Cecil Gant (April 4, 1913[nb 1] – February 4, 1951)[1] was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist, whose recordings of both ballads and "fiery piano rockers"[2] were successful in the mid- and late 1940s, and influenced the early development of rock and roll.

[4] He returned to Nashville, Tennessee and worked there as a musician, as well as touring with his own band,[5] from the mid-1930s until he joined the army during World War II.

When it started to become locally popular, he re-recorded it for the newly established white-owned independent Gilt-Edge record label.

Billed as "The GI Sing-sation", his two follow-up records on Gilt-Edge, "The Grass Is Getting Greener" and "I'm Tired", also made the R&B chart.

Arnold Shaw identified "I Wonder" as the song that "ignited the postwar blues explosion",[7] and the success of Gant's records helped stimulate the establishment of other independent labels immediately after the war.

[10] Many of Gant's records had a slow ballad as the A-side but an up-tempo boogie woogie style piano-based song or instrumental as the B-side, in many cases foreshadowing rock and roll and influential on its practitioners.