Mindy Carson

Before establishing herself as a solo vocalist, Mindy Carson occasionally teamed with Guy Mitchell on duets. While employed as a secretary, she accepted a nightclub manager’s suggestion to pursue singing as a career. Club dates throughout New York followed, and by the mid-1940s she made her radio debut performing with Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra. She subsequently became a member of Harry Cool’s band, and their 1946 recording “Rumors Are Flying” marked her first appearance on the charts. In 1949 CBS awarded her a radio program and NBC launched a television series that lasted two seasons; during this period she also cut sides for RCA, yet none registered on the hit listings.

Switching to Columbia in 1952 produced instant results. Columbia paired her with Guy Mitchell on the chart entry “(’Cause I Love You) That’s A-Why,” and the duo continued to record together, later scoring with “Tell Us Where the Good Times Are.” Her own first success arrived in 1955 with the ballad “Wake the Town and Tell the People,” which climbed close to the Top Ten and remained her strongest seller. Two years afterward she revived Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Since I Met You Baby” and again reached the charts. Columbia issued the album Baby, Baby, Baby the following year. No further hits materialized as newer pop styles emerged, and Carson gradually receded from public attention. In 1958 she also took part in the Broadway production The Body Beautiful.