After performing in and around Pittsburgh, Maxine Sullivan relocated to New York in 1937, where she joined the Claude Thornhill band, and recorded a hugely successful version of the Scottish air "Loch Lomond." This was followed by several more jazzed-up folk songs, including "Annie Laurie," which, for all their frequent banality, she sang with effortless charm. In the late-'30s and early-'40s, Sullivan made several feature films, and also recorded with her husband, bassist John Kirby. Sullivan continued to work through the '60s, and her career blossomed as a cabaret artist in the late-'70s, thanks to performances with the World’s Greatest Jazz Band and Scott Hamilton.