Great song. You must have just gotten out of high school when this was released, eh Pigmeat? Great memories for you, I bet.
Gogi Grant, Who Knocked Elvis Off Top of Chart, Dies at 91
By DANIEL E. SLOTNIKMARCH 16, 2016
Gogi Grant, whose rendition of “The Wayward Wind” replaced Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” on top of the Billboard singles chart in 1956, died on Thursday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91.
Her death was announced by her family.
In the early 1950s, Ms. Grant released three RCA Victor records before she made her first hit, “Suddenly There’s a Valley,” in 1955. A sentimental ballad, backed by Buddy Bregman’s orchestra, it was recorded for the small Era label and peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard chart.
Ms. Grant recorded “The Wayward Wind,” a ballad about a woman yearning for her wandering beloved, as an afterthought in the final minutes of a long recording session devoted to the single “Who Are We.” Herb Newman, the owner of the Era label, gave Ms. Grant the song, which he had written with a college classmate, Stan Lebowsky.
“Who Are We” failed to climb higher than No. 62 on the Billboard chart, but “The Wayward Wind,” the flip side, overtook “Heartbreak Hotel.” The song was later recorded by Sam Cooke, Patsy Cline, the Everly Brothers and many others.
Ms. Grant’s clear, lush voice also won her film roles. She did the singing for the actress Ann Blyth in her title role in Michael Curtiz’s “The Helen Morgan Story” (1957), which also starred Paul Newman. She played a young singer in “The Big Beat” (1958), a film that also featured Fats Domino and other performers.
Ms. Grant stopped touring and recording in 1967 to take care of her family. She returned to performing in the mid-1980s.
She was born Myrtle Audrey Arinsberg in Philadelphia on Sept. 20, 1924. Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was 12. She won talent contests as a teenager but never seriously considered a music career until she won a weeklong singing engagement on a Los Angeles television show, drawing the attention of record labels.
By her account her agent suggested that she adopt the surname Grant because it had worked so well for the actor Cary Grant; the name Gogi (rhymes with Yogi) was invented by David Kapp at RCA Victor, she said. (She thought it was probably derived from Gogi’s LaRue, a restaurant Mr. Kapp frequented in New York.)
Survivors include a daughter, Jeri Brown; a son, Joshua Beckett, and two granddaughters.
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