Georgia Gibbs

Another scratchy 78 from the coal shed. Bluesy big band singer from the USA. Ive not heard of her before I must admit but she seems to have been very popular back in the 40's 50's.

Wikipedia says -

"Gibbs was born Frieda Lipschitz, in Worcester, Massachusetts, the youngest of four children of Russian Jewish descent.[2] Her father died when she was six months old, and she spent her first seven years in an orphanage in Worcester, separated from her other siblings.

She revealed a natural talent for singing at a young age, and was given the lead in the orphanage's yearly variety show. She was reunited with her mother (who had visited her once every other month) when the latter found employment as a midwife. However, her job often forced her to leave her daughter alone for weeks at a time with only a Philco radio for company.

Gibbs began her professional career at the age of thirteen, and was singing in Boston's Raymor Ballroom the following year. She recorded her first record with the Hudson-DeLange Orchestra in 1936 (aged 16 or 17). "You don't really know loneliness unless you do a year or two with a one-night band, Gibbs said of her life on the big band circuit, "sing until about 2 a.m. Get in a bus and drive 400 miles. Stop in the night for the greasy hamburger. Arrive in a town. Try to sleep. Get up and eat." (Worcester Telegram & Gazette, May 12, 1994.)

She soon found steady work on radio shows including Your Hit Parade, Melody Puzzles and The Tim And Irene Show. Gibbs freelanced in the late 1930s and 1940s singing with the bands of Frankie Trumbauer, Hal Kemp, Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw. It was with Shaw's band (then billed as Fredda Gibson) that she scored her first hit, "Absent Minded Moon" (1942).

In 1943, she changed her name to Georgia Gibbs and began appearing on the 'Camel Caravan' radio program, hosted by Jimmy Durante and Garry Moore. It was Moore who bestowed the famous nickname "Her Nibs, Miss Georgia Gibbs" upon her; the nickname was a playful reference to her diminutive stature of barely over five feet tall. She was a regular performer on this show until 1947."


Georgia Gibbs - Seven Lonely Days