Georgia Gibbs Kiss of Fire: The Georgia Gibbs Hit List

One of the finest singers of her era, Georgia Gibbs' mellifluous, jazz-tinged voice provided a clear link to the Big Band era she'd grown up in, long before she became an unlikely 50s Pop star. Indeed, she was already in her thirties when she registered her first hit, in 1950, with the much-covered "If I Knew You Were Comin' (I'd've Baked A Cake), which made the US Top 5. A highly versatile singer, Georgia became briefly notorious in the mid 50s for her unlikely covers of R&B hits by LaVern Baker ("Tweedle Dee", "Tra La La"), Etta James ("The Wallflower" aka Dance With Me Henry), Louis Jordan ("I Want You To Be My Baby"), Cathy Ryan ("24 Hours A Day (365 A Year)"), etc, although she also successfully covered C&W material (Bonnie Lou's "Seven Lonely Days") and even R&R (Jerry Lewis "Great Balls Of Fire"). Between 1950-1958, she chalked up no less than Twenty-Eight US hit records, including two US #1s, "Kiss Of Fire" and "Dance With Me Henry", all of which appear on this unique compilation. Surprisingly, perhaps, several of these sides are making their first appearance on CD herein. Gibbs unexpectedly retired from singing in the mid 60s whilst she was still very much at the peak of her popularity, fronting her own TV series, and she never recorded again, despite being inundated with offers.