INFORMATION FOR
William Paterson University in Wayne will present a memorial celebration concert for the late vocalist Marlene VerPlanck on September 23, 2018 at 2 p.m. The performance will take place in the Shea Center for Performing Arts on campus as part of its WP Presents! series. This scholarship fundraiser celebrates VerPlank’s life and recognizes her career achievements.
Admission is $20; WP students may attend free with ID. All concert proceeds will benefit the Marlene and J. Billy VerPlanck Memorial Scholarship at William Paterson.
VerPlanck is remembered for her successful career singing backup vocals as a studio performer for legends such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and others. She had many solo recordings including her most recent, The Mood I’m In, which ranked as one of the best releases of 2016 in the jazz magazine DownBeat.
After an appearance in London at Ronnie Scott’s in March 2017, a reviewer from the Jazz Journal International called her “the finest canary in captivity.”
VerPlanck was first heard when she sang the words “Mm-m-m Good, Mm-m-m Good,” which later became the Campbell’s Soup slogan. She became one of the most successful “jingle singers” of the 1960s and ‘70s when she became the voice of Amtrak, Singer sewing machines, and “I Love New York.” She recorded other familiar tunes including, “Weekends were made for Michelob,” and “Nationwide is on your side.”
She began her career singing in clubs around Newark in the early 1950s with the stage name Marlene Paula. She sang with the big band led by trumpeter Charlie Spivak, and for a short amount of time, Tommy Dorsey in 1956. Later in the year, she would marry Dorsey’s trombonist, Billy VerPlanck. He became the arranger of most of the material she would perform in concerts, clubs, and on dozens of her recordings through the next 60 years.
During a performance at a club in New Jersey, Billy VerPlanck was heard to have said, with tears of affection in his eyes, “She’s my favorite act, man.” Marlene and Billy were married until his death in 2010.
For additional information please contact William Paterson University’s Shea Center Box Office at boxoffice@wpunj.edu, call 973.720.2371 or visit www.wp-presents.org.
