Gibbs was the youngest of four children of Russian Jewish immigrant parents.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 very 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 cut 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 popular 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 popular 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 is a playful reference to her diminutive stature of barely over 5 feet. She was a regular performer on this show until 1947.
Gibbs signed with Majestic Records in 1946, and while she recorded many great records she would have to wait until 1950 for her first hit single, If I Knew You Were Coming, I'd Have Baked A Cake (on the Coral label). During this period she also was the featured singer on tours with comedians Danny Kaye and Sid Caesar. Miss Gibbs had a natural talent for comedy as well, and worked well in support of the immensely popular Kaye. But success as a singer continued to elude her. As noted in a 1952 Time article:
"Georgia," they kept telling her, "you gotta get a sound." Musical soothsayers were trying to get Songstress Georgia Gibbs into line with the latest fashion. Perhaps, they thought, she should sing mechanized duets with herself (like Patti Page), or she might try an echo chamber background (like Peggy Lee). But gimmicks were not Georgia Gibbs's cup of tea. She had a big, old-fashioned voice, a good ear, a vivacious personality, and she knew how to sing from the shoulder. She would stick with plain Georgia Gibbs.
And she eventually had success "sticking with plain Georgia Gibbs". Possessed of a versatile voice, she cut a long list of great records in every category from torch songs to rock-and-roll, to jazz, swing, old fashioned ballads and cha-chas. Her most successful record was Kiss Of Fire which reached the #1 position on the pop music charts in 1952. Kiss of Fire was adapted from the Argentinian tango El Choclo and the lyrics, arrangement and delivery communicate passion on a Wagnerian scale. It immediately became one of the defining songs of the era.
Sultry and throbbing, with a touch of vibrato, Georgia Gibbs' voice is best showcased on romantic ballads and torch songs like Melancholy Baby, I'll Be Seeing You, Autumn Leaves and You Keep Coming Back Like A Song. Yet she could be equally thrilling belting out a red hot jazz numbers like Red Hot Mama and A-Razz-A-Ma-Tazz, or jiving with tunes like Ol Man Mose and Shoo Shoo Baby. Her Swingin' With Her Nibbs album (1956) demonstrated her natural affinity for improvisation as well.
Gibbs continued to be a frequent visitor to the charts throughout the first half of the decade (with over 40 charted songs), and was briefly successful doing rock 'n' roll songs as well. She appeared on many television shows throughout the decade, including the legendary Ed Sullivan show, and hosted one of her own, Georgia Gibbs And Her Million Record Show. She cut her final album, Call Me (1966) and rarely performed after that.
She spent many years being best known for her cover versions of Etta James' The Wallflower (recorded by Gibbs with modified lyrics under the title Dance With Me Henry) and of LaVern Baker's Tweedle Dee (which created some ado due to Ms. Baker's vociferous complaints) and for her novelty number The Hula Hoop Song, which was her last hit, in 1958.
Georgia Gibbs died of leukemia on December 9, 2006, aged 87, at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
The One I Love
Georgia Gibbs Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And all my daydreams have gone astray
I think about the one and only
Who's bound to find me some golden day
The one I love is coming along some day
And I'll have none except the one I love
He/She may be near or ever so far away
And though our meeting is left to chance
Until our meeting
I still will have my dream romance
And through the night I pray to the moon above
To please be kind and find the one I love
The lyrics of Georgia Gibbs’s song, “The One I Love,” convey feelings of loneliness and hope for finding love. The singer reflects on their long days and lonely nights, emphasizing their desire for the “one and only” person who will find them in some “golden day.” The lyrics create a feeling of anticipation for this person to enter the singer’s life while emphasizing that this person will be the only one they love. Despite the uncertain nature of their meeting, the singer holds onto their dream romance and prays to the moon above for the person they long for.
The song’s lyrics highlight the idea of hoping for something that seems distant and unknown, but is believed to be waiting for the singer in due time. The notion of a “golden day” and the emphasis on “the one” convey the idea that there is a special person out there that is meant for the singer. The use of “dream romance” highlights the idea of a perfect and idealistic love, which the singer longs for. These ideas create a sense of nostalgia and longing for love, a common theme in many love songs.
Line by Line Meaning
When days are long and nights are lonely
When the days feel never-ending and the nights are isolating
And all my daydreams have gone astray
And all of my hopes and fantasies have not come to fruition
I think about the one and only
I think about the only person who can fulfill my desires
Who's bound to find me some golden day
The person who will one day bring me happiness and joy
The one I love is coming along some day
The one person that I love will come into my life eventually
And I'll have none except the one I love
I won’t be with anyone else but the one I love
He/She may be near or ever so far away
They could be close by or on the other side of the world
But I'll have none except the one I love
Regardless of where they are, I won't be with anyone else
And though our meeting is left to chance
Even though whether we meet or not is left to fate
Until our meeting
Until the day we finally meet
I still will have my dream romance
I'll still have the idea of a perfect love story in my head
And through the night I pray to the moon above
And at night, I look to the moon and wish for the one I love
To please be kind and find the one I love
Hoping that fate is kind and helps bring the one I love into my life
Lyrics © HAL LEONARD CORPORATION , Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: BRONISLAW KAPER, GUS KAHN, WALTER JURMANN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind