Swedish pop vocalist Bibi Johns traveled to the U.S. in 1951 and secured a recording contract with RCA Victor through Gordon Jenkins. She toured the U.S. and was a winner on the television talent show Chance of a Lifetime, then used the prize money to finance her return trip to Sweden. There she met a producer from the German Electrola label who convinced her to cut some German-language recordings for the German market, where "Bella Bimba" and "Gipsy Band" became big hits. She continued to record in Germany and appear in German movie musicals throughout the '50s, the period that the anthology Bella Bimba covers. The first six songs are her complete American recordings for RCA from 1952, which are mostly pop ballads rendered in perfect English. Hugo Winterhalter conducted the session for "The Night Is Filled with Echoes" and "Someone to Kiss Your Tears Away" with full orchestration, while the other songs, including a pop cover of Hank Williams' "I Could Never Be Ashamed of You," feature smaller combos. The remaining 21 cuts are devoted to Johns' Electrola recordings from 1953-1955, including German-language renditions of American hits such as Perry Como's "Papa Loves Mambo," Jim Reeves' "Bimbo," and the Four Lads' "Gilly Gilly Oxenpfeffer, Katzenellenbogen Bogen by the Sea" (the latter of which also appears in a previously unreleased Swedish version). Johns recorded one English session in Germany during this time, although the songs were not released; "My Pretty Sugar" required Johns to sing in Jamaican-accented English with predictably awkward results, and "Your Heart, My Heart" is a cover of a minor Frankie Laine hit. Johns sings two duets each with Ang le Durand and Paul Kuhn, both of whom have their own anthologies on Bear Family Records. Bella Bimba is the first of five single-disc Bibi Johns collections Bear Family has compiled which, in combination, account for most of her recordings. ~ Greg Adams, Rovi
