#71: Where Is My Man by Eartha Kitt

City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: February 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on French Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Swedish Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #6
YouTube: “Where Is My Man”
Lyrics: “Where Is My Man”

Eartha Mae Keith was born in 1927 in the the town of North, in central South Carolina. She has both Afro-American and Cherokee ancestry. After her mother died when she was a child, Eartha moved to live with an aunt (Mamie Kitty) in Harlem. She began her singing career at the age of 15 in 1943 as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company (the first African-American modern dance company). She went with the stage name Eartha Kitt. In 1948, she appeared in a film noir movie titled Casbah. In 1951, she recorded the Cole Porter standard “Let’s Do It”. The recording reached #12 in Australia in 1954. In 1953, Kitt recorded a Turkish folk song titled “Urska Dara” which cracked the Top 30. Later she recorded “C’est si bon” which charted to #8 on the Billboard pop chart. That winter she earned even greater success with the Christmas novelty tune “Santa Baby” which peaked at #4 on Billboard. In 1955, Eartha Kitt had a #7 hit in the UK with “Under the Bridges of Paris”.

“C’est si bon” was one of the tracks on Eartha Kitt’s
debut 1953 album That Bad Eartha

Eartha Kitt’s most successful charting single is “Santa Baby” from 1953

In 1957, Kitt appeared in Mark of the Hawk opposite Sidney Poitier.

While in 1958, in St. Louis Blues, Kitt starred alongside Nat “King” Cole, “Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson, Billy Preston, Pearl Bailey, Cab Calloway, and Ruby Dee.

Later that year, she starred opposite Sammy Davis Jr. in the film noir Anna Lucasta. She was in a few more films into the mid-60s, including Synanon opposite Chuck Connors. In 1960, Eartha Kitt received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Between 1952 and 1963, she appeared on 15 occasions on The Ed Sullivan Show. Between 1963 and 1978, she appeared on eight occasions as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She also appeared on 16 occasions on The Mike Douglas Show between 1964 and 1979.

In 1965, Eartha Kitt released her tenth studio album, Canta en Castellano. That year Kitt was part of a national tour of the play The Owl and the Pussycat. In 1965-66, she hosted a TV special titled The Eartha Kitt Show. In 1966, Eartha Kitt received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her role as Angel in the TV series I Spy.

Eartha Kitt as Angel in “The Loser” episode from NBCs I Spy TV series

In season 3 of Batman, Eartha Kitt played the role of the Catwoman (1967-68)

On January 18, 1968,  Kitt encountered a substantial professional setback after she made anti-war statements during a White House Luncheon. Kitt was asked by First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, about the Vietnam War. Kitty replied: “You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. No wonder the kids rebel and take pot.” During a question-and-answer session, Kitt stated: The children of America are not rebelling for no reason. They are not hippies for no reason at all. We don’t have what we have on Sunset Blvd. for no reason. They are rebelling against something. There are so many things burning the people of this country, particularly mothers. They feel they are going to raise sons – and I know what it’s like, and you have children of your own, Mrs. Johnson – we raise children and send them to war. Eartha Kitt’s remarks reportedly caused Mrs. Johnson to burst into tears. It is widely believed that Kitt’s career in the United States was ended following her comments about the Vietnam War, after which she was branded “a sadistic nymphomaniac” by the CIA.

In 1969, Eartha Kitt received a Grammy Award nomination for Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa in the Best Recording for Children category.

In 1971, Eartha Kitt appeared in a British comedy Up the Chastity Belt. While in 1975, she was cast in a blacksploitation flick titled Friday Foster. In 1978, Eartha Kitt was in the cast of Timbuktu! For her performance, Kitt received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.

In 1984, she released her twelfth studio album titled I Love Men. One of the tracks was titled “Where Is My Man”. She released it as a single.

“Where Is My Man” was written by Jacques Morelli, Fred Zarr, and Bruce Vilanch. Morelli was born in Paris, France, in 1947. By 1967 he was writing music for cabarets in Paris, including  for Le Crazy Horse de Paris. In the mid-70s, Morelli created an act called The Ritchie Family who went on to have dance chart hits “Brazil” and “Best Disco In Town”. While in New York, Morali attended a costume ball at “Les Mouches”, a gay disco in Greenwich Village. Seeing the types of costumes and some common ensembles worn by the party guests, the idea came to him to put together a group of singers and dancers, each one playing a different gay fantasy figure. The outcome was the creation of The Village People. The disco group went on to record the hits “YMCA”, “Macho Man”, “San Francisco (You’ve Got Me)”, and “Go West” (successfully covered by the Pet Shop Boys). Between 1974 and 1982 he recorded over 65 albums for musicians. He died at the age of 44 of AIDS-related causes while receiving AZT.

