Already singing publicly in her early teens, Gibbs achieved acclaim and notoriety in the mid-1950s copying songs originating with the black rhythm and blues community and later became a featured vocalist for many radio and television variety and comedy programs.

When her mother, who had visited her every other month, found employment as a midwife, she came back for Frieda, but her job often forced her to leave her daughter for weeks at a time with only a Philco radio for company.

The Plymouth's manager had already heard her sing on the local Worcester radio station, and Gibbs was hired and moved to Boston,[4] eventually landing at the Raymor Ballroom.

[8] In 1943, with her name changed to Georgia Gibbs, she began appearing on the Camel Caravan radio program, hosted by Jimmy Durante and Garry Moore, where she remained a regular performer until 1947.

It was Moore who bestowed upon her the famous nickname "Her Nibs, Miss Georgia Gibbs," ironically using the title to describe the singer of diminutive stature who had an enormous "authoritative" prominence in American pop music.

Possessed of a versatile voice, she cut a long list of well-received records in every category from torch songs to rock-and-roll, jazz, swing, old fashioned ballads and cha-chas.

[12] "Kiss of Fire" borrows the tune of the tango El Choclo by Ángel Villoldo, and the lyrics, arrangement and delivery communicate passion on a Wagnerian scale.

Her Mercury record "Silent Lips" was a big hit in Sweden (September 1958-March 1959) peaking at number 5 in the best-selling charts, and there were even several Swedish cover versions of that song, "Ingenting" by among others Towa Carson, Lill-Babs and Britt Rylander.

A widely told story has LaVern Baker taking out a life insurance policy on herself in advance of a flight to Australia and naming Georgia Gibbs as the beneficiary.

"[1]Whitened pop covers of black R&B and blues songs were a mid-1950s fad and many singers and groups had hits with them, including Pat Boone, the McGuire Sisters, the Chordettes, and the Crew Cuts.

At the time these covers served a business purpose since white radio stations seldom played black pop and they brought many of the songs to a wider audience but would later come to be attacked by rock critics as a mutilation of the original recordings.

In 1970 she married foreign correspondent and author Frank Gervasi, biographer of Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, and whose books include To Whom Palestine?, The Case for Israel, The Real Rockefeller and The Violent Decade.