Gonna Get Along Without You Now - Extended

This popular song was written by Milton Kellern and published in 1951. It has been recorded in several styles and tempos and the original version, by pop singer Teresa Brewer was done in a swing style. For many, the benchmark version was the more poppy 1956 rendition by the sister act Patience and Prudence, which reached #11 in the US and #22 in the UK. In 1964, the song reached the US charts twice more, Tracey Dey's Wall of Sound version peaked at #51 and Skeeter Davis' country recording reached #48. In Europe Viola Wills' disco version is probably the best known.

Los Angeles born Viola Wilkerson was already the mother of six children before the age of 21 when, in 1965, she was discovered by a pre stardom Barry White who signed her to Bronco Records and changed her surname to Wills. After working with White and as part of Joe Cocker's backing quartet, The Sanctified Sisters, Wills had an Europe-wide solo hit with her disco version of this song. She later spent time in England and had another UK Top 40 hit with the double a-side "Dare to Dream and her version of "Both Sides Now." Though that was her last chart entry, Wills had some success on the HI-NRG nostalgia circuit in the UK before she returned home to the US. In May 2009 she died of cancer aged 69.