A study in gorgeous contradictions, this aptly christened singer took on the Great American Songbook's most worldly material with the clear, innocent voice of a young girl. Born in 1924, Blossom Dearie first took the French cabaret scene by storm and then did the same in Manhattan. Witty supper-club classics served as signature songs for Dearie, who also sang earnestly of numbers and adjectives on the animated educational TV show Schoolhouse Rock! Dearie performed until 2006, and her legacy endures most conspicuously in Nellie McKay.