Thelma Carpenter was singing on the "Kiddies Hour" radio show at age five and by 11 had her own show on WNYC. She was 16 when she got hired as vocalist for the new Teddy Wilson Orchestra. The band lasted less than a year, but Thelma managed to cut her first sides with them, two of which are heard here, the bouncy "Love Grows on the White Oak Tree" and the more tender "This Is the Moment," recorded in 1939. As luck would have it, Coleman Hawkins was returning from a five-year stay in Europe, and Thelma joined his new band later that same year, resulting in the now-classic recording of "She's Funny That Way".