Gale Garnett



Gale Zoe Garnett was born in Auckland, New Zealand on July 17, 1942 and moved to Canada with her family when she was eleven. She began her career as an actress, appearing in many stage productions and eventually moved on to numerous television shows, including Hawaiian Eye, 77 Sunset Strip, and Bonanza. She wrote songs as a hobby, but in 1963, RCA Records, impressed with her voice and songs, signed her to a recording contract.

In 1964, her debut album, "My Kind Of Folk Songs" spawned the single "We'll Sing In The Sunshine". The song went to Billboard's #5 position and later earned a Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording. Her next release however, didn't fare nearly as well, as "Lovin' Place" stalled at #54. By the late '60s, Garnett and her backing band, Gentle Reign, had become influenced by the hippie counter-cultural movement, embracing psychedelia, singing about rainbows, magic wands, and other enchantments. Garnett also delivered a notable performance in the 1967 Rankin-Bass film Mad Monster Party that featured the memorable tunes "Our Time To Shine" and "Never Was a Love Like Mine". Finding that she could no longer sell records, she retired from the music business in the early '70s.

Garnett went on to appear in feature films and on television shows, usually in supporting roles. In subsequent years, she branched out into journalism, writing essays, columns and book reviews for newspapers including Toronto's Globe And Mail, Village Voice and Toronto Life magazine. Her first novel was titled Visible Amazement and she also wrote and performed two, one-person theater pieces, Gale Garnett & Company and Life After Latex.

Gale also appeared in the 2002 film, My Big Fat Greek Wedding as well as on several television shows, usually in supporting roles. More books followed, including Transient Dancing in 2003, the novella Room Tone in 2007, and Savage Adoration, in 2009.