Mimic, dancer, multi-instrumentalist and singer, Sammy Davis was firmly in the vaudevillian tradition, a flamboyant entertainer whose best work was done live rather than in the recording studio. The son of vaudevillians, Davis first appeared on stage at the age of two. In 1931, he was featured in the Ethel Waters film, ‘Rufus Jones for President’ and in 1932, joined his father and uncle, Will Mastin, in the family’s song and dance stage act. It was during this period that Davis was tutored by Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson. By the end of the thirties, Davis, was the undisputed star of the show, billed as the Will Mastin

Trio. After the Second World War, Davis rejoined the act and in 1946, the trio finally broke out of the chittlin’ circuit to become headliners on regular variety shows. In the early fifties, Davis went solo and, after losing an eye in an automobile accident in 1954, he decided to concentrate on singing. Already signed with Decca, he had his first hits with ‘Hey There’, ‘Something’s Gotta Give’, ‘Love Me or Leave Me’ and ‘That Old Black Magic’ and in 1959 won critical acclaim in the film ‘Porgy and Bess’, before appearing in a series of films with Frank Sinatra and his ‘clan’. These included ‘Oceans Eleven’ and ‘Robin and the Seven Hoods’. Of more artistic value was Davis’s return to Broadway in 1964 to star in ‘Golden Boy’.
   Having left Decca for Reprise Records, Davis had his first million seller with ‘What Kind of Fool Am I’ other hits included, ‘As Long as She Needs Me’, ‘The Shelter of Your Arms’ and ‘I’ve Gotta Be Me’ which Davis adopted as his theme song. His biggest record success came after he moved to MGM where he recorded ‘Candy Man’, his only American No. 1 hit.