Most well known as a Doo Wop standard, "Gloria" is a song written by

Leon René Leon René (February 6, 1902 – May 30, 1982) was an American music composer of pop, R&B and rock and roll songs and a record producer in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. He sometimes used the songwriting pseudonym Jimmy Thomas or Jimmie Thom ...

in the 1940s. The original version of "Gloria" as written by Leon René was first recorded in 1946 as a pop tune, by bandleader Norman "Buddy" Baker with vocal by Bob Hayward, on René's Exclusive label. It was next recorded by Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, with the vocal by Charles Brown, also on Exclusive, and released in April 1947. The first version to reach the national charts (#17) was by

The Mills Brothers The Mills Brothers, sometimes billed the Four Mills Brothers, and originally known as the Four Kings of Harmony, were an American jazz and traditional pop vocal quartet who made more than 2,000 recordings that sold more than 50 million copies an ...

(info taken from the Mills Brothers Wikipedia page). It was recorded on September 22, 1948 and was given the Decca catalog number of 24509 (info taken from the booklet of the Mills Brothers Anthology 2-CD set from Decca/MCA, released 1995). It has a bit of a cool-jazz feel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDM_uQ6P880

"Exclusive" debuts

René began his own record label,

Exclusive Records Exclusive Records was a record label established by Leon René, which existed from 1944 to 1950. History Exclusive Records was established by Leon René in Los Angeles in 1944 and ceased operations in January 1950. Buddy Baker was the music dire ...

, in 1945, and the song was first recorded and released on the label as catalog No. 218 in 1946 by the

Buddy Baker Elzie Wylie "Buddy" Baker Jr. (January 25, 1941 – August 10, 2015) was an American professional stock car racing driver and commentator. Over the course of his 33-year racing career, he won 19 races in the NASCAR Cup Series, including the 198 ...

Sextet, featuring

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

's former vocalist Bob Hayward. The following year it was recorded by

Ray Anthony Raymond Antonini (born January 20, 1922), known as Ray Anthony, is an American bandleader, trumpeter, songwriter, and actor. He is the last surviving member of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Biography Anthony was born to an Italian family in Ben ...

, and also by Johnny Moore's Three Blazers (catalog No. 703), another group on René's label, which featured vocalist Charles Brown. In 1948 it received a notable resurgence in popularity as a single by

The Cadillacs' version

In 1954,

The Cadillacs The Cadillacs were an American rock and roll and doo-wop group from Harlem, New York, active from 1953 to 1962. The group was noted for their 1955 hit " Speedo", written by Esther Navarro, which was instrumental in attracting white audiences to ...

recorded a revamped version of the song which became their debut record. That initial record listed no writer credit, but later releases of The Cadillacs' recording—and several subsequent covers of the song by other artists—give sole writing credit to Esther Navarro; other mentions of the altered composition list Navarro as having revised René's song. In fact, Navarro was actually the band's manager. Though she received writing credit for many Cadillacs songs, Cadillacs lead singer

Earl Carroll Earl Carroll (September 16, 1893 – June 17, 1948) was an American theatrical producer, director, writer, songwriter and composer. Early life Carroll was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1893. He lived as an infant in the Nunnery Hill ( Fine ...

claims she never wrote (or re-wrote) the songs. With over 30 groups performing it, "Gloria" is one of the most covered songs in doo-wop music history. A version of the song was recorded in 1975 by jazz fusion group

The Manhattan Transfer The Manhattan Transfer is a Grammy award–winning vocal group founded in 1969 that has explored a cappella, vocalese, swing, standards, Brazilian jazz, rhythm and blues, and pop music. There have been two editions of the Manhattan Transfer, ...

for their debut album ''

'', which led a revival of the doo-wop and jazz styles in popular music. Other notable performances include

The Modernaires The Modernaires was an American vocal group, best known for performing in the 1940s alongside Glenn Miller. Career The Modernaires began in 1934 as "Don Juan, Two and Three," a trio of schoolmates from Lafayette High School in Buffalo, New Y ...

, The Passions,

Vito & The Salutations Vito & the Salutations is an Italian/ Irish/Jewish-American New York City doo-wop group from the 1960s. They began performing their four-part harmonies while still in high school, getting practice by singing in subways and at railroad stations. But ...

, Earl Lewis and the Channels, Reminisce,

Kenny Vance and The Planotones Kenny Vance and the Planotones is an American musical group led by Kenny Vance, formerly of Jay and the Americans. Original group Kenny Vance and the Planotones first came to be as a fictional band appearing in the 1978 film American Hot Wax. T ...

The Legends of Doo Wop The Legends of Doo Wop is a music group of 1950s doo-wop singers. The original members included Jimmy Gallagher of the Passions, Tony Passalaqua of the Fascinators, Frank Mancuso of the Imaginations, and Steve Horn of the Five Sharks (died July 24 ...

, The Savoys, and

Larry Chance and the Earls Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment *Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

. In

Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, pianist and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man (song), Piano Man" after his album and signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo ...

's 1993 song "

The River of Dreams "The River of Dreams" is a song by American musician Billy Joel. It is the title track and first single from his 1993 album, ''River of Dreams.'' The song was a hit, peaking at number three on the US and UK charts, making it Joel's best-charting ...

," Joel sings The Cadillacs version of this song just before the fade-out.

References

1945 songs Songs written by Leon René Doo-wop songs {{1940s-song-stub