Muriel Smith (singer)

She is perhaps best known in the UK for her 1953 #3 hit single, "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me",[1] which was first covered in 1965 by Mel Carter (and which remains a staple of easy listening and oldies radio to this day) and later in 1994 by Gloria Estefan.

[3] After singing at a cocktail party in 1939, one of the guests, Elizabeth Westmoreland, arranged a scholarship for her at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

[4] In 1947, she starred as Delphine with the baritone William Veasey (Joshua Tain) in Theodore Ward's 'Our Lan' at the Royale Theatre.

After appearing in two Cecil Landeau revues at the Cambridge Theatre in the West End — Sauce Tartare in 1949 and Sauce Piquante in 1950 — she then performed in the London productions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, as Bloody Mary in South Pacific in 1951, and as Lady Thiang, the King's head wife, in The King and I in 1953-1955.

[2]with Herbert Lom and Valerie Hobson She gave a recital at the Wigmore Hall in 1955 before returning to the US to appear in a revival of Carmen Jones at the New York City Center.

[3][5] More significantly, she was ghost singer in two songs for the 1958 Hollywood film version of South Pacific, providing the voice for actress Juanita Hall in for the songs "Bali Ha'i" and "Happy Talk",[2][5] but she turned down an on-screen part in the 1959 film version of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess, saying "It doesn't do the right thing for my people.

[2] She appeared in several regional theatrical productions, including Equus at Theatre IV in Richmond, Virginia, and the première of Jeraldine Herbison's Sojourner Truth ...