From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Wed Feb 27, 2002  1:18 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Guy Mitchell
 
GUY MITCHELL (By Shaun Mather)

Born Al Cernik, 27 February 1927, Detroit, Michigan
Died 1 July 1999, Las Vegas, Nevada

Born to Yugoslavian immigrants, Guy Mitchell gained fame in the 50's
with a string of hit singles on the Columbia label. He became a child star
for Warner Brothers in 1938 but the family moved to San Francisco
two years later. After a couple of years in the Navy, he rejoined the
entertainment industry as the vocalist with the Carmen Cavallaro
Orchestra. After a release on King Records, he was signed by
Mitch Miller to Columbia. His first half dozen releases failed, but in
1950-51 he sold a couple of million copies of My Heart Cries For You ,
Truly, Truly Fair and The Roving Kind. His popularity spread and by
the middle of the decade he was a household name across the pond
in Europe where he scored big with covers of Marty Robbins' Singin'
The Blues (# 1 in the US for 10 weeks in 1956, also # 1 in the UK)
and Knee Deep In The Blues. They were pure pop versions and even
the hit song Rock-a-billy (# 1 UK) did little to live up to its title. His
career went into decline after Heartaches By The Number (another US
# 1, 1959) and by 1961 he'd left Columbia to record for smaller labels,
among them Reprise. He retired in the mid-60's, and died following
surgery at the age of 72.