A Life In Song

By CBSNews.com Staff

September 2, 1998 / 1:28 PM EDT / CBS

A special look back at some of the brightest Sunday Mornings is part of Our Sunday Best: 20 Years of Sunday Morning, marking the broadcast's 20th anniversary. Here is a segment about Lena Horne that aired on May 1st, 1994, with Charles Osgood and Billy Taylor.

OSGOOD: A Life in Song now. The entertainment highway covers quite a span of time and technology, from theaters and clubs to celluloid and the silver screen, radio and television, VCRs and laser discs; from vinyl discs at 78 RPM to LPs, audiocassettes, CDs and digital recordings. Over that span, you could fit, well, four or five careers at least --or one brilliant career. Here's Billy Taylor with A Life in Song of Lena Horne.

(Footage of Lena Horne singing)

BILLY TAYLOR: (Voiceover) With her place in show-business history long and firmly secured, Lena Horne neither hesitated nor rushed back into the recording studio when producers called.

LENA HORNE: To make a long story short, they got me back in the studio. I said, 'Well, I want so and so and we need-- get the best musicians in New York and otherwise.' And so it-- I said, 'Let's see if it works,' because I don't have this big crush on making records.

(Footage of Horne singing)

TAYLOR: (Voiceover) It had been five years since her last album and over seven years since her last public concert appearance. But last summer, after an electrifying performance at a tribute to composer Billy Strayhorn, Lena decided to go back on record.

HORNE: They said, 'Just try.' I said, 'If I'm happy in this recording and happy with the musicians, we'll see what happens.'

(Footage of Horne performing; photographs of Duke Ellington, Lenny Hayton and Billy, Strayhorn)

TAYLOR: (Voiceover) What happened is an album of songs dedicated to friends and fellow artists she knew and loved: Duke Ellington, her husband Lenny Hayton and, of course, Billy Strayhorn, the friend she called her soulmate. Strayhorn died in 1967.

HORNE: This whole album started with me about Billy, you see, because-- and I resented that he's gone. I mean, I sometimes get so angry and--and...

TAYLOR: Yeah. 'How could you do that to me?'

HORNE: Yes, exactly. 'I need you,' and-- and I dream about him a lot.

(Footage of Horne performing)

TAYLOR: (Voiceover) The new album is called We'll Be Together Again and when Lena sings the title song, she means it.

(Footage of Home performing)

HORNE: When I thought about Billy, also, the urge was there to go and sing his things, but also because I've lost him and I had lost two people from AIDS these last few months. They're both ver-- very, very close to me. And I said, 'All right. That's a great title' because I know I'm going to be with Billy no matter where, up or down, you know.

(Footage of Horne performing)

TAYLOR: (Voiceover) Lena first met Billy Strayhorn in Hollywood. (Photographs of Horne)

TAYLOR: (Voiceover) Lena Horne was a reluctant move star. Her early days in Hollywood were filled with discrimination.

(Footage of Horne in a movie)

TAYLOR: (Voiceover) The upcoming movie That's Entertainment 111 shows a scene of Lena that was cut out of fear that a black woman in a bubble bath would not be tolerated by a white audience.

(Footage of Horne in a movie; photograph of Horne and Count Basie)

TAYLOR: (Voiceover) Lena remembers a New Year's Eve when she fled Hollywood for New York to be with friends such as Count Basie. She threatened never to return.

HORNE: And we all started drinking champagne. I'm crying. The tears are coming and I said, 'I don't want to go back there. It's terrible. There's no-- I've got no place there. I don't belong there. I'm unhappy. I hate it. I'm coming back to New York and go back to cafe society.' And Basie said, 'Now, just a minute.' He said, 'They don't ask for us much,' He said, 'But when they do, you've got to stick with it. You've got to outdo it, outthink them, outsing them, outlook them. Do everything because somebody else will then get a chance.'

(Footage of Horne performing)

TAYLOR: (Voiceover) There are very few performers who can take one of their standards and make it seem like they're singing it for the very first time. Lena Horne is one of them. She carefully picks the right musicians to accompany her, the right songs to sing and the right singers to sing with. Lena's new album features a duet with singer Johnny Mathis.

(Horne's new album shown)

HORNE: I said, 'Well, it'd be nice to have one song with a fellow.' I said, 'But I don't-- you know, I-I-I love all these men singers.' And I said, 'But I think there's one who really likes me and the way I sing.' And I said, 'He's been a fan for years and I think Jo...' It's Johnny Mathis.

JOHNNY MATHIS: She's the epitome of-- of everything I've ever thought that a performer could be. And--and--and to this day, she--she still is--is--is my great heroine.

HORNE: I called him and I said, 'This is Lena. Would you do me the kindness of doing a duet with me?' He said, 'Yes, of course.'

MATHIS: I would go to the end of the world to sing with Lena Horne. I think most singers would.

(Footage of Mathis)

HORNE: I sang it and sent it out there to him, and he sang and then sent it back, so we got it together, and it was kind of fun.

(Footage of Mathis)

MATHIS: People like Lena are very special people. They aren't for everybody, and I wouldn't want them to be for everybody because they-- she is so special. You have to listen, you have to watch, you have to look, you have to appreciate.

(Footage of Horne singing)

TAYLOR: (Voiceover) Lena Horne picks her songs today for the same reason she always did. She picks a song with something to say.