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Sue Raney was born in the small town of McPherson, Kansas. She and her family moved to Wichita shortly thereafter, and it was there that her parents discovered she could sing…at the age of four. When they moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, she performed as a youngster. She had her own radio show at twelve and a 15 minute TV show when she was fourteen.
After a move to Los Angeles in 1955, she became a regular on the Jack Carson radio show when she was sixteen. At seventeen, she was signed to Capitol Records and did her first album with Nelson Riddle called When Your Lover is Gone. She also recorded with Billy May, and Ralph Carmichael on Capitol, and with Billy Byers on Imperial and Philips.
In the 1970s, she appeared on numerous TV variety shows. The Dean Martin Show, The Danny Kaye Show, The Red Skelton show, countless appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Joey Bishop Late Show, and The Mike Douglas Show. She also appeared with Henry Mancini on a PBS Special that included such stars as Julie Andrews, Andy Williams, Johnny Mathis and Steve Allen…among others. She did appearances with Bob Hope, Don Rickles and Bob Newhart, with the latter two in the Las Vegas main showrooms. She toured and sang with the Four Freshmen in the late '60's and early '70's.
She was part owner of a jingle company in the late '70's, writing and singing on many station ID's and commercials. Then, in the early '80's, she was signed to Discovery Records and began recording again. She was also the lead singer with Supersax and the L.A. Voices vocal group.
In more recent times, she has been performing with the Pops conductor, Richard Kaufman, doing symphony concerts in the U.S. She has also toured with Michel Legrand and performed in numerous jazz festival in the U.S. and abroad.
When not performing, she is a vocal coach, and teaches from her home in Sherman Oaks, where she resides with her husband, Carmen Fanzone, a former major league baseball player. He is an accomplished musician, having performed with the Baja Marimba Band and has contributed to many of Sue's CDs.
Her 2007 CD, Heart's Desire, a tribute to Doris Day, found her returning ro Capitol Records Studio "A" where she cut her first record. She was accompanied by full orchestration (brass, reeds, rhythm and strings), arranged and conducted by Grammy-winning musician Alan Broadbent. It received among the best reviews of her career: "…finds her singing better than ever." – Will Friedwald; "a genuine masterpiece no serious fan of the Great American Songbook can afford to miss." – Rex Reed. Her 2011 CD, also with Broadbent, Listen Here, continues on in a similar quality vein.
Sue Raney has one of the most beautiful voices in music. She is always in tune, displays complete control over her vibrato, and has the rare gift of being able to interpret lyrics with such deep understanding that she makes them sound fresh, even if the words are familiar. Or as Julie Andrews observed a while back, "As for Ms. Raney – well, she is a marvel."
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