Savannah Churchill was born in Colfax, Louisiana on August 21, 1920 but moved to Brooklyn, New York, at a young age, where she was raised and continued to live throughout her life. Distinguished as her name Churchill was, she preferred her maiden name of Savannah Valentine, which fit her sultry and romantic jazz voice that lit up the charts in the late 1940s.
Savannah Churchill got to Jamie Records through Gale Records in New York, at first for Gale Records to record for Jamie a single of “Time Out For Tears” b/w “I Want to Be Loved,” which Jamie released as Jamie 1172 on October 18. 1960. Though it was not a hit, Jamie contracted with Goldie Goldmark of Gale Records to record an album, which became the LP release, Time Out For Tears, which Jamie put out as LP 3016.
Many of the songs on the album, as well as the Jamie single, were rerecordings of Savannah Churchill’s top-selling R&B recordings of the late 1940s on Manor Records. In May 1947, “I Want To Be Loved,” which Savannah Churchill herself wrote, became the No. 1 hit on the Billboard Jukebox Race Records Chart and stayed there for eight weeks. It got to No. 23 on pop charts, as well.
Her other Manor recordings on the Jamie LP include “Foolishly Yours” and “Is It Too Late.”
Savannah’s Jamie recordings had strings and extensive orchestral arrangements by Robert Mersey. It was an effort to revive her career after a long convalescence required by a freak accident in which a spectator fell on her on stage at the Midwood Club in Brooklyn in 1956. Never fully recovered from the accident, Savannah Churchill died April 19, 1974 in Brooklyn, New York.
