Singer Georgia Gibbs dies at 87

Georgia Gibbs, a versatile singer who starred on the popular show “Your Hit Parade” and reached the top of the charts in the 1950s with covers of songs by black artists, has died. She was 87.

Gibbs died Saturday at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, family friend Leslie Gottlieb said. The cause was complications from leukemia.

Gibbs was born Freda Lipschitz in Worcester, Mass., in 1919, and spent much of her childhood in a city orphanage. She began singing in Worcester when she was 14 and moved on to perform in Boston ballrooms, using the name Gibbons, later becoming Georgia Gibbs.

Among her 15 Top 40 hits, mostly for Mercury Records, was the tango-based “Kiss of Fire,” which went to No. 1 in 1952.

“Tweedle Dee,” an adaptation of LaVern Baker’s R&B hit, reached No. 2 in 1954, while “Dance With Me Henry,” another R&B cover, reached No. 1 in 1955 with cleaned-up lyrics.

The original, “Roll With Me, Henry” or “The Wallflower,” was by Etta James as an “answer song” to the hit “Work With Me, Annie.”

“At that time you weren’t allowed to say ‘roll’ because it was considered vulgar,” James said in a 1987 interview. “So when Georgia Gibbs did her version, she renamed it ‘Dance With Me, Henry’ and it went to No. 1 on the pop charts.”

Besides a stint on “Your Hit Parade,” the radio and TV show that showcased the most popular songs each week, Gibbs was a regular on programs hosted by Garry Moore, Jimmy Durante and Danny Kaye and was a frequent guest on other radio and early television variety shows.

Other memorable Gibbs recordings included the novelty “If I Knew You Were Coming, I’d’ve Baked a Cake” in the early 1950s, and her last Top 40 record, “The Hula Hoop Song,” in 1958.

A highlight of Gibbs’ life was performing for Israeli soldiers in 1949.

Gibbs was married to Frank Gervasi, an author and World War II correspondent for United Press, who died before her. Survivors include a grandson and a brother.