“How Important Can It Be?” isn’t just the title of one of James’ biggest hits from the early 1950s, but it’s also the question the Chicago-native had to ask herself about her own stardom three decades ago. You could see from her thank-yous and occasional misty-eyed moments Saturday that James loves the applause and music, but she walked away from all that in the mid-'60s to care for her seriously ill husband, manager-conductor Tony Acquaviva, and their two adopted children. “I missed terribly,” James said during an interview before Saturday’s concert. But there was something more important to me. “I became the nurse and the Italian mother. Besides, I couldn’t possibly turn away from Tony. I used to bathe the leg six times a day.” They were going to amputate his leg at one point because of gangrene, but we saved it. James is the first to tell you that she’s not a great singer, technically.

But there’s a quality in her voice-a longing and a warmth-that made her records endearing in a sort of every-girl way.

1 in 1952, triggering a series of double-sided hits that also included a version of Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” It was that quality that made her a star at 21 when her first MGM Records single, “Why Don’t You Believe Me,” went to No. Not bad for someone who wanted to be a dancer.ĭuring her late teens, James (whose real name is Giovanna Carmella Babbo) sang at clubs in the Chicago area to raise money to go to New York to study ballet. She even mixed dancing and singing in some early shows, but found audiences responded far more to her singing than her dancing.

A night at the roxbury pop muzik