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The Facts of
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Roger Miller
________________
The
Biography
| Roger Miller is best known for his humorous novelty songs, which overshadow
his considerable songwriting talents as well as his hardcore honky tonk roots.
After writing hits for a number of artists in the '50s, Miller racked up a
number of hits during the '60s which became not only country classics, but
popular classics as well. Miller was born in Fort Worth, TX, but r aised in the
small town of Erick, OK, by his aunt and uncle, following the death of his
father and his mother's debilitating sickness. Initially, he was attracted to
music by hearing country over the radio as well as by his brother-in-law, Sheb
Wooley. By the time he was ten, he earned enough money picking cotton to buy
himself a guitar. At the age of 11, Wooley gave him a fiddle and encouraged him
to pursue a performing career. Miller completed the eighth grade and left school
to become a ranch hand and rodeo rider. Throughout his adolescence, he played
music in addition to working the ranch. Soon, he was able to play not only
guitar and fiddle, but also piano, banjo, and drums. He enlisted in the Army
during the Korean war and was stationed in South Carolina, where he met the
brother of Jethro Burns who arranged an audition at RCA Nashville for him. Early
in 1957, Miller left the army and auditioned for Chet Atkins at RCA. The session
was unsuccessful, and he spent a year as a bellhop at a Nashville hotel. While
in Nashville, Miller met George Jones and Pappy Dailey, who introduced him to
Don Pierce, an executive at Mercury Records. Pierce signed Miller and had him
cut three songs. His first single, "Poor Little John," disappeared without a
trace. Following the failure of his first single, Miller continued to work at
the hotel and tour with other musicians -- he played fiddle with Minnie Pearl
for a short time, then he became the drummer for Faron Young. After a few
months, he was signed as a songwriter for Tree Music Publishing and stopped
performing as a supporting musician. Instead of playing music, he became a
fireman in Amarillo, TX. The abandonment of performing was short-lived, however
-- within a few months, he became the drummer for Ray Price's Cherokee Cowboys.
In 1958, Price recorded Miller's "Invitation to the Blues," and it went to
number three. It was soon followed by three other successful versions of his
songs -- Young's "That's the Way I Feel" and Ernest Tubb's "Half a Mind" both
went Top Ten, while Jim Reeves had a number one hit with "Billy Bayou." That
same year, Jones recorded "Tall Tall Trees" and "Nothing Can Stop My Love,"
which he had written with Miller; neither of the songs were hits. The following
year, Reeves had a hit with another one of Miller's songs, "Home." Since his
songwriting career was flourishing, Miller decided it was again time to try to
become a performing artist as well. He recorded a few tracks for Decca which
weren't successful, and then he signed to RCA Records. "You Don't Want My Love,"
one of his first singles for the label, reached number 14 in early 1961,
followed by the Top Ten "When Two Worlds Collide" later that summer. Miller
wasn't able to immediately follow the songs with another hit single. Two years
later, "Lock, Stock and Teardrops" scraped the charts, and he left the record
label. Around that time, Miller moved to Hollywood began appearing regularly on
The Jimmy Dean Show and The Merv Griffin Show, two of the most popular
television programs in the country. His guest spots showcased his new style --
instead of concentrating on hardcore country, he had developed a willfully goofy
persona, singing silly novelty songs. He signed a record contract with Smash
Records and released his first single for the label, "Dang Me," in the summer of
1964. It was an immediate smash, vaulting to number one and spending six weeks
at the top of the charts; it also crossed over into the pop charts, peaking at
number seven. "Chug-a-Lug" followed a few months after it, reaching number three
on the country charts and nine on the pop charts. At the end of the year,
"Do-Wacka-Do" was released, becoming a number 15 hit. Miller began 1965 with his
best-known song, "King of the Road." The single spent five weeks at the top of
the country charts and became his biggest pop hit, peaking at number four. Its
accompanying album, The Return of Roger Miller, was another crossover success,
also peaking at number four on the pop album charts and going gold. Miller was
at his peak in 1965. Every song he released that year -- "Engine Engine #9,"
"One Dyin' and a Buryin'," "Kansas City Star," "England Swings" -- reached the
country Top Ten, and at the end of the year, his Golden Hits album went Top Ten;
it would eventually go gold. In the summer of 1965, he released The Third Time
Around, a record that leaned toward his honky tonk roots; it peaked at number
13. After the watershed year of 1965, Miller's career dipped slightly. Although
other artists were still having hits with his songs -- Eddy Arnold took "The
Last Word in Lonesome Is Me" to number two -- Miller had trouble breaking the
Top 40 following the number five hit "Husbands and Wives" in early 1966. He
continued to record throughout the late '60s, but fewer and fewer of the songs
were becoming hits. Occasionally, he would record the songs of emerging
songwriters, whether it was Bobby Russell's "Little Green Apples" (number six,
1968) or Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee" (number 12, 1969). Toward the
end of the decade and beginning of the '70s, he began to concentrate on honky
tonk, although he still made his trademark novelties. During the '70s, he
recorded sporadically, preferring to concentrate on his hotel chain,
appropriately called King of the Road. "Tomorrow Night in Baltimore," released
in the spring of 1971, was his biggest hit of the decade, climbing to number 11.
Early in the decade, he wrote songs for Walt Disney's animated adaptation of
Robin Hood -- he also provided a voice for the rooster in the film -- as well as
the movie Waterhole Three. In 1973, he left Smash/Mercury for Columbia Records.
He spent four years at Columbia and only his debut single for the label, "Open
Up Your Heart," was a hit, peaking at number 14. Miller didn't record much
during the '80s -- his biggest hit was "Old Friends," recorded with Willie
Nelson and Ray Price. In the mid-'80s, he wrote the music for Big River, a
Broadway adaptation of Mark Twain's works. Both the play and Miller's music were
critically acclaimed and enormously popular. Big River won seven Tony Awards and
two of those went to Miller, for Best Musical and Outstanding Score. Big River
would be the last major work of Miller's career. In 1991, he was diagnosed with
throat cancer and died a year later. After his death, his legacy remained
strong, as each new generation of country singers found songs in his catalog to
cover and reinterpret. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide |
Written by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Source: LaunchYohoo.com |
- If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that,
surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it
had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That
breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour!
- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616),
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