Georgia Gibbs
A constant visitor to the charts in the first half of the 1950s, Georgia Gibbs failed to leave as strong an imprint as many of her fellow stars, at least in part because of her versatility. She did ballads, straight pop, novelties, pop-jazz, cha-chas -- whatever the marketplace might take, she could adapt. In the mid-'50s she, like many other white pop singers, covered R&B hits for the pop audience. Today's she's most remembered for outselling Etta James (with a cover of "The Wallflower," renamed "Dance with Me Henry") and LaVern Baker (on "Tweedle Dee"), although this phase of her career was pretty brief.
Gibbs began singing in Boston ballrooms as a teenager and made her recording debut in 1938 under her given name, Fredda Gibson. She made some recordings in the early '40s with Artie Shaw's band and by the early '50s had waxed some hits for the Coral label. She enjoyed her commercial prime, though, on Mercury, for whom she recorded hit after hit from 1951 to 1956. The tango-tinged "Kiss of Fire," which went all the way to number one in 1952, was the biggest and best of these. Her very white, pop-oriented takes on "Tweedle Dee" (late 1954) and "Dance with Me Henry" (early 1955) are what she remains most notorious for. And with some good reason: although it would be ridiculous to blame Gibbs for singing material that Mercury selected for her, these covers stole a lot of the thunder from the gutsier original performers, at a time when rock & roll was struggling to gain a foothold in the pop mainstream.
In any case, Gibbs' days on the hit parade were numbered. She never entered the Top 20 again after 1955 and left shortly Mercury afterwards, partially because her A&R men (Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore) had left the label. After a brief and unsuccessful stint at RCA, she had her last Top 40 hit, "The Hula Hoop Song," for Roulette in 1958. She curtailed her professional activities considerably in the 1960s, though she remained active to some degree through the ensuing decades, finally succumbing to complications from leukemia on December 9, 2006, when she was 87 years old.
© Richie Unterberger /TiVo
Artistas semelhantes
-
The Hula Hoop Song (Billboard Hot 100 - No. 32)
Rock - Lançado por Music Manager em 19/12/2018
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Best Of Georgia Gibbs: The Mercury Years
Pop - Lançado por Mercury Records em 01/01/1996
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Georgia Gibbs: Rare Recordings of a Timeless Voice
Jazz - Lançado por Stardom Records em 14/04/2023
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hit List - Kiss of Fire
Pop - Lançado por Jasmine Records em 10/07/2015
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Anthology: The Definitive Collection (Remastered)
Pop - Lançado por Master Tape Records em 17/04/2020
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Georgia Gibbs: All The Hits! (Remastered)
Pop - Lançado por RevOla em 30/07/2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Kiss Of Fire (Billboard Hot 100 - No. 01)
World - Lançado por Music Manager em 19/12/2018
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kiss of Fire - Georgia Gibbs
Jazz - Lançado por ISIS em 17/01/2022
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dance With Me Henry
Pop - Lançado por Golden Jazzsingers em 20/11/2015
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Nostalgic Memories-The Very Best Of Georgia Gibbs-Vol. 25
Jazz - Lançado por RP-DSP em 25/10/2011
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
It's Her Nibs! Miss Georgia Gibbs! (Remastered)
Pop - Lançado por RevOla em 21/07/2020
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kiss Of Fire - Seven Lonely Days
Rock - Lançado por uni-lprecords em 13/05/2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Red Hot Georgia Gibbs
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Lançado por Sepia em 28/04/2003
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Her Favourite Songs
Vocal Jazz - Lançado por Turntable Recordings em 22/06/2015
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kiss Me Another (Billboard Hot 100 - No. 30)
Alternative & Indie - Lançado por Music Manager em 19/12/2018
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Live On The Ed Sullivan Show 1949-1960
Pop - Lançado por SOFA - AV Catalog DD em 08/12/2023
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Greats Balls of Fire
Rock - Lançado por STARS LEGACY em 31/10/2021
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Great Balls of Fire
Rockabilly - Lançado por Hot Dog em 02/06/2015
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I Want You to Be My Baby (Billboard Hot 100 - No 14)
Jazz - Lançado por Music Manager em 05/11/2020
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
What a Peach !
Pop - Lançado por Jasmine Records em 12/07/2013
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo