Guy Mitchell

Born of Croatian immigrants in Detroit, Michigan, at age 11 he was signed by Warner Brothers Pictures, to be a child star, and performed on the radio on KFWB in Los Angeles, California. After leaving school, he worked as a saddlemaker, supplementing his income by singing. Dude Martin, who had a country music broadcast in San Francisco, hired him for his band.

Mitchell served in the United States Navy for two years in World War II, then sang with Carmen Cavallaro's big band. In 1947 he recorded for Decca with Cavallaro's band, but left due to food poisoning. He went next to New York City and made records for King Records as Al Grant (one, "Cabaret", appeared in the Variety charts). He won on the radio show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts in 1949 as a soloist.[2]

Mitch Miller, in charge of talent at Columbia Records, noticed Cernik in 1950. He joined Columbia and took his new stage name at Miller's urging: Miller supposedly said, "my name is 'Mitchell' and you seem a nice 'guy', so we'll call you Guy Mitchell." Bob Merrill wrote hits for Mitchell.[3] In the 1950s and 1960s Mitchell acted in such movies as Those Redheads From Seattle (1953) and Red Garters (1954). He appeared in "Choose a Victim", a 1961 episode of Thriller. In 1990 he appeared in several episodes of the BBC drama series Your Cheatin’ Heart as the fictional country singer Jim Bob O’May, singing several standards including his own hit "Singing the Blues".

His first hit was "My Heart Cries for You" (1951). He ventured into rock with songs including "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.[4]

Mitchell died on July 1, 1999, aged 72, at Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada of complications from cancer surgery.[5][6]

In 2007, to commemorate what would have been his 80th birthday, the English division of SonyBMG released The Essential Collection CD. His song "Heartaches by the Number" was part of the soundtrack of the 2010 video game Fallout: New Vegas.[7]

• "My Heart Cries for You" (1950)[10]
• "The Roving Kind" (1951) [10]
• "My Truly, Truly Fair" (1951) [10]
• "Sparrow In The Treetop" (1951) [10]
• "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" (1952) [10]
• "She Wears Red Feathers" (1953) [10]
• "Belle, Belle, My Liberty Belle" (1951)
• "Feet Up (Pat Him On The Po-po)" (1952)
• "Heartaches by the Number" [10] (1959)
• "Knee Deep in the Blues" (1957)
• "Look At That Girl" (1953)
• "Ninety Nine Years (Dead or Alive)" (1956)
• "Pretty Little Black Eyed Susie" (1953)
• "Rock-a-Billy" (1957)
• "The Same Old Me" (1960)
• "Singing the Blues" (1956)
• "The Roving Kind" (1950)
• "Cloud Lucky Seven" (1953)
• "Unless" (1951)

In February 1982 he re-recorded 20 of his popular songs with new musical backings (in stereo) at the Audio Media Studio in Nashville, Tennessee for Bulldog Records (No. BDL 2041 in the UK). The album was entitled "20 Golden Pieces of Guy Mitchell" (not to be confused with "20 Golden Greats" by Mitchell released in 1979). The songs on the album are:-

• Guy Mitchell Appreciation Society site, belle49.freeserve.co.uk
• Guy Mitchell obituary
• Biodata, "The Interlude Era" site], earthlink.net
• "Guy Mitchell". Find a Grave. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
• Guy Mitchell at IMDb