One of the most versatile entertainers of all time, Mel Tormé, known as the "Velvet Fog," was one of America's most acclaimed vocalists as well as a composer-arranger, drummer, actor in films and television, and star performer on records and the live concert stage. In 1996, his 67th year in show business, he broke all records by performing for the twentieth consecutive year at both Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. The popular holiday classic "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire") is his best-known composition.

Born in Chicago, Tormé began his career at age four, singing on weekly radio broadcasts with the Coon-Sanders Nighthawk Band in 1929 and with Buddy Rogers and his Band in the early 1930s. When he was six, he worked regularly with vaudeville units around Chicago, and at nine he was cast as Jimmy the newsboy on...