Grant was born Myrtle Audrey Arinsberg in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the eldest of six children of Russian Jewish parents, Rose (née Jacobson) and Alexander Arinsberg. At the age of 12, she moved to Los Angeles, where she attended
Venice High School. In California, she won a teenage singing contest and appeared on
television talent shows. She worked as a car saleswoman in the early 1950s. In 1952 she began to record, using first the name "Audrey Brown" and later "Audrey Grant". She was given the name "Gogi" by Dave Kapp, the head of
Artists and Repertory at
RCA Victor, who liked to visit a restaurant called Gogi's LaRue. (Another source says that Grant asked Kapp, "What is a Gogi?" She continued, "His answer was, 'Darned if I know, I dreamed it last night.'" and peaked at No. 9 in the
UK Singles Chart. The soundtrack occasioned her return to RCA Victor (the soundtrack album climbed to No. 25 in the
Billboard album chart), where she had a minor hit the following year with "Strange Are the Ways of Love". Grant was given star billing in
The Big Beat in the spring of 1957. The film featured musical performances by a long list of artists, including
Fats Domino,
The Diamonds, the
Del Vikings,
The Mills Brothers, the
Cal Tjader Quintet,
George Shearing, and
Harry James. It was produced and directed by William Cowan and was released in February 1958. In 1958, Grant was one of the three solo singers featured in the first stereo LP of the classic musical
Show Boat. Also appearing were
Howard Keel, who had starred in the
1951 film version of the show, and
Anne Jeffreys. In 1959, RCA Victor released
Kiss Me, Kate, in which she was featured along with
Howard Keel and
Anne Jeffreys, the music arranged by
Henri René. Although Grant continued to make records and appeared on television into the 1960s, her popularity declined and she initially retired from singing in 1967 after a final US chart single, "The Sea" (top 20 on the
Billboard Easy Listening chart. In 2004, at the age of 80, she sang "The Wayward Wind" on the PBS program
Magic Moments. Grant headlined with
The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies in Palm Springs, California. One of her more notable appearances of her later years was with the Follies on December 31, 2006. She was still performing as late as 2013, at the age of 89. ==Personal life and death==