Lana Cantrell

Cantrell recorded six albums for RCA Victor during the 1960s.^[7][3] Her preferred style of music was pop standards, but she later made contemporary pop rock a significant part of her performances.^[8] Cantrell commented in a 1994 profile, "Think of how few people can still make their careers by singing standards.... There's Tony Bennett and Barbra Streisand, and I don't know anyone else."^[9]

Cantrell was a frequent guest on television shows including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and The Mike Douglas Show.^[3][9][10] However, she never had a top 40 hit in the Billboard Hot 100,^[11] hitting #63 in 1975 with "Like a Sunday Morning".

Cantrell eventually decided to make a transition out of music in the 1980s due to a decline in the number of venues where she could sing in her preferred style, the size of her audiences, and her working conditions.^[3][9] Although she had once been able to tour at supper clubs that would furnish a 20-piece orchestra for her and her conductor, in later years she toured with only a five-piece band that she had to pay herself.^[3] She decided to pursue a law career in part because a former manager had spent much of her earnings over the years and she wanted to protect other performers from similar experiences.^[3][9]

In 1986, Cantrell enrolled at Marymount Manhattan College, where she majored in history.^[9] After receiving her bachelor's degree, she attended Fordham University School of Law.^[9] After graduation, she began practicing law with the firm of Ballon Stoll Bader & Nadler in New York City.^[3]

In 2019, Cantrell's license to practice law in the state of New York was suspended due to an undisclosed medical condition.^[12] Before having her license suspended, she operated a private practice in Mattituck, NY.^[13]

In 1966, Cantrell won the Amber Nightingale award for singing at a festival in Sopot, Poland.^[14]

In 2003, Cantrell was named a member of the Order of Australia.^[15] The honour was conferred for "service to the entertainment industry, and for assistance to the Australian community in New York."^[1]

It was reported in 1973 that Cantrell was engaged to Australian television personality Graham Kennedy.^[16] This turned out to be a hoax.^[17] Kennedy later claimed that his romance with Cantrell was purely an invention of the Sunday Observer, although Kennedy himself had confirmed publicly at the time that the relationship was real.^[18] Judy Carne, of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In claimed she had a love affair with Cantrell.^[19]

Beginning in 2017, Lana Cantrell's RCA Victor albums have been reissued for the first time on compact disc in Hi-Res audio, replacing years of poor quality bootlegs on YouTube. Her six studio albums have been reissued from 2017 to 2019. All reissues were published by the RCA-Legacy label. Singles or B-sides that did not appear on her albums are not available at the moment.