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Gale Garnett

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Gale Garnett
Gale Garnett in 1964.
Gale Garnett in 1964.
Background information
Birth nameGale Zoë Garnett
Born (1942-07-17) 17 July 1942 (age 82)
Auckland, New Zealand
Genres
OccupationSinger
Years active1960–1980s
LabelsRCA Victor

Gale Zoë Garnett (born 17 July 1942)[1] is a New Zealand-born Canadian singer best known in the United States for her self-penned, Grammy-winning folk hit "We'll Sing in the Sunshine". Garnett has since carved out a career as an author and actress.

Biography

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Garnett with WWDC's Fred Fiske in 1964.

Garnett was born in Auckland, New Zealand, and moved to Canada with her family when she was 11.[1] She made her public singing debut in 1960, while at the same time pursuing an acting career, making guest appearances on television shows such as 77 Sunset Strip.[1]

She made her New York nightclub debut in 1963 at The Blue Angel Supper Club[2] and was signed by RCA Victor Records that same year.[3] In the fall of 1964, Garnett scored a number four pop hit,[4] with her original composition "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" (also No. 1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary singles chart for seven weeks and a Top 50 country hit), and recorded her debut album, My Kind of Folk Songs, for RCA Victor.[1]

Riding the success of "We'll Sing in the Sunshine", which won a 1965 Grammy for Best Folk Recording, sold over one million copies thus gaining gold disc status,[5] Garnett continued to record through the rest of the 1960s with her backing band the Gentle Reign. Her follow-up to "We'll Sing in the Sunshine", "Lovin' Place", was her only other single to chart in America.[1] She appeared twice on ABC's Shindig! and The Lloyd Thaxton Show at the height of her singing fame in the mid-1960s.

Garnett delivered a notable performance in the Rankin-Bass feature Mad Monster Party in the late 1960s, with the memorable tunes "Our Time to Shine" and "Never Was a Love Like Mine." At this period she had begun to be more influenced by the counterculture, and had embraced psychedelic themes to some extent.[1][6] In the late 1960s she recorded two albums of psychedelic-inflected music with the Gentle Reign.

In 1975, Garnett participated in an Off-Off Broadway theater production of Starfollowers in an Ancient Land, written and directed by H. M. Koutoukas, at the La MaMa Experimental Theater Club in New York City's East Village. Garnett performed in the cast, and also co-wrote the music for the production with Tom O'Horgan.[7]

Later career

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Although Garnett had retired from the music business by the 1980s,[1] she continued occasionally appearing in feature films (including the 2002 sleeper hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and on television shows, usually in supporting roles.[citation needed]

In subsequent years, she branched out into journalism, writing essays, columns, and book reviews for various newspapers and magazines. She also wrote and performed two one-person theater pieces, Gale Garnett & Company and Life After Latex.[8][9]

Garnett also did the voice of the "Mother KOIT" liners for KOIT-FM (93.3 FM) in San Francisco in the mid to late 1960s during its progressive rock formatted era (1968–1970).[10]

Books by Garnett

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Garnett published her first novel, a romance titled Visible Amazement,[11] in 1999. She followed with Transient Dancing (2003), the novella Room Tone (2007), and Savage Adoration, her latest release (2009).

Discography

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Albums

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Track listings:[citation needed] On RCA Victor label, except where noted.

  • My Kind of Folk Songs (1964)
    • Track listing: I Know You Rider / Take This Hammer / Oh Brandy Leave Me Alone / Malaika / Little Man, Nine Years Old / I Came To The City / Pretty Boy / Wanderin' / Prism Song / We'll Sing In The Sunshine / Sleep You Now / Fly Bird
    • 1997 CD reissue additional tracks: Lovin' Place / St. James Infirmary / God Bless The Child / Excuse Me Mister / We'll Sing In The Sunshine (alternate version)
  • Lovin' Place (1965)
    • Track listing: Lovin' Place / You Are My Sunshine / You've Been Talkin' 'Bout Me Baby / Where Do You Go To Go Away / Big Grey City / Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out / What-cha Gonna Do / I Used To Live Here / The Sunny Song / St. Louis Is A Long Way Away / Little Poppa / O Freedom
  • The Many Faces of Gale Garnett (1965)
    • Track listing: Won't You Be My Lover / Excuse Me Mister / As Much As I Can / Marionette / Ain't Gonna Stay In Love Alone / God Bless The Child / Settle Down / The Question Song / Long Time Blues / Forget It / I Wish You Were Here / St. James Infirmary
  • Variety Is the Spice of Gale Garnett (1965)
    • Track listing: Why Am I Standing At The Window / A Little Bit Of Rain / Has Anyone Here Seen Me? / Small Potatoes / The Same Game / Carrick Fergus / The Other Side Of This Life / Love Games / I'm Gonna Be Myself By Myself / If You Go Away Again / People Come And Go / Sometime You Gotta Let Somebody Down
  • Growing Pains, Growing Pleasures (1966)
    • Track listing: Just Wait And See / It's Been A Lovely Summer / Little Something On The Side / Blue Prelude / Starting Anew / Put Your Hands Down / Morning Dew / Sun Must Shine / You've Got To Fall In Love Again / No Other Name / This Child / Nice Man
  • New Adventures (1966)
    • Track listing: Oh There'll Be Laughter / Calm And Collected / Where Did You Go? / Angle Song / Scarlett Ribbons (For Her Hair) / That Was Me You Ran Over / So Long / Let The Lonely Go / Followin' The Rain / Back With Me / It Ain't Necessarily So
  • Gale Garnett Sings About Flying and Rainbows and Love and Other Groovy Things (1967)
    • Track listing: I Make Him Fly / Don't Hurt Him / You're Gone Now / Just Wait And See / No Other Name / This Child / Over The Rainbow / Lie To Me Easy / You're Doing Me No Good / The Sun Is Gray / Look Who's Here / I Am Shining
  • An Audience with the King of Wands (Columbia, 1968; with The Gentle Reign)
    • Track listing: Breaking Through / Fall In Love Again / Mini-Song #1: Ophelia Song / Ballad For F. Scott Fitzgerald / Big Sur / Mini-Song #2: Tropicana High / That's Not The Way / A Word Of Advice / Believe Me / Mini-Song #3: Lament For The Self-Sufficient / You Could Have Been Anyone / Bad News / Dolphins / Mini-Song #4: Tropicana Low
  • Sausalito Heliport (Columbia, 1969; with The Gentle Reign)
    • Track listing: Freddy Mahoney / Peace Comes Slowly To The Trashing Fish / The Pretty Is Gone / This Year's Child / Berkeley Barb Want Ad / Deer In The City / Water Your Mind / My Mind's Own Morning / The Trip Note Song / Man In The Middle / Freely Speaking

