Gogi Grant

Gogi Grant 2006

Gogi Grant (actually Myrtle Audrey Arinsberg ; born September 20, 1924 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † March 10, 2016 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American pop singer . Her biggest hit was the number one hit The Wayward Wind in 1956.

life and career

Myrtle Arinsberg was born into a Jewish family, the oldest of six children. Her parents, Rose (née Jacobson) and Alexander Arinsberg, were either of Russian or Anglo-German descent, according to various sources. At the age of twelve, she and her family moved to Los Angeles, where they attended Venice High School. She won a teenage singing competition and appeared on talent shows on California television. Ruth Etting and Russ Columbo are her role models . In high school she learned typewriter and stenotype, and wanted to become a teacher or commercial artist.

In the early 1950s she worked as a car saleswoman. She soon made her first vocal recordings under the pseudonyms Audrey Brown and Audrey Grant . After making a demo recording of the song I'm Yours at the Gold Star Studio , she was signed to RCA Victor . She got the name Gogi from Dave Kapp, the head of the A&R department at RCA Victor, who didn't think the name Audrey Grant would be suitable for a singing star. Apparently he was a regular at a restaurant called Gogi's LaRue , which is why he suggested that first name. Grant told another version in a newspaper article; then she asked Kapp what Gogi meant. He replied that he had no idea, he just dreamed about it at night. Under the name Gogi Grant, RCA Victor released the single Forget Me Not / Where There's Smoke, There's Fire in 1952 .

In 1954, Kapp left RCA Victor and founded his own label, Kapp Records . Grant knew the band leader and composer Buddy Bregman , and in 1955 he brokered them for the small record company Era Records, which had recently been founded . Their third single (catalog number 45-1003) was Grants Suddenly There's a Valley . The song entered the charts in October 1955 and reached the top ten. The following year, Grant and Bregman recorded a song in 15 minutes of a studio session that Era Records founder Herb Newman had written with a fellow student at UCLA. It was - like Suddenly There's a Valley - originally intended for a male singer; Grant changed the lyrics a little, and Bregman's orchestra provided the instrumental accompaniment. With the previously recorded single Who Are We only reaching number 62 on the charts, The Wayward Wind was quickly released and Grant had their biggest hit. He reached number one on the Billboard charts on June 16, 1956 , where he replaced Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel at the highest position. The Wayward Wind stayed at the top of the charts for six weeks. The single (released on Era 45-1013) sold more than a million copies in the United States alone and reached number nine in the UK singles chart . Grant was voted Most Popular Singer by Billboard. Afterwards she was unable to build on the success of her hit; In 1956 and 1958 she only had three more hits in the US singles top 100 with the highest ranking 69.

For the film The Helen Morgan Story , a portrait of jazz singer Helen Morgan , Grant took on the vocal parts for actress Ann Blyth , who played the title role, in 1957 . The soundtrack under the musical direction of Ray Heindorf was released by RCA Victor and reached number 25 on the US album charts. An EP with songs from the soundtrack and Grant's next singles were also released again on RCA Victor; Strange Are the Ways of Love became a minor hit. Grant was engaged in the spring of 1957 as an actress for the music film The Big Beat , in which she played the role of singer Cindy Adams alongside William Reynolds and Andra Martin . Another EP was released from Grant's songs. Well-known artists such as the Cal Tjader Quintet, George Shearing and the Del Vikings also appeared in the film; it was released in American cinemas in February 1958.

In the same year Grant was next to Howard Keel and Anne Jeffreys solo singer on the LP with the first stereo recording of the musical Show Boat ; The same line-up played a recording of Kiss Me, Kate the following year , from this LP four songs were released on an EP on the German market. Two duets and one solo each by Tony Martin and Gogi Grant were on the EP Gigi, also released in 1958, with songs from the film of the same name . In 1959 she moved to Liberty Records . The Wayward Wind was first re-released by Era Records in April 1961, this time reaching number 50 on the charts. The song was released several times in later years as singles, without being considered with hit parade successes.

Grant continued to release records and appear on television until the late 1960s, but its popularity fell. After she had one last hit parade in 1967 - the single The Sea reached the Top 20 on the Billboard Easy Listening Charts - she retired from the music business for two decades and looked after her family. In 1987 she resumed her singing career and her album Granted… It's Gogi was re-released in Great Britain that same year . In 2004, at the age of 80, she sang her hit The Wayward Wind on the PBS show Magic Moments . She was a key player in The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies , a music revue in Palm Springs . She was on stage until 2013, at the age of 89.

Private

In January 1959, Grant married her second husband, lawyer Robert Rifkind.
She had recovered from an old age cancer operation. She died in Los Angeles on March 10, 2016 at the age of 91.

Discography

Singles

year	title	Chart position
		US	UK
1955	Suddenly There's a Valley	9	-
1956	Who Are We	62	-
	The Wayward Wind	1	9
	You're In Love / When the Tide Is High	69 75	- -
1958	Strange Are the Ways of Love	80	-
1961	The Wayward Wind (re-release)	50	-

More singles:

• 1952: Forget Me Not
• 1952: Mommy's Little Angel , The Three Suns featuring Gogi Grant
• 1953; Everyone Knows I Love You
• 1956: Secret Love ( EP )
• 1956: Gogi Grant (EP, UK only)
• 1957: It's a Wonderful Thing to Be Loved
• 1957: The Helen Morgan Story (EP)
• 1957: Johnny's Dream
• 1957: The Golden Ladder
• 1958: Bonjour tristesse
• 1958: I Gave You My Heart
• 1958: Kiss Me, Kate (EP, with Howard Keel and Anne Jeffreys , DE)
• 1958: How Do We Know We're In Love
• 1958: Gigi (EP; Gogi Grant & Tony Martin )
• 1959: Say a Prayer for Me Tonight (B-side: Tony Martin, She Is Not Thinking of Me (Waltz at Maxim's) ; UK only)
• 1958: The Big Beat (EP)
• 1959: Two Dreams
• 1959: (Kiss Me) Honey, Honey (Kiss Me) (UK and Australia)
• 1959: The Ride Back from Boot Hill
• 1959: I'll Never Smile Again
• 1960: All God's Children Got Shoes
• 1960: Stay Here with Me
• 1960: Goin 'Home (UK)
• 1961: That One Kiss
• 1961: Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye
• 1962: Magic Music
• 1963: Send Him Back to Me
• 1963: Tender Is the Night
• 1963: The Image of Your Face
• 1963: Here Comes the Heartache Again
• 1964: Dear Friend (UK)
• 1966: Pathfinder
• 1967: The Sea
• 1968: Down Here on the Ground
• 1969: Padre
• 1969: Buy Me Penny Candy

Albums

• 1957: Suddenly There's Gogi Grant ( Era , US; London , UK)
• 1958: The Helen Morgan Story (UK: Both Ends of the Candle ) ( RCA Victor )
• 1958: Welcome to My Heart (RCA Victor)
• 1958: Torch Time (RCA Victor)
• 1958: Show Boat , with Howard Keel , Anne Jeffreys and Henri René and His Orchestra (RCA Victor)
• 1958: Songs from the Motion Picture Gigi , with Tony Martin and Dennis Farnon 's Orchestra (RCA Victor)
• 1959: Kiss Me Kate , with Howard Keel, Anne Jeffreys and Henri René and His Orchestra (RCA Victor)
• 1960: Granted It's Gogi (RCA Victor)
• 1960: If You Want to Get to Heaven, Shout! ( Liberty )
• 1961: The Wayward Wind (Era)
• 1964: City Girl in the Country (CRC Charter)
• 1968: Gogi Grant (Pete)
• 1970: The Way a Woman Feels (Pete)
• 2009: With All My Heart (Jasmine)

Web links

Commons : Gogi Grant  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Gogi Grant in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Gogi Grant at Discogs (English)
• The Story and Music of Gogi Grant (English)
• Gogi Grant Biography (English)

Notes and evidence

1. ↑ entry for Myrtle Arinsberg at FamilySearch.org, accessed on 12 March 2016th
2. ↑ Francis D. McKinley: Gogi Grant Biography at mjusicianguide.com, accessed May 22, 2019.
3. ↑ Grant, Gogi. In: Donald Clarke (Ed.): The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music. London 1989/1990, ISBN 0-14-051147-4 , p. 484.
4. ↑ Her married name, according to Fred Bronson: The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. 3rd edition, Billboard Publications, New York 1992, ISBN 0-8230-8298-9 , p. 11.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Erskine Johnson: In Hollywood Today. In: The Lawton Constitution and Morning Press. August 4, 1957 ( Newspapers.com ); Retrieved May 17, 2019.
6. ↑ Both versions are also from Fred Bronson: The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. 3rd edition, Billboard Publications, New York 1992, ISBN 0-8230-8298-9 , p. 11.
7. ↑ Entry for Forget Me Not at 45cat.com, accessed May 21, 2019.
8. ^ Joseph Murrells: The Book of Golden Discs. 2nd edition, Barrie and Jenkins Ltd., London 1978, ISBN 0-214-20512-6 , p. 82.
9. ^ David Roberts: British Hit Singles & Albums. 19th edition, Guinness World Records Limited, London 2006, ISBN 1-904994-10-5 , p. 234
10. ^ Greg Prato: Gogi Grant on All Music Guides, accessed May 18, 2019.
11. ↑ Entry on the soundtrack in: Joel Whitburn, The Billboard Book of Top 40 Albums. Revised and enlarged ed., New York 1991, ISBN 0-8230-7534-6 , p. 298.
12. ↑ In Great Britain the film and soundtrack were released under the title Both Ends of the Candle , compare Both Ends of the Candle at 45worlds.com, accessed on May 20, 2019.
13. ↑ EP The Helen Morgan Story at 45cat.com, accessed May 20, 2019.
14. ↑ The Big Beat EP at 45cat.com, accessed May 22, 2019.
15. ↑ Show Boat at 45worlds.com, accessed May 22, 2019.
16. ^ Kiss Me, Kate EP at 45cat.com, accessed May 22, 2019.
17. ↑ Gigi EP at 45cat.com, accessed May 22, 2019.
18. ↑ Mike Barnes: "The Wayward Wind" Singer Gogi Grant Dies at 91. In: The Hollywood Reporter. March 13, 2016, accessed May 22, 2019.
19. ↑ Gogi Grant Wed In: The Lincoln Star. January 26, 1959 from newspapers.com, accessed May 22, 2019.
20. ^ Daniel E. Slotnik: Gogi Grant, Who Knocked Elvis Off Top of Chart, Dies at 91. In: The New York Times. March 16, 2016, accessed May 22, 2019.
21. ^ Joel Whitburn: Top Pop Singles 1955-2002 , 1st edition, Record Research Inc., Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin 2003, ISBN 0-89820-155-1 , p. 289.
22. ^ Graham Betts: Complete UK Hit Singles 1952-2004 , 1st edition, Collins, London 2004, ISBN 0-00-717931-6 , p. 328.
23. ↑ from the film Accused of Murder , entry You're In Love at 45cat.com, accessed on May 20, 2019