Her mother supported her musical ambitions, but her father wasn't having it. One night, he showed up to a club...and pulled her off the stage by her ear. 'Who told you you could shake your booty?' DeSanto remembers him chastising her... 'That was funny,' she chuckles... 'Wasn't funny then, though.'
Still, DeSanto was undeterred. One night in 1954, when she competed in a talent show at the Fillmore Theater, Johnny Otis was in the audience...and he was taken by 19-year-old DeSanto's powerful voice and irrepressible charisma. Otis convinced her to go with him to Los Angeles, where she recorded her first singles.
Despite her youth and 4-foot-11-inch stature, DeSanto became a force to be reckoned with.... She says no. 'I took over the studio, honey,' she tells me. 'And a couple of times I put the drums over their head, you know, hittin' 'em across their head 'cause they pissed me off. I've always been very technical about my music.'
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