving You,” a collection of love songs that will pull the heartstrings. Lynn asked Doc Severensen to listen to it and, afterwards he insisted on writing the liner notes.

Once you’ve seen and heard Lynn and reflect upon that grand period called the “The Big Band Era,” you will place the name Lynn Roberts right at the top, and consider yourself lucky to have found her at last.