Frances Wayne

Vocalist Frances Wayne be­gan to make a name for her­self in New York dur­ing 1942. She sang with Jerry Wald’s new out­fit at the Roseland Ballroom in March of that year, and the fol­low­ing month she ap­peared with Nick Jerret’s six-piece combo at Jive Canyon. In May, she joined Charlie Barnet’s or­ches­tra, where she stayed for four months, record­ing with the band on one of its clas­sic num­bers, “That Old Black Magic.”

After leav­ing Barnet, Wayne hit the night­club cir­cuit for a year, some­times singing with Jerret, be­fore join­ing Woody Herman’s Herd in late 1943. It’s with Herman that she sealed her fame and is best re­mem­bered. She stayed with the band for more than two years, per­form­ing on sev­eral of their most pop­u­lar num­bers.

Wayne’s vo­cal tal­ents put her in high de­mand dur­ing this pe­riod. In July 1945, Herman’s la­bel, Decca, agreed to lend her to Victor for one disk so that she could record with Duke Ellington. And in September of that year, Columbia, who was then mar­ket­ing Herman’s records, gave her per­mis­sion to cut solo ma­te­r­ial on the Musicraft la­bel. It was an un­usual de­ci­sion, and the first time that a singer had been al­lowed to record solo on an­other la­bel while still re­main­ing with their band. She cut four songs for Musicraft, backed by the or­ches­tra of Ralph Burns.

While with Herman, Wayne met trum­pet player Neal Hefti. The two fell in love and mar­ried on November 3, 1945, in Boston. Hefti quit the band in January 1946, and Wayne left the fol­low­ing month af­ter a dis­agree­ment on salary. She hit the night­club cir­cuit again, and in June 1947 signed a one-year deal with the Exclusive la­bel, where she recorded backed by the or­ches­tras of Buddy Baker, Les Robinson, and Hefti. She also ap­peared with Shorty Sherock’s or­ches­tra in their 1947 self-ti­tled mu­si­cal short.

In July 1951, Wayne and Hefti signed as a cou­ple to Coral Records. The la­bel planned to mar­ket them as a Mr. and Mrs. band, backed by stu­dio mu­si­cians, with Wayne also record­ing solo. They recorded to­gether un­til 1953, when Wayne de­cided to re­tire from the mu­sic busi­ness and have chil­dren. Pat O’Connor re­placed her as Hefti’s vo­cal­ist.

Wayne did­n’t stay re­tired for long how­ever. She re­turned to singing in the mid-1950s and went back on the night­club cir­cuit be­fore re­join­ing her hus­band as vo­cal­ist with his new jazz combo in August 1956. Wayne also recorded solo on Epic in 1956 and on Atlantic and Brunswick in 1957.

In 1960, the cou­ple moved to California, set­tling in Encino, and Wayne re­tired from singing again to take care of their two chil­dren. Hefti and Wayne were pre­sen­ters at the 1961 Grammy awards. Wayne, how­ever, never per­formed again ex­cept for a come­back ap­pear­ance in November 1974, af­ter their chil­dren had grown. She planned to con­tinue her singing ca­reer at that time, but it never ma­te­ri­al­ized.

Francis Wayne died from can­cer in 1978.