Carroll Gibbons

Carroll Gibbons (January 4 1903 - May 10 1954) was a British (but American-born) musician, bandleader and composer. He was born and raised in Clinton, Massachusetts. In his late teens he travelled to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1924 he returned to London with the brassless Boston Orchestra for an engagement at the Savoy Hotel in the Strand. He liked Britain so much that he settled there and later became the co-leader (with Howie Jacobs) of the Savoy Orpheans and the bandleader of the New MayFair Orchestra, which recorded for the Gramophone Company on the HMV label. In 1929 Gibbons appeared in the British film "Splinters" (as Carroll Gibbons and His Masters Voice Orchestra).

Gibbons made occasional return trips to the United States but settled permanently in England, though he did spend a couple of years (1930-1931) in Hollywood, where he worked as a staff composer for MGM films. He took exclusive leadership of the Savoy Hotel Orpheans, which recorded hundreds of popular songs between June 1932 and his death in London at the early age of 51.

As a composer, Gibbons' most popular songs included "A Garden in the Rain (1928) and "On The Air" (1932). The later was covered by Rudy Vallee in 1933 and by Lud Gluskin in 1936. Gibbons' instrumental numbers "Bubbling Over" and "Moonbeam Dance" were also quite successful in the United Kingdom.

External links

* [http://www.extraordinarytown.com/ "An Extraordinary Town, How one of America's smallest towns shaped the world"] A book on Carroll Gibbon's hometown with an extensive section on the life and contributions of Carroll Gibbons. Written jointly with The Savoy in London.
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