Helen Forrest

Genres:	Big Band & Swing • Jazz • Vocals
Descriptive "tags":	female vocalists • jazz • vocal jazz • 50s • 40-s • swing • 40s • 1940s • pop • oldies • 60s
Decades Active:	1940s • 1950s • 1960s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Links online:	Wikipedia

Biography

Helen Fogel, 12 April 1917 or 1918, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, d. 11 July 1999, Los Angeles, California, USA. Forrest began singing as child and by her mid-teenage was appearing regularly on radio in New York City. Many of her appearances were on CBS, with whom she held a salaried job, and this led to her being heard by Artie Shaw who hired her in 1937. The other band singer with Shaw was Billie Holiday whose colour prevented her from appearing at some venues and on some radio shows. Forrest was thus given opportunities she might well have preferred to avoid. Certainly, she held Holiday, her primary influence, in high regard, declaring later: ‘Billie was just wonderful to me. Always trying to help, she used to tell Artie to let me sing some of her songs. She was really a great, caring person.’

When Shaw abruptly disbanded at the end of 1939 Forrest moved onto the Benny Goodman band. Here, the clear evidence of her almost-40...

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