Kathy Young

Kathy Young (born October 21, 1945)^[1] is an American musician; she was a teen pop singer during the early 1960s, whose rendition of "A Thousand Stars", at age 15, rose to No. 3 on Billboard Hot 100.

Biography

A native of Southern California, Young was born in the Orange County seat, Santa Ana.^[1] She rose to stardom in 1960, when producer Jim Lee of Indigo Records chose a Sun Valley-based band, The Innocents, to sing back-up vocals for her on a cover version of The Rivileers' 1954 recording of "A Thousand Stars". Two years earlier Lee had organized The Innocents for an appearance on Wink Martindale's pop music TV show.

In December 1960, two months after her 15th birthday, Kathy Young and The Innocents peaked at No. 6 on the R&B Singles chart, and at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[2][3][4][5] Young's follow-up, "Happy Birthday Blues", peaked at No. 30 on the Hot 100 in 1961.^[2] Subsequent singles, such as "Magic Is the Night" and "The Great Pretender", failed to chart in the Top 40.

In July 1961 she appeared on DJ Alan Freed's highly publicized American road show.^[6]

In 1962 she followed Jim Lee to

Kathy returned to the US in 1969, remarrying two years later. Over the next 20 years she raised children and helped manage the family citrus ranch in Central California. Following a move back to Los Angeles in 1994, she began working for a major international company, while also returning to her original passion, music.

In the 2000s she performed at numerous rock shows at venues such as the