Not Marvin.

8. I hosted a tv show for many years.

9. My middle name is Andrew...

Andy Williams?

Andy Williams it is!

Singers who hosted their own TV show and the name Andrew did it for me: Andy Griffith and Andy Williams both came to mind. I opted for the latter.

I was born in Virginia on April 25, 1917. My parents were unmarried but lived together for at least two and a half years after I was born.

In the early 1920s, my mother and me -- and her new Portuguese immigrant partner -- moved to Yonkers, in Westchester County, New York.

Starting in third grade, I loved dancing and admired Earl Snakehips Tucker. I performed for my peers on the way to school and at lunchtime.

Ginger Rogers

Mr Bojangles (or Bill Robinson, or whomever the legendary dancer was based upon…).

Nor Ginger or Bojangles.

Church services provided me with my earliest experiences in music, while at home I listened to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and The Boswell Sisters.

In 1932, when I was fifteen, my mother died from injuries sustained in a car accident, after which I moved to Harlem to live with my aunt.

I began skipping school, working as a lookout at a bordello and with a Mafia-affiliated numbers runner. When the authorities caught up with me, I was sent to a state reformatory school in Hudson, New York.

I made my most important debut at age 17 in one of the earliest Amateur Nights at the Apollo Theater. I had intended to go on stage and dance, but was intimidated by a local dance duo. So I opted to sing instead, and won first prize.

In January 1935, a bandleader with a residency at the Savoy Ballroom asked me to join his orchestra. My 1938 variation of a nursery rhyme became a major hit for us on the radio, and was one of the biggest-selling records of the decade.

When my boss died of spinal tuberculosis in 1939, I took on the role of bandleader, recording nearly 150 songs with the orchestra.

In addition, I also performed and recorded with the Benny Goodman Orchestra.

When the big band broke up, I had hits with The Ink Spots, Louis Jordan, and the Delta Rhythm Boys.

Producer Norman Granz became my manager in the mid-1940s after I began singing for his Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series.

That's gotta be the first lady of song: Ella Fitzgerald

Bill’s got it: Ella Fitzgerald … my favorite jazz singer. Her recordings of classic songs from The Great American Songbook are hard to beat. I was privileged to see Ella a few times, in big band settings as well as smaller lineups (one of them featuring Joe Pass on guitar).

The band leader who died was of course Chick Webb. And the nursery rhyme song which became a hit was “A-Tisket, A-Tasket.”

I much preferred Ella's later style, when she started improvisational scatting. A fabulous example of that is her rendition of “Mack The Knife” from the 1967 album Ella and Duke at the Cote D’Azur:




My remaining clues were:

With the demise of the swing era and the decline of the great touring big bands, a major change in jazz music occurred. The advent of bebop led to new developments in my vocal style, influenced by my work with Dizzy Gillespie.

I also appeared in movies, including the Abbott and Costello film Ride 'Em Cowboy, St. Louis Blues, Let No Man Write My Epitaph, and the 1955 jazz film Pete Kelly's Blues.

I sang on numerous TV shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Frank Sinatra Show, The Carol Burnett Show, The Andy Williams Show, and The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom.

My most famous collaborations were with the vocal quartet Bill Kenny & the Ink Spots, trumpeter Louis Armstrong, the guitarist Joe Pass, and the bandleaders Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

Some of my widely acclaimed works include interpretations of the Great American Songbook, i.e. compositions by Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, Rodgers & Hammerstein/Hart, Sammy Kahn, Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn, etc.

Later in life I suffered from diabetes, which led to numerous complications. In 1993, I had to have both of my legs amputated below the knee due to the effects of diabetes. My eyesight was affected as well.

I died in my home from a stroke in 1996 at the age of 79. A few hours after my death, the Playboy Jazz Festival was launched at the Hollywood Bowl. In tribute, the marquee read: "(My Name) We Will Miss You.”

I received many awards, citations and honors, including fourteen Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Your turn again, Bill.

It was the nursery rhyme clue that did it. I had to think a while about who sang, "A Tisket, a Tasket".

Here's hoping that this one doesn't get me excoriated.

Again.

1. I was born in Sheffield, Alabama.

2. I played high school football.

3. After high school, I worked days in the local post office and nights at the Murray bicycle assembly plant.

Bear Bryant?

Not Paul "Bear" Bryant.

But that's an awesome guess!

4. I entered Florence State College (now the University of North Alabama), becoming the first member of my family to attend college. I transferred to Memphis State University, (now the University of Memphis), where I earned a double degree in philosophy and political science, as well as scholarships to both Tulane and Vanderbilt law schools. I went on to earn my Juris Doctor degree from the Vanderbilt Law School.

Pat Tillman.

Not Pat, may he rest in peace, but another really interesting guess!

5. I was admitted to the state bar of Tennessee in 1967. I worked as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1969 to 1972, then as Howard Baker's re-election campaign manager. I was also minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee.