In his home, he heard the music of the "old country" performed by his father, Nishan, an amateur oud player and singer.
When he was seventeen, the family moved to Washington Heights, N.Y.. Chick served in the Army during World War II from 1944 to 1946.
I was playing the oud a lot, learning from my father, but there wasn't any way for someone like me to work full time as a musician-except on Eighth Avenue, and in those days it was a much smaller scene and almost entirely Greek.
Ganimian formed the Nor-Ikes Band in 1948 with Steve Boghossian, Eddie Malkasian, Aram Davidian, and Souren Baronian.
The band traveled throughout the eastern United States, developing a strong following, and, for Chick, acknowledgement as a singer and a virtuoso on the oud.
His regular appearances at Asbury Park's Fennimore Hotel, the Catskill's Shady Hill Lodge, Waverly Hotel, Providence's Seventh Veil, Boston's Club Zahra, Atlantic City's Jockey Club, Philadelphia's Middle East Restaurant and the Yaas, New York's Pasha's, Arabian Nights, Grecian Palace, Britania, Darvish, Fez, Port Said, Cafe Feenjon, the Casbah and the Roundtable.
Quoted in HOLIDAY Magazine by a senior editor, Arno Karlen (circa 1963), "I went to work in the Grecian Palace, because then it had some of the best musicians.
He has played with Rufus Harley,[1] and had two hit singles in the late 1950s, Daddy Lolo and Hedy Lou.
His music rises off the traditional, or strict orthodox style, ascending into a tastefully progressive arrangement that retains its soul.
Ganimian's dependence on alcohol had a debilitating effect on his career and led to divorce with wife Jeanne, with whom he had two sons, Christopher and Mark.