Guy Mitchell

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Guy Mitchell
Background information
Birth name Albert George Cernik
Born February 22, 1927, Detroit, Michigan, United States
Died July 1, 1999
Genre(s) Big band, Traditional Pop
Years active 1947-1960s
Label(s) Decca, King, Columbia, Philips
Website AGREATGUY.net

Guy Mitchell (February 22, 1927-July 1, 1999) was a Croatian-American pop singer, who as well as his homeland was extremely successful in the United Kingdom and Australia. As an international recording star of the 1950s he achieved record sales in excess of 44 million units and this included six million-selling singles.

[edit] Life and career

He was born Albert George Cernik, son of immigrants from Croatia, in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of 11, he was signed by Warner Brothers Pictures, to be groomed as a child star, and he also performed on the radio on Station KFWB in Los Angeles, California. After leaving school, he worked as a saddlemaker, but supplemented his income by singing whenever he could. At this point in his life, Dude Martin, who had a country music broadcast in San Francisco, noticed him and hired him to perform with his band. He served in the United States Navy for two years, and after leaving the service became a singer with Carmen Cavallaro's big band. In 1947 he made some recordings for Decca with Cavallaro's band, but had to leave due to a case of food poisoning. He eventually went to New York City, and made several records for King Records under the name Al Grant. He won on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts radio show during this time.

Mitch Miller, who was in charge of talent at Columbia Records, noted Cernik in 1950, and he joined Columbia and got his new stage name at Miller's urging: Miller is supposed to have said, "my name is 'Mitchell' and you seem a nice 'guy', so we'll call you Guy Mitchell."

In the 1950s and 1960s he acted in movies as well as singing. He did movies with Teresa Brewer and Rosemary Clooney. In 1957 he had his own television show.

His first hit was 1951's "My Heart Cries for You".

Though he is considered an average pop singer, many of his songs have a decided rock beat to them, including "Knee Deep in the Blues", "Heartaches By the Number", "Rock-a-Billy", "The Same Old Me" and his biggest hit, "Singing the Blues", which was number one for 10 weeks in 1956.

In 2007, he would have celebrated his 80th birthday anniversary. To commemorate his musical legacy and this landmark year the British division of Sonybmg release "The Essential Collection" CD.

[edit] Best known songs

[edit] External links

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