Helen Forrest; Vocalist Sang With Shaw, Goodman, James Big Bands

Helen Forrest, a big band singer who recorded more than 500 songs including “All the Things You Are” with Artie Shaw and “The Man I Love” with Benny Goodman, has died. She was 82.

Forrest died Sunday at the Motion Picture and Television Country Home and Hospital in Woodland Hills of congestive heart failure, said her publicist, Alan Eichler. She had been hospitalized since April 13 because of pneumonia.

Born Helen Fogel in Atlantic City, N.J., she was the nation’s top-rated female vocalist in 1942, winning the Downbeat and Metronome polls, which both ranked Frank Sinatra as the top male vocalist for that year.

Forrest had continued to perform until the early 1990s, when rheumatoid arthritis began to affect her vocal chords. She was a favorite headliner for manager Joe Graydon, who produced big band concerts from 1978 on.

“I did quite a few shows for Joe,” Forrest told The Times in 1991. “They were four to six to eight weeks, all one-nighters. It’s tough work, but I loved it.”

Working with the Shaw and Goodman groups in the heyday of big bands in the late 1930s and ‘40s was even harder, she recalled, because “in those days, we would change in the bus or in the ballroom, do the job, get back on the bus and drive to the next job.”

Forrest performed with Shaw in 1938-39, Goodman from 1939 to 1941 and then with Harry James, with whom she was romantically involved before he married actress Betty Grable. Forrest sang what became her signature song, “I Had the Craziest Dream,” in the 1942 film “Springtime in the Rockies,” when Grable first met James. Forrest later used the song title for her 1982 autobiography.

A champion of civil rights for fellow performers, the white Forrest refused to appear on stage with Shaw until theater owners also permitted black singer Billie Holiday to perform. In 1940, she further broke tradition by recording with Lionel Hampton and his all-black orchestra.

Among Forrest’s classic recordings with Shaw were “Any Old Time,” “I’m in Love With the Honorable Mr. So and So,” and “All the Things You Are.” Her hits recorded with Goodman included “Taking a Chance on Love” and “More Than You Know.”

With James, Forrest recorded “I Don’t Want to Walk Without You,” which became an anthem for women alone during World War II, and “I’ve Heard That Song Before.”

Her film career included several shorts with Shaw and such features with James as “Private Buckaroo,” “Bathing Beauty and “Best Foot Forward.”

Other notable hit recordings for Forrest were “You’ll Never Know” and “But Not for Me.” Most of her albums have been recreated on compact disc.

Forrest also sang with crooner Dick Haymes on a long-running radio show, in concerts and on recordings. In 1996, Forrest was named honorary president of the international Dick Haymes Society.

Married and divorced three times, Forrest is survived by one son, Michael Forrest Feinman.

Public funeral services are scheduled for noon Wednesday at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park on Forest Lawn Drive in Burbank.

Memorial donations can be made to the Helen Forrest Foundation, P.O. Box 56344, Sherman Oaks, CA 91413, to cover her recent medical and other expenses. A fund-raising reception will follow the service Wednesday afternoon at the Atlas supper club in the Wiltern Theater, 3760 Wilshire Blvd.