Kallen performed with popular big band leaders of the 1940s, including Jimmy Dorsey and Harry James,[1] before establishing a solo career.

Billboard number one spot for nine consecutive weeks and took top honor as 1954's #1 song of the year, charted in the U.S. for almost seven months, hit No.

[2] Voted "most popular female singer" in 1954 in both Billboard and Variety polls,[3] Kallen lost her voice at the London Palladium in 1955 at the top of her career[4][3][5] and stopped singing before an audience for four years.

[4] After testing her voice under a pseudonym in small town venues, she ultimately returned and went on to achieve 13 top-ten career hits.

[3] As a young girl, she sang on The Children's Hour, a radio program sponsored by Horn & Hardart, the legendary automat chain.

As a preteen, Kallen had a radio program on Philadelphia's WCAU and sang with the big bands of Jan Savitt[7] in 1936, Artie Shaw in 1938,[9] and Jack Teagarden in 1939.

AllMusic called the recording a "monster hit",[4] and music historian Jonny Whiteside said the song "ably characterizes Kallen's impressive, and graceful, transition from classic big band swing to modern post-war pop".

Kallen's psychological issues and the changing music landscape convinced her to retire from performing, but three years later she decided to make a comeback and signed with Columbia.

[17] In 1977, Kallen sued her dermatologist, Norman Orentreich, after he prescribed an estrogen drug, Premarin, for her small facial wrinkles.

[18] In 2008, Kallen joined artists Patti Page, Tony Martin, Dick Hyman, Richard Hayman and the estates of Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Sarah Vaughan, Woody Herman, Les Brown, the Mills Brothers, Jerry Murad, Frankie Laine, and the gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe in a suit against the world's then largest music label,[19] Universal Music Group, alleging the company had cheated them on royalties.