[5] Soon after she finished high school, Hall worked in the Lincoln settlement house in East Orange, New Jersey, teaching music to children during the day and to an adult chorus at night.

In addition to her role in South Pacific, she was a regular performer in clubs in Greenwich Village, where she captivated audiences with her renditions of "Am I Blue?

Before her acting roles, she assembled her own chorus group, The Juanita Hall Choir, and kept busy with performances in concert, on records, in films, and on the air.

[10] In 1958, she recorded Juanita Hall Sings the Blues (at Beltone Studios in New York City), backed by a group of jazz musicians that included Claude Hopkins, Coleman Hawkins, Buster Bailey, Doc Cheatham, and George Duvivier.

[citation needed] In 1958, she reprised Bloody Mary in the film version of South Pacific, for which her singing part was dubbed.

"Rodgers decreed her vibrato was now frayed, so her songs would be dubbed by Muriel Smith, Broadway's original Carmen Jones.