SOTU 565 All Things Miller

[Ms Bean]

It's time to post the new Season. I missed Val's season 561 and the song I was going to work on stayed on my mind. It's now the inspiration for week 565.

This week I'm in the mood for all your entries that have a link to a Miller, mills, milling, millers' wives and daughters etc in the song's title, lyrics, performer or composer/writer.

Usual rules:
- The video should be newly recorded for the Season (usual medical exceptions apply)
- You can post your videos from Sunday 11 December Midnight in Hawai'i to the end of the following Sunday 18 December (again midnight in Hawai'i)
- Collaborations are very welcome
- Other instruments are welcome, but the uke / guitalele should be a main instrument
- Instrumentals are welcome, but it's nice if you mention the sentence or phrase with the keyword in your post
- Originals are always fun

We are always extra excited if UU members who haven't joined us yet, make their Seasons debut (or if there are busy folks that drop in after a break). You might think that you're not ready yet, but we disagree so if you've been thinking of giving it a try just do it! Even a nursery song about a mill spinning is welcome.

I'm thinking of ordering a small prize, namely arrangements or original compositions by UU members such as Choan Galvez, Rob MacKillop or Wilfried Welti, preferably sent straight to the winner's inbox or mailbox. How I will pick the winner is something I haven't thought out yet. It might be a random draw because picking favourites is stressful.

Brian's SOTU 564 is still in full swing. If you have another One Trick Pony, make haste and submit it.

The link to the PLAYLIST will be posted once the songs start flowing in.

 

[uke4ia]

Elva Ruby Miller (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-tempo renditions of popular songs such as "Moon River", "Monday, Monday", "A Lover's Concerto", and "Downtown". An untrained mezzo-soprano, she sang in a heavy, 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," same month at No. 95.[2]

 

[hendulele]

Elva Ruby Miller (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-tempo renditions of popular songs such as "Moon River", "Monday, Monday", "A Lover's Concerto", and "Downtown". An untrained mezzo-soprano, she sang in a heavy, 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," same month at No. 95.[2]


View attachment 146058

I had forgotten Mrs. Miller.

The 1960s were bizarre.

 

[ksiegel]

I had forgotten Mrs. Miller.

The 1960s were bizarre.

I couldn't forget about her... I think I was 9 when she made her first appearance on the Merv Griffin show... it was on every afternoon when I got home from school.

 

[UkeCan1]

Elva Ruby Miller (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-tempo renditions of popular songs such as "Moon River", "Monday, Monday", "A Lover's Concerto", and "Downtown". An untrained mezzo-soprano, she sang in a heavy, 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," same month at No. 95.[2]


View attachment 146058

Omg, I'm obsessed. I think I'm about to go down a two-hour Mrs Miller rabbit hole until it's time to post my Miller (not Mrs) song.

 

[Barbablanca]

Argh.... I listened to the first notes of "Downtown" and had to stop at "Downtown".... No!!! Whoever told her she could sing?
The 60s could indeed be bizarre!

 

[DelGriff]

Argh.... I listened to the first notes of "Downtown" and had to stop at "Downtown"....

Then you missed the whistling, Berni! I urge you to go back and stick with it!

 

[One Man And His Uke]

She reminds me of Margarita Pracatan.


Sadly no Miller link with Margarita though…..as far as I can tell

 

[UkeCan1]

Since you are European, Sabine, this may be new to you ... but to us Yanks of a certain age, it is a long buried memory from a simpler time. For those of us who remember, I couldn't think of a better way to kick off All Things Miller, than with the '70's Miller Beer jingle. Ladies and gentleman (and everyone else too) ... It's Miller Time!

 

[pabrizzer]

 

[joo]

I sang 2 verses of this song to my nephew Gylan and he started playing with me. First take unrehearsed. Thanks Gylan darling!

The sky was on fire
when I walked to the mill
To take up the slack in the line

(sorry about the noise in the background)


Thanks for hosting, Sabine!

 

[joo]

Incredibly proud of my nephew Gylan to play and sing this song with me after listening to me sang it once to him. Thanks Gylan!
This is about a mill that shut down, based on a true story.

 

[YorkSteve]

People of a certain age, and maybe a certain country, will remember this one. Camberwick Green was a children's TV series back in the 60s, and still as good today (I have them all on DVD, as well as the songbook - one day, grand-children will thank me...)

 

[Cornfield]

I wonder how many recordings of "A Whiter Shad of Pale" will appear? There are a few beautiful Ukulele tabs out there but I doubt I can master any before the week is up.

 

[Yukio]

I wonder how many recordings of "A Whiter Shad of Pale" will appear? There are a few beautiful Ukulele tabs out there but I doubt I can master any before the week is up.

That was the first one that came to my mind, for sure!

 

[xommen]

I immediately thought of this song when I read the theme, I like the melancholy of it, this is called Windmills of your Mind.

 

[Ila]

I wonder how many recordings of "A Whiter Shad of Pale" will appear? There are a few beautiful Ukulele tabs out there but I doubt I can master any before the week is up.

Allow me to be the first! (Forgive a couple of snafus.).

 

[AlanDP]

This one would have probably been an obvious choice for this theme a hundred years ago.

 

[CeeJay]

This is probably the longest reach and thinnest association that a truckload of Thornton Rules could possibly mitigate or even litigate for. But I like this song , always have and love the phrase "tilting at windmills".

 

[DelGriff]

So, along with some of the other unlikely musical ‘talents’ already mentioned here, is the considerably more talented Mrs Mills, who had some significant chart success here in the UK at the same time as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were strutting their stuff: