Guy Mitchell - Essential Classics, Vol. 34: Guy Mitchell (2024)

Guy Mitchell as an American trad pop singer and actor.

Mitchell was born Albert George Cernik to Croatian immigrants February 22, 1927 in Detroit, Michigan. The family moved when he was 11 to Los Angeles then to San Francisco where, after leaving school, he worked as a saddle maker, supplementing his income by singing. Dude Martin, who had a country music broadcast in San Francisco, hired him for his band.

Cernik 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.

Mitch Miller at Columbia records signed him in 1950 and urged him to change his name. Miller originally had intended to record a sentimental ballad called "My Heart Cries for You" and "The Roving Kind" with Frank Sinatra, however, Sinatra was not interested and rejected the songs. Mitchell recorded them and "My Heart Cries for You" became Mitchell's first hit song, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard charts. He continued with hits including "Heartaches by the Number" (#1 US), "Rock-a-Billy" (a crossover into the rock and roll field), "The Same Old Me" and the gigantic "Singing the Blues", which was number one for 10 weeks in 1956. He toured the world and had hits globally, especially in the UK and Australia. He placed nine songs in the US Top 10, 20 songs into the UK Top 10 (including 8 number ones) and 19 songs in the Australian Top 10 (including 3 number ones).

In the 1950s and 1960s Mitchell acted in such movies as Those Redheads From Seattle (1953) and Red Garters (1954), on television and hosted his own television show in 1957.

Mitchell's popularity waned in the 1960s, although he continued to record songs for a number of labels. 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".

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

His song "Heartaches by the Number" was part of the soundtrack of the 2010 video game Fallout: New Vegas.