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Kitty Kallen was a band singer, and later a soloist, who lit up bandstands with a handful of top leaders during the '40s. She's remembered for three reasons: big-band fans know that she was the one who replaced Helen O'Connell in the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra in 1943, also that she sang the vocal chorus on a pair of Harry James hits, "I'm Beginning to See the Light" and "It's Been a Long, Long Time," and virtually everyone with a radio in 1954 knew that she recorded the year's most popular song, "Little Things Mean a Lot." Her career lasted more than 20 years, but it was sporadic at best, with the major successes listed above virtually the only popularity she achieved. Born in Philadelphia in 1922, she was a gifted mimic who won talent shows and also appeared on children's radio shows by the mid-'30s. Kallen was still a teenager when she began singing with bands (including Jan Savitt and Artie Shaw), and she earned her first full-time role in 1940 with Jack Teagarden's Orchestra. Two yea...