The voice of "Her Nibs, Miss Georgia Gibbs" was a big part of my childhood. "Kiss of Fire" is one I fondly remember, and in fact I have a CD of Gibbs' greatest hits. She had a terrific voice, and she was still performing until fairly recently. She felt she'd been unfairly attacked to covering the records of black artists, and it's a shame that she's best remembered for doing that.
'50s Pop Singer Georgia Gibbs Dies at 87 - Forbes.com: "Georgia Gibbs, a versatile singer who starred on the popular show 'Your Hit Parade' and reached the top of the charts in the 1950s with covers of songs by black artists, has died. She was 87.
Gibbs died Saturday at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, family friend Leslie Gottlieb said. The cause was complications from leukemia.
Among her 15 Top 40 hits, mostly for Mercury Records, was the tango-based 'Kiss of Fire,' which went to No. 1 in 1952.
But she is known historically - and controversially - as one of the whites who gained success in the 1950s covering rhythm and blues hits by black artists, sometimes upstaging the original versions with sanitized lyrics."
2 comments:
"Seven Lonely Days" was another one I loved. I think her version was the hit, and it deserved to be.
No surprise there, Allan. Not that I blame you one bit.
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