Gershon Kingsley was born Goetz Gustav Ksinski in Bochum, Westfalia, Germany on October 28,1922. He grew up in Berlin, but fled to Palestine in 1938 because of the rise of Nazism. Separated from his family at age 15, Kingsley lived and worked on a kibbutz (a cooperative farm) in a land that would become Israel. Here, he became a self-taught pianist and later performed with local jazz bands around Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. He is probably most famous for his "Popcorn" tune, popularized by Hot Butter.

Read more about Gershon Kingsley on Last.fm.