Singles (partial list)

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  • "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" (1964) – US No. 4 Pop, No. 1 Adult Contemporary, No. 42 Country b/w "Prism Song" (RCA 8388)
  • "Lovin' Place" (1964) – US No. 54 Pop b/w "I Used To Live Here" (RCA 8472)
  • "I'll Cry Alone" (1965) b/w "Where Do You Go To Go Away" (RCA 8549)
  • "Why Am I Standing at the Window" (1965) b/w "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter" (RCA 8668)
  • "You've Got To Fall in Love Again" / "It's Been A Lovely Summer" (1966) (RCA 8961)
  • "This Kind Of Love" / "Oh There'll Be Laughter" (1966) (RCA 8824)
  • "I Make Him Fly" / "The Sun Is Gray" (1966) (RCA 9020)
  • "Over The Rainbow" / "The Cats I Know" (1967) (RCA 9196)
  • "Malaika/Pretty Boy" (1970s) (RCA 40568)

Filmography

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Film

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Television

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  • 1960 Hong Kong as Miss Wong (1 episode)
    • When Strangers Meet
  • Hawaiian Eye (2 episodes)
    • 1960 White Pigeon Ticket as Joyce Gilbert
    • 1961 The Trouble with Murder as Kiana Soong
  • 77 Sunset Strip (2 episodes)
    • 1960 The Double Death of Benny Markham as China Mary
    • 1962 Flight from Escondido as Velia
  • The Real McCoys (3 episodes)
    • Pepino's Wedding as Maria
    • Pepino's Inheritance as Angela
    • The Auction as Angela
  • 1962 Bonanza as Maria Winters (1 episode)
    • The Deserter
  • 1962 Tales of Wells Fargo as Ruth (1 episode)
    • Winter Storm
  • 1962 The Dick Powell Show as Paca (1 episode)
    • Death in a Village
  • 1963 Have Gun - Will Travel as Prudence Powers (1 episode)
    • Debutante
  • 1964 The Red Skelton Show as Guest Vocalist (1 episode)
    • Episode #14.8
  • 1964 Suspense (1 episode)
    • I, Lloyd Benson
  • 1967 The Rat Patrol as Safti (1 episode)
    • The Trial by Fire Raid
  • 1971 Paul Bernard, Psychiatrist as Mrs. Donaldson
  • 1975 Kojak as Elaine Kastos (1 episode)
    • Night of the Piraeus
  • 1978 King of Kensington as Carol (2 episodes)
    • Carol's Arrival
    • Double Standard
  • 1980 The Littlest Hobo as Madame Sybil (1 episode)
    • Carnival of Fear
  • 1983 Hangin' In as Renee (1 episode)
    • She Shoots, He Scores
  • 1985 The Edison Twins as Lana Garbo (1 episode)
    • Everyone a Rembrandt
  • 1986 The Park Is Mine (TV movie) as Rachel
  • 1990 Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean (TV movie) as May
  • 1990 Friday the 13th: The Series as Dr. Sybil Oakwood (1 episode)
    • The Tree of Life
  • 1992 E.N.G. as Lady Lovene (1 episode)
    • Two for the Show
  • 1994 Janek: The Silent Betrayal (TV movie) as Ginette
  • 1995 Kung Fu: The Legend Continues as Jo Emery (1 episode)
    • The Return of Sing Ling
  • 2005 Wild Card as Oxsana Petrovich (1 episode)
    • Russian Missus Gets No Kisses (credited as Gale Zoë Garnett)

Soundtrack

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  • Penelope (1966) (music: "The Sun Is Gray")[12]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 945. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
  2. ^ Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 19 October 1963. pp. 1–16.
  3. ^ "New Gal in Town". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 19 October 1963. p. 16.
  4. ^ Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard book of number 1 hits. Billboard Books. p. 159. ISBN 0-8230-7677-6.
  5. ^ Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 175. ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
  6. ^ "Gale Garnett". Classicbands.com. 17 July 1942. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  7. ^ La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. "Production: Starfollowers in an Ancient Land (1975)". Accessed January 16, 2019.
  8. ^ Steve Huey (17 July 1942). "Gale Garnett | Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  9. ^ [1] Archived August 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ The Dusty Street Interview, 9 September 2020, retrieved 4 October 2021
  11. ^ Garnett, Gayle Zoe (1999). Visible Amazement. Stoddart Publishing. ISBN 0-7737-6176-4.
  12. ^ Bowman, Manoah (11 October 2016). Natalie Wood: Reflections on a Legendary Life - Manoah Bowman - Google Books. Running Press. ISBN 9780762460526. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
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