Sunny Gale born 20 February 1927

Sunny Gale (February 20, 1927 – 2022) was an American pop singer who was popular in the 1950s. Gale reached the Billboard Hot 100 several times throughout the earlier half of the decade, scoring her biggest hit with "Wheel of Fortune" with the Ed Wilcox Orchestra in 1952. 

Gale was born as Selma Segal in Clayton, New Jersey. Her family moved to Philadelphia when she was four years old. Vocal talents revealed themselves with inherent naturalness at an early age and she performed in several children’s radio shows, occasionally appearing on the same programs as Eddie Fisher. By the time she reached her fourteenth birthday she was performing professionally at block parties, weddings, banquets and such throughout the Philly area. 

Two years later, she placed in the finals of the Miss Philadelphia Beauty Contest, an award which preferred her opportunity to enter the Miss America sweeps. However, the local Philadelphia prize brought with it several local night club offers .Five years of a grueling but worthwhile apprenticeship on the Philly nitery circuit followed, with her song styling taking on polish and gleam. She was going by the stage name Sunny Gale since at least August 1948, which is evident by her early photo shoots. 

Then, one engagement, along came Hal McIntyre. Hearing Sunny and liking the hearing, he signed her on the spot as featured vocalist with his band. And, with the McIntyre crew she played a series of successful concerts across the United States and Canada where she acquired her last bit of experience know-how as secure and mesmerizing performer. When Sunny felt herself ready to try her wings on a truly solo flight, she hied herself to New York, secured herself a recording contract, and immediately recorded the original version of the big hit: Wheel Of Fortune. 

                                  

Gale signed with RCA in 1952 and with their backing recorded a string of national charting hits between 1952 and 1956, including "I Laughed at Love", "Teardrops on My Pillow", "Love Me Again", "Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight". During this time, Gale appeared in clubs operated by business owner Frank Palumbo, including his entertainment complex Palumbo's, and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in an all-star benefit show which also featured the Ink Spots, Red Buttons, Lena Horne, and several others. 

In 1956, Gale had her last charted single with “Rock and Roll Wedding” which peaked modestly at #66. She then signed with Decca Records, debuting with a rendition of Otis Williams and the Charms' "Two Hearts". But for Gale, subsequent releases on Decca, Warwick Records, and Blaine Records could not propel her back into the national charts as she suffered the fate of most pre-rock pop singers.

On the bistro circuit, she has played such elite locations as the Flamingo and the Thunderbird Hotels in Las Vegas, the Latin Quarter and Blinstrub's Village Club in Boston, the Latin Casino in her native Philadelphia, the Baker Hotel in Dallas, the Riverside Hotel in Reno, the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach (and so on and on). In 1956 she appeared on the Dorsey Brothers’ stage TV show and was a frequent guest of shows like Ed Sullivan, Perry Como and Arthur Murray. And, there's something of an international dimension to her public appearance background – she has performed for both American Armed Forces and local civilian audiences in the British Isles, France, Germany, Australia, Algiers, Morocco and several other portions of Africa. 

Despite her string of pop hits as well as recording successfully through the sixties into the seventies, she was not as well remembered as contemporaries like Patti Page and Rosemary Clooney. Nearly two decades of media oblivion passed and it was not until the late 1990s that compilation albums, such as The Story of Sunny Gale and Sunny Gale Sings, began to document Gale's recording career. 

It was in 2015 when Gale was found living under her real name of Selma Segal in a retirement home in Florida. 

The theatrical producer and press agent Alan Eichler revealed that Gale died there in 2022. Nothing was announced and no obits were ever written. She would have been 94 or 95. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Warwick liner notes & Trapeze Music)