As a session musician he has played television as a member of the house band on the The Tube backing international stars as varied as Madonna, Elvis Costello, Billy Preston, Eddy Grant, Grandmaster Flash, Iggy Pop and Eartha Kitt.
"An Evening With..." has featured interviews with notable African Americans, including Eartha Kitt, John Rogers, Smokey Robinson, Quincy Jones, Valerie Simpson, Colin Powell, and Andrew Young among others.
He has produced numerous charity events featuring big-name celebrities, including gala fundraisers in support of The 519 featuring Sandra Bernhard, Eartha Kitt, Andrea Martin and Joan Rivers, and The Premiere Video Awards, which raised money for Variety Club, with such special honourees as Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan, Ginger Rogers and Christopher Plummer in attendance.
His Broadway credits include playing the male lead opposite Eartha Kitt in the play Mrs. Patterson and performing the title role in the musical extravaganza Kwamina.
:Cast Eartha Kitt, Arthur Askey, Eira Heath, Neville King, Larry Parker, Barrie Brothers, Terry Lightfoot and His Band, Macardis with host Leonard Sachs
There, he started a career as an artist, dressed in drag and singing tunes by his favourite singer, Eartha Kitt.
Spahn was the longtime musical director and arranger for Eartha Kitt and has worked with musicians and composers including Edgar and Johnny Winter, John Pizzarelli, Carol Burnett, Frank Oz, Liza Minnelli, Galt McDermot, Gerome Ragni, James Rado, Don Sebesky, Don Pippin, Colin Romoff, Frank Loesser, Nancy LaMott, Eddie Fisher, and many others.
Eartha Kitt | Kitt Peak National Observatory | Kitt Peak | KITT | David Kitt | Michael F. Kitt | KITT's |
He was noted for his impersonations of Shirley Bassey, Eartha Kitt, Lena Horne, Cleo Laine and Dorothy Squires in full drag and no mike and was booked into the working men’s clubs throughout the North of England as well as the cabaret club circuit.
He began his career as an accompanist at the age of 16 and played for Mabel Mercer, Johnny Mathis and Eartha Kitt, among others.
During its heyday the club staged concerts by performers including the Bee Gees, Shirley Bassey, Tina Turner, Tom Jones, Roy Orbison, Eartha Kitt, Louis Armstrong, Olivia Newton-John, Morecambe and Wise, Alvin Stardust, Jim Bowen, Dusty Springfield, Guys and Dolls, The Brotherhood of Man, Ken Dodd and The Grumbleweeds.
Her English language lyric for "Under the Bridges of Paris" was recorded by both Eartha Kitt and Dean Martin for United Kingdom chart hits in 1955, although they failed to chart in the United States, and Frankie Laine's recording of her song, "In the Beginning" similarly charted in the UK but not in the US that year.
In Winter 2004, Epperson (in a different drag role) played the role of the Wicked Stepmother in the New York City Opera's revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella in a cast with Eartha Kitt, Dick van Patten and fellow Wigstock veteran Renée Taylor.
He impersonated many famous actresses and singers including Pearl Bailey, Josephine Baker, Tallulah Bankhead, Fanny Brice, Carol Channing, Cher, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Phyllis Diller, Hermione Gingold, Hildegarde, Eartha Kitt, Ethel Merman, Barbra Streisand, Kay Thompson, and Mae West.
Over the years Cassella has interviewed comedy legends such as Phyllis Diller, Bea Arthur and Joan Rivers, as well as performers such as William H. Macy, Jude Law, Juliette Binoche, Robert Downey, Jr., Laura Linney, Eartha Kitt and k.d. lang.
Meadows collaborated up with numerous artists and musicians in the 80s, recording or performing over the years with Brook Benton, Eartha Kitt, Phyllis Hyman, Jean Carne, The Temptations, Michael Bolton, Angela Bofill, Will Downing and Native American flute player Douglas Spotted Eagle, among others.
Native musicians, singers, and other artists born and/or raised in the state include Arthur Smith, James Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Chubby Checker, Eartha Kitt, Peabo Bryson, Nick Ashford, Teddy Pendergrass, Josh Turner, Bill Anderson, Edwin McCain, Duncan Sheik, Rob Thomas, and John Phillips.
"Where Is My Man" is a song from 1983 by the American singer and actress Eartha Kitt, which appeared on her 1984 album I Love Men