Joanie in Japanese.

Jazz critic Gil Hunter has praised Joanie Sommers' eclectic career thusly: "Joanie Sommers successfully juggles several show-biz careers: Top-Ten pop singer ("One Boy," "Dr. No," "Johnny Get Angry," etc.), cultural icon (Official Voice of the Pepsi Generation), comedienne, actress, and a much-admired jazz singer." However, he missed an entire aspect of her career -- cartoon voice acting -- which has received little public attention. Until now.

I spoke with Joanie at the 1,500 seat Orange Coast College Theater as she was about to run through some new charts with Randy van Horne's Alumni Orchestra in preparation for an evening concert.

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Will Ryan: Joanie, most jazz writers and music critics who praise your voice seem to be unaware of your work as a voice-over artist.

Joanie Sommers: You're telling me! My current agent doesn't even know about it, because he only books concerts. Most people in the business, though, still seem to know that I did all those Pepsi jingles.

WR: Well, the voice is unmistakable. Not only did you lead the world into the Pepsi Generation, but you introduced Diet Pepsi to a parched public.

JS: I guess somebody had to do it.

WR: Joanie, you've worked with most of the great names of the cartoon voice world. Any stand out to you?

JS: I probably had the most fun with Mel Blanc, because it was on-camera. And the rest of the cast was fun too.

WR: Was this with Jack Benny?

JS: And Peter Lorre. The real Peter Lorre. Not Paul Frees, who did the Peter Lorre sound-alike on "My Old Flame" with Spike Jones.

WR: And you should know, because you worked with Paul Frees, too.

JS: Who didn't in those days?

WR: Come to think of it, even Peter Lorre did. They both performed together as "Peter Lorre" on a Spike Jones radio show.

JS: I guess that was before my time. I just realized I worked on a movie with Paul Frees where neither of our voices were actually heard.

WR: I give up. How'd that come about?

JS: In my first movie, Everything's Ducky, I played opposite Mickey Rooney. His best pal was Buddy Hackett, and Paul Frees was originally the voice of their talking duck.

WR: Based on the Shakespeare play, I gather.

JS: Of course. Post-production happened while I was performing in Hawaii. I couldn't fly back in time, so my lines had to be looped by someone else!

WR: That's crazy! You have such a distinctive and appealing voice.

JS: Thank you, Terwilliger. Anyway, then they wanted something different with the duck too. So Walker Edmistun replaced Paul Frees' voice. Walker did a fine job, of course, but all things considered, this is not my favorite motion picture.