Lillie Bryant (born February 14, 1940, Newburgh, New
York) is an American singer who was part of the pop vocal duo Billy &
Lillie.
Born in Newburgh, NY, about an hour and a half from New
York City, Lillie always loved music. Her initial public singing was in the
church as a very young child. Her favourite singers were Dinah Washington, Ruth
Brown and Nat "King" Cole. Her grandmother would frequently take her
to New York City's legendary Apollo Theatre to see many of music's biggest
performers. Young Lillie vowed to herself "one day I'm gonna be on that
stage." And when she turned 14, she was on that stage! She appeared during
an amateur night and did a rousing rendition of Ruth's signature song
"(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" and tore the house down.
For the next few years she performed in New York City
working at different clubs. When she was 17, a dancer at one of the clubs loved
her singing and told her that a popular bandleader-arranger-musician-singer
named Billy Ford was looking for a female vocalist to be part of his ensemble.
Lillie followed up and a couple of months later, Billy invited her to come down
and audition for him. On the day of the audition, it just so happened that the
regular girl singer with his group did not show up due to illness. So Lillie
turned out to be the only one there that afternoon.
Unbeknown to Lillie, two very successful
producer-songwriters named Bob Crewe and Frank Slay were there to audition
Billy's group, which was called Billy Ford's Thunderbirds. Frank and Bob
happened to be looking for a duo to record a song that they had written called
"La Dee Dah." Being that they were looking for a duo and the young
lady who was usually with Billy was not there, they said pointing to Lillie
"what does she sound like?" Billy said "I don't know! I was
going to audition her after you leave." But Bob said "well, we'd like
to hear her." They asked Lillie to sing and she chose the Ruth Brown song
"(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean."
After she sang, they opened up a briefcase and pulled out
the sheet music of "La Dee Dah" and said "would the two of you
please sing this song together"? Somewhat bewildered Billy and Lillie
obliged and Bob and Frank loved what they heard. Following their impromptu
performance, Frank and Bob looked at each other, nodded their heads and said in
unison "we got our duo"! Lillie's scheduled audition for Billy Ford
never happened. Instead her unscheduled audition for Bob and Frank did happen
and Billy and Lillie passed with flying colours.
Billy & Lillie recorded for Swan Records in the late
1950s, and charted three hit singles in the United States, two of them written
by the songwriter and record producer Bob Crewe, and producer Frank C. Slay,
Jr. Crewe later became one of the most successful songwriters and producers in
history.
The first single, "La Dee Dah" (written by
Crewe), was the only one of them to hit the Top 10 on the Billboard chart,
peaking at No. 9. It was released on Swan Records and sold over 1,000,000
copies and was awarded a gold disc. When they performed "La Dee Dah"
for Dick Clark's American Bandstand, Clark liked their song so much that he
asked the songwriters to write another song. Crewe and Slay came up with their
third single release, "Lucky Ladybug". Most of their singles were
released on London Records in the UK.
While releasing records as half of the Billy and Lillie
duo, Lillie also released solo records which became regional hits. They included
"Smoky Gray Eyes," "The Gambler," "I'll Never Be
Free," and "Good Good Morning Baby."
Billy and Lillie broke up in 1959 but Lillie (who became
Lillie Bryant Howard) never stopped singing. Her primary musical focus over the
years has changed from catchy rock and roll tunes to jazz and blues. But she still performs the old Billy and Lillie
hits including a critically-acclaimed brand new solo version of "La Dee
Dah."
Ford died in 1983 (though some sources suggest 1985).
Bryant returned to her hometown of Newburgh, New York, and became a community
activist. She was the Democratic candidate for mayor of Newburgh in 2007. She
lost the election to the Republican candidate by 150 votes.
Recently Lille was a featured principle, along with jazz
vocalist Sheila Jordan, in the off-Broadway production of "The Beatnik
Cafe." And she has also been doing a tribute to Dinah Washington since the
fall of 2009 throughout upstate New York, Boston, and Pennsylvania in theatres
and at private affairs.
(Info edited from Wikipedia & jerseygirlssing.com)
1 comment:
For “Billy & Lillie - Dee Dah: 31 Fabulