Gogi GRANT 1955-56

Gogi Grant, one of the premier singers of the 50's and 60's, was born in Philadelphia, September 20, 1924. She moved to Los Angeles, California with her parents and three siblings in 1936, where her youngest brother and sister were born.

Gogi began her singing career in 1952 as Audrey Brown, renamed Gogi Grant by RCA-Victor executive Dave Kapp when she was signed to that label. Her efforts for RCA failed to chart, but she continued to perfom in night clubs and hotels throughout the country until 1955 when she signed with an independent record company called Era. Her first release for Era Records was "Suddenly There's A Valley," rising to number nine on the charts. "The Wayward Wind" was recorded in the last fifteen minutes of her next studio session and in June, 1956, it replaced Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" in the number one until July 28, when Presley's "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" took the spot. The All Music Book of Hit Singles ranks "The Wayward Wind" number 36 in the United states amongst thousands of recordings over a period of fifty years.

In 1956 Warner Bros. musical director Ray Heindorf and movie director Michael Curtiz selected Gogi to be the singing voice of Helen Morgan in the studio's biopic of the legendary singer, starring Ann Blyth and Paul Newman. The soundtrack of "The Helen Morgan Story" led Gogi back to RCA Victor, who released the album to much acclaim.

Between 1956 and 1970 Grant made some fifteen albums. Until her retirement in 1967, she appeared steadily in night clubs, hotels, and concert halls, and scored of T.V. shows, including three guest solos on the Academy Awards presentations.

Gogi GRANT 1958

Gogi Grant (born Myrtle Audrey Arinsberg, September 20, 1924) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the age of twelve she moved to Los Angeles, California. In California she won a teenage singing contest and appeared on television talent shows. In 1952 she began to record, using first the name "Audrey Brown" and later "Audrey Grant". She was given the name "Gogi" by Dave Kapp, the head of Artists and Repertory at RCA Records, who liked to patronize a restaurant called "Gogi's LaRue."

In 1955 she signed with a small record company, Era Records, and had her first top ten hit with "Suddenly There's a Valley." The next year, she had an even bigger hit (reaching Billboard magazine's number one spot) with "The Wayward Wind" and she was voted most popular female vocalist by Billboard magazine.
In 1957 she supplied the vocals for Ann Blyth in the movie portrayal of Helen Morgan's life. The soundtrack occasioned her return to RCA (the soundtrack album climbed to #25 in the Billboard album chart), where she also had a minor hit the following year with "Strange Are the Ways of Love".
Although she made albums and appeared on television into the 1960s, her popularity declined and she retired from singing in 1967, nevertheless an album of hers was released in England some twenty years later.

Miss Grant is still performing, currently she headlined with The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies in Palm Springs, California. Her last show was on December 31, 2006 with the Follies, and she continues to perform well into her 80s.

Gogi GRANT

Here is the Gogi Grant Japanese lookalike I found.