Toni Fisher (December 4, 1924 – January 11, 1999), also billed on her records as Miss Toni Fisher, was an American pop singer. She was known for her recordings of " The Big Hurt", " West of the Wall", "Maybe (He'll Think Of Me)", and "Why Can't The Dark Leave Me Alone". She was later known as Toni F. Monzello following her marriage to Henry Monzello.

Biography

Fisher is best remembered for her 1959 song " The Big Hurt", written by her manager Wayne Shanklin. The song went to No. 3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

in the US. The track also peaked at No. 30 in the UK Singles Chart. "The Big Hurt" is notable because it featured a flanging effect, when mixing engineer Larry Levine—who went on to help

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (December 26, 1939 – January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter who is best known for pioneering recording practices in the 1960s, followed by his trials and conviction for murder in the 2000s. S ...

create his wall of sound—inadvertently mixed the mono and stereo versions of the song together but out of sync; a happy accident. It is claimed to be the first record to have such phasing. DJ Dick Biondi on WKBW in Buffalo, New York, had introduced the record "Toni Fisher's weird one". The song was recorded in the

Gold Star Studios Gold Star Studios was an independent recording studio located in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, California. In its entire history, Gold Star was one of the most successful commercial recording studios in the world. Founded by David S. Gold ...

in Los Angeles and engineered by Stan Ross and Dave Gold. Disc jockey Wink Martindale commented that the record label billed the singer as "Miss Toni Fisher" because of her powerful voice, which is consistently audible over the phasing, the instruments, and the background noise, to confirm to the listener that the singer is indeed a woman. "The Big Hurt" was later

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Del Shannon Charles Weedon Westover (December 30, 1934 – February 8, 1990), better known by his stage name Del Shannon, was an American musician, singer and songwriter, best known for his 1961 number-one ''Billboard'' hit " Runaway", which was covered la ...

, Scott Walker,

Vikki Carr Florencia Vicenta de Casillas-Martínez Cardona (born July 19, 1940), known by her stage name Vikki Carr, is an American vocalist. She has a singing career that spans more than five decades. Born in El Paso, Texas, to Mexican parents, she has ...

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, and others. In 1962 she had another Top 40 hit single with " West of the Wall" (No. 37), a song about the sadness of lovers separated by the 1961 erection of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

. She had recorded the melody before; an earlier version, "Toot Toot Amore" on Signet Records, had different lyrics. Fisher died in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

, Utah, on January 11, 1999, of a heart attack at age 74.

References

External links

*
Article on Miss Toni Fisher, by Michael Jack Kirby, on waybackattack.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, Toni 1924 births 1999 deaths American women pop singers Singers from Los Angeles Smash Records artists 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers