Mrs. Miller

This article is about the singer. For the television personality known as Miss Miller, see Lillian Miller. For the British pianist, see Mrs Mills.
Miller with Jimmy Durante during a 1966 appearance on The Hollywood Palace.

Elva Ruby Miller (née Connes; October 5, 1907 – July 5, 1997), who recorded under the name "Mrs. Miller," was an American singer who gained some fame in the 1960s for her series of shrill and off-key renditions of popular songs such as "Moon River", "Monday, Monday", "A Lover's Concerto", and "Downtown". Singing in an untrained, Mermanesque, vibrato-laden style, according to Irving Wallace, David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace in The Book of Lists 2, Miller's voice was compared to the sound of "roaches scurrying across a trash can lid."[1]

Nevertheless, "Downtown" reached the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in April 1966, peaking at No. 82. The single's B-side, "A Lover's Concerto," barely cracked the Hot 100 that same month at No. 95.[2]

Life and career

Elva Ruby Connes was born in Joplin, Missouri, the third of seven children born to Edward and Ada (née Martin) Connes. She grew up in Missouri and Kansas. She married John Richardson Miller, a professional investor thirty years her senior, on January 17, 1934. They moved to Claremont, California the following year, where she studied music, voice, and composition at Pomona College and involved herself in church and community projects.[3] She said singing was "a hobby", but produced several records, mainly of classical, gospel, and children's songs. She self-financed and recorded at least one 45 ("Slumber Song"), and distributed it to local orphanages. It was while making such a recording that arranger Fred Bock heard her. He convinced her to try more modern songs and took the recordings to different record labels.

Radio disc jockey (and later Laugh-In announcer) Gary Owens featured Miller on his radio program as early as 1960 and, around that time, she also appeared on a limited-run album of his comedy routines. Owens can certainly be credited to have first discovered her, as her later success on Capitol Records did not take place until late 1965. Miller was signed to Capitol Records by Lex de Azevedo, a young up-and-coming producer at the label. His uncle, Bill Conkling, was then president of Capitol Records. Azevedo was also a member of The King Family. He is now a successful music producer in the LDS Church and, when approached, does not care to discuss his involvement with Miller.

Miller's success, like that of Florence Foster Jenkins and Wing, was due to the perceived amateurishness of her singing. Capitol Records seemed eager to emphasize it—in a 1967 interview with Life magazine, Miller herself claimed that during recording sessions she was deliberately conducted a half beat ahead or behind time, and claimed the worst of several different recordings of a song would be chosen for the finished album. Her first LP, ironically titled Mrs. Miller's Greatest Hits, appeared in 1966. Made up entirely of pop songs, it sold over 250,000 copies in its first three weeks. KMPC disc jockey Gary Owens wrote the liner notes. Will Success Spoil Mrs. Miller?! followed and The Country Soul of Mrs. Miller came a year later.

Miller sang for US servicemen in Vietnam, performed at the Hollywood Bowl, guest starred on numerous television shows, and appeared in Roddy McDowall's film The Cool Ones, where she sang "It's Magic". However, interest in Miller soon waned. She was dropped by Capitol and, in 1968, she released one album, Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing, on the small Amaret Records label. Before issuing several singles on her own Vibrato Records label, she recorded two albums worth of material at Radio Recorders for Dunhill Records which went unnoticed, then retired from singing in the early 1970s. Her last known release was a self-released EP in 1970. Miller retired officially in 1973, when interest in her career had almost completely vanished. She spent her remaining years doing charity work. She lived in a condo in Northridge, California, until an earthquake in 1994. She moved to a retirement home after that.[4]

It has been suggested that she may have been the inspiration for a similar act called Mr Miller and the Blue Notes, who, in 1966 released their interesting version of the Herman's Hermits hit, "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter".[5]

Death

Miller died in Garden Terrace Retirement Center, in Vista, California, in 1997, aged 89.[4] She was interred in Pomona Mausoleum, at Pomona Valley Memorial Park, in Pomona, California. Two years later, a compilation CD of her work was released on Capitol's Ultra-Lounge label: Wild, Cool & Swingin,' The Artist Collection Vol. 3: Mrs. Miller.

Discography

Albums

Album[6] Year US Charts[7]
Mrs. Miller's Greatest Hits 1966 15
Will Success Spoil Mrs. Miller?! 1966 -
The Country Soul of Mrs. Miller 1967 -
Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing 1968 -
Wild, Cool & Swingin' 1999 -
The Turned-On World of Mrs. Miller 2000 -

"-" indicates did not chart

Charting Singles

Single Year US Billboard Hot 100[8]
Downtown 1966 #82
A Lover's Concerto 1966 #95

See also

References

  1. ↑ Irving Wallace, David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace, The Book of Lists 2 (1983); ISBN 0-688-03574-4
  2. ↑ "Mrs. Miller - Chart history | Billboard". www.billboard.com. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  3. ↑ Skip Heller (1999), Searching for Mrs. Miller; The Link Between Charles Ives and Ed Wood,
  4. 1 2 Profile, danacountryman.com; accessed 26 September 2015.
  5. ↑ Darryl W. Bullock, The World's Worst Records: Volume One: An Arcade of Audio Atrocity Page 76
  6. ↑ "Mrs. Miller | Album Discography | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  7. ↑ "Mrs. Miller | Awards | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  8. ↑ "Mrs. Miller - Chart history | Billboard". www.billboard.com. Retrieved 2016-02-20.

External links

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