Teri Thornton, a talented but under-appreciated jazz vocalist who died more than a decade ago, had a  career that was varied and unconventional to say the least. Although she’s probably most remembered for her successful recording of “Somewhere in the Night,” (the theme for the TV show Naked City) she went through a lot of ups and downs in her career. Among them were time spent as an anonymous singer in TV commercials, early solo success followed by decades of obscurity, and finally a solid comeback in her later years.

Born in Detroit as Shirley Enid Avery, she began appearing in local clubs during the 1950s, moving to New York in the following decade. By then she was using the name Teri Thornton and she found work singing TV ads before eventually managing to make some good records of her own.  She soon gained the respect of solid jazz…