| Lana Cantrell | |
| Birth Name: | Lana Eleanor Cantrell |
| Birth Date: | 1943 8, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Alma Mater: | |
Lana Eleanor Cantrell[1] AM (born 7 August 1943) is an Australian-American singer and entertainment lawyer.[2] She was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in the Grammy Awards of 1968.[3] [4] [5]
Cantrell recorded six albums for RCA Victor during the 1960s.[6] [2] Her preferred style of music was pop standards, but she later made contemporary pop rock a significant part of her performances.[7] Cantrell commented in a 1994 profile, "Think of how few people can still make their careers by singing standards.... There's Tony Bennett and Barbra Streisand, and I don't know anyone else."[8]
Cantrell was a frequent guest on television shows including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and The Mike Douglas Show.[2] [8] [9] However, she never had a top 40 hit in the Billboard Hot 100,[10] hitting #63 in 1975 with "Like a Sunday Morning".
| 1961-1963; 1966 | Bandstand | Guest - Herself/Performer | TV series Australia, 5 episodes | |
| 1965 | Gypsy | Herself | TV series US, 2 episodes | |
| 1966 | The Pat Boone Show | Herself - Singer/Performer | TV series US, 2 episodes | |
| 1966-1971 | The Ed Sullivan Show | Guest - Herself/Singer | TV series US, 13 episodes | |
| 1966-1977 | The Mike Douglas Show | Guest Singer | TV series US, 7 episodes | |
| 1967; 1970 | The Hollywood Palace | Herself - Singer | TV series US, 2 episodes | |
| 1967 | The Steve Allen Comedy Hour | Herself - Musical Guest | TV series US, 1 episode | |
| 1967 | Spotlight | Herself | TV series US, 1 episode | |
| 1967; 1968 | The Red Skelton Show | Herself - Guest Singer | TV series US, 2 episodes | |
| 1967-1977 | The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson | Guest - Herself/Singer | TV series US, 24 episodes | |
| 1968; 1972 | The Dick Cavett Show | Guest - Herself | TV series US, 2 episodes | |
| 1968 | The Jonathan Winters Show | Herself - Guest | TV series US, 1 episode | |
| 1968 | The Joey Bishop Show | Herself | TV series US, 2 episodes | |
| 1968 | The Kraft Music Hall | Herself | TV series US, 2 episodes | |
| 1969 | The John Davidson Show | Guest Singer | TV series UK, 1 episode | |
| 1970 | The Engelbert Humperdinck Show | Guest - Herself | TV series UK, 1 episode | |
| 1972 | The Bob Braun Show | Herself - Guest Singer | TV series US, 1 episode | |
| 1973 | The Graham Kennedy Show | Guest - Herself sings | TV series Australia, 1 episode | |
| 1973; 1975 | The Mike Walsh Show | Guest Singer | TV series Australia, 2 episodes | |
| 1975 | The Don Lane Show | Guest - Herself/Singer | TV series Australia, 1 episode | |
| 1975 | The Merv Griffin Show | Guest - Herself | TV series US, 1 episode | |
| 1976 | Dinah! | Guest - Herself | TV series US, 1 episode | |
| 1977 | This Is Your Life: Peter Allen | Guest - Herself | TV series Australia, 1 episode | |
| 1981 | Ryan's Hope | Herself | TV series US, 1 episode | |
| 1982 | Cabaret with Martin Schaffer | Guest - Herself | TV series US, 1 episode | |
| 1992 | Peter Allen: The Boy from Oz | Herself | TV special US/Australia | |
| 1996 | The South Bank Show | Herself | TV series UK, 1 episode | |
| 2001 | This Is Your Life: Trisha Noble | Guest - Herself | TV series Australia, 1 episode |
Cantrell eventually decided to make a transition out of music in the 1980s due to a decline in the number of venues where she could sing in her preferred style, the size of her audiences, and her working conditions.[2] [8] Although she had once been able to tour at supper clubs that would furnish a 20-piece orchestra for her and her conductor, in later years she toured with only a five-piece band that she had to pay herself.[2] She decided to pursue a law career in part because a former manager had spent much of her earnings over the years and she wanted to protect other performers from similar experiences.[2] [8]
In 1986, Cantrell enrolled at Marymount Manhattan College, where she majored in history.[8] After receiving her bachelor's degree, she attended Fordham University School of Law.[8] After graduation, she began practicing law with the firm of Ballon Stoll Bader & Nadler in New York City.[2]
In 2019, Cantrell's license to practice law in the state of New York was suspended due to an undisclosed medical condition.[11] Before having her license suspended, she operated a private practice in Mattituck, NY.[12]
In 1966, Cantrell won the Amber Nightingale award for singing at a festival in Sopot, Poland.[13]
In 2003, Cantrell was named a member of the Order of Australia.[14] The honour was conferred for "service to the entertainment industry, and for assistance to the Australian community in New York."[1]
It was reported in 1973 that Cantrell was engaged to Australian television personality Graham Kennedy.[15] This turned out to be a hoax.[16] Kennedy later claimed that his romance with Cantrell was purely an invention of the Sunday Observer, although Kennedy himself had confirmed publicly at the time that the relationship was real.[17] Judy Carne, of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In claimed she had a love affair with Cantrell.[18]
Beginning in 2017, Lana Cantrell's RCA Victor albums have been reissued for the first time on compact disc in Hi-Res audio, replacing years of poor quality bootlegs on YouTube. Her six studio albums have been reissued from 2017 to 2019. All reissues were published by the RCA-Legacy label. Singles or B-sides that did not appear on her albums are not available at the moment.