Doris Day still singing at 87

LOS ANGELES:

At the age of 87, Doris Day is not exactly pop music’s latest hot young artist. But this week the star of film, TV and music returns to the US record world, which she conquered more than 60 years ago, with a new album, My Heart.

The CD, which hits record stores and websites December 2, is filled with old standards like “My Buddy”, previously unreleased tunes such as “Stewball”, about a race horse she loved, and pop hits of the 1960s and ‘70s such as “Daydream” and “You Are So Beautiful”.

Day, whose first hit was “Sentimental Journey”(1945), went from big band singer to movie star of the 1950s and ‘60s. She became the quintessential All-American girl with films such as Calamity Jane and Pillow Talk, opposite Rock Hudson. In the late 1960s, she moved to TV where she starred in “The Doris Day Show”.

But after that show ended in 1973, Day stepped out of the Hollywood limelight, moved to California’s Central Coast and devoted herself to helping animals through various charitable groups, including the Doris Day Animal Foundation.

Day released the songs for My Heart because she wanted to help animals — sales proceeds go to her animal foundation — and she dedicated the song “My Buddy” to her son, the late songwriter Terry Melcher, who died in 2004 after battling melanoma. “He really was my buddy,” Day said about her son. “I wanted that song to be there because it was for him and, well, all I can say is that I miss him very much.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2011.