The blues singer Cecil Gant appeared to have emerged from the wartime mist and created one of the most beloved blues songs of the 1940s. Gant was over 30 years old when he appeared on the scene wearing a military uniform to a Los Angeles war bonds rally sponsored in part by the Treasury Department. Private Gant continued to amaze the crowd with his piano skills, and he was soon to make his Oakland debut on Gilt-Edge Records in 1944. The mellow pop-slanted song “I Wonder” was the top-selling single.