Frederick “Fred” I. Zarr was born in 1955 in Brooklyn (NY). In 1981 he provided synthesizers for Was Not Was on several tracks for their self-titled debut album. In 1983, he provided synthesizers for Freeze on their disco hit “I.O.U.”. He wrote, produced or provided keyboards for tracks recorded variously by Tina Turner, Carly Simon, Stacy Lattisaw, the Pointer Sisters, Whitney Houston, Dionne Warwick, Jody Watley, the Spinners, Sheena Easton, and Debbie Gibson.

Bruce Vilanch was born in New York City in 1947. He is Jewish and attended Hebrew School growing up. His career began writing features for the Chicago Tribune. In 1973 he wrote material for struggling comedian Bette Midler which became the Clams on the Half Shell Revue, playing at the Minskoff Theatre in Manhattan (1973-74). He later wrote material for Midler’s 1980 film Divine Madness. In 1975 he was cast as a dress manufacturer in the Diana Ross film Mahogany. He later writer material for The Donny & Marie Show, The Paul Lynne Halloween Special, and the Brady Bunch Variety Hour. By the late 70s he was writing material for Lily Tomlin, Billy Crystal, Rosanne Barr, Rosie O’Donnell, Elizabeth Taylor, Robin Williams and others. In 1983, he appeared in a minor role in the Richard Gere film Breathless. In 2000, Vilanch performed his off-Broadway one-man show Bruce Vilanch: Almost Famous at the Westbeth Theatre Center. In 2005, Vilanch starred on Broadway as Edna Turnblad in the long-running 2002 musical Hairspray after playing the role for two years in the show’s first national stage tour of 2003–6. In 2008, Vilanch co-wrote The Showgirl Must Go On with Midler. From 1989 to 2014, Vilanch wrote for the Academy Awards. He has also been a featured writer for the Tony Awards, Grammy Awards and the Emmy Awards.

“Where Is My Man” is a song about a certain woman’s anticipation of the arrival of a man in her life who has the nerve to take her and win her heart and satisfy her desires. Until that time, she spends “hours by the phone” and chews her “fingers to the bone” as she wonders “Where is my man?” In the past she’s dated some men who turned out to be “zeros.” She has a list of things she demands from her imagined suitor:
1) A man who will buy her things she so richly deserves
2) Summers by the sea: for example the Hamptons, Malibu or Capri
3) A man who comes alive when he gets near Rodeo Drive

In anticipation for her man, she looks for possible signs of such a man with a) an ascot, b) a big cigar, OR c) a guy who has sent his driver in expensive car to pick her up.

“Where Is My Man” peaked at #1 in Newton (MA), #2 in Montreal, and #4 in Miami. Internationally, “Where Is My Man” peaked #1 in Greece, #2 in France, #5 in Sweden and #6 in Belgium and South Africa, and #12 in the Netherlands.

In 1995, Eartha Kitt received a Grammy Award nomination for her recording of Back in Business in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance category. In the late 1990s, Kitt was cast as the Wicked Witch of the West in a touring company performance of The Wizard of Oz. Her 1998-99 tour included extended performances in New York City, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary (AB), Phoenix, San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston and other cities. In 1998, she voiced Bagheera in the live-action direct-to-video Disney film The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story.

In 2000, Kitt received a second Tony Award nomination in the Best Featured Actress in a Musical category for The Wild Party. As well, she received a Drama Desk Award nomination for this performance. In 2000 and 2004, she played the Fairy Godmother in a stage production of Cinderella. In 2007, Eartha Kitt appeared in her 31st and final feature-length film, a romantic comedy titled And Then Came Love. That year she appeared in her 36th musical stage performance titled All About Us.

Over the decades, Eartha Kitt appeared in Mission Impossible (1967 TV series), The Dick Cavett Show, Hollywood Squares, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, The Chris Rock Show, Miami Vice, Police Woman, and The Mere Griffin Show among others. She has been the subject of four documentaries: All by Myself: The Eartha Kitt Story (1982), a documentary about the fashion industry Unzipped (1995), and two others.

April 30, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Adrian Jack, “Obituary: Eartha Kitt,” Guardian, December 26, 2008.
“From the Archives: Eartha Kitt dies at 81; TV’s Catwoman, sultry singer of ‘Santa Baby’,” Los Angeles Times, December 26, 2008.
DeNeen L. Brown, “Sex Kitten vs. Lady Bird: the day Eartha Kitt Attacked the Vietnam War at the White House,” Washington Post, January 19, 2018.
“Mickey Rooney/Eartha Kitt Oz Opens in NY, May 6,” Playbill, May 6, 1998.
Jacque Morali: Music Executive,” Prabook.
Simon Chong, “Need a Joke? Get Bruce! Hollywood’s Best Kept Secret Tonight on Bite,” Bite, February 11, 2011.

CKOI 96.9 FM Montreal (PQ) Top Ten | February 17, 1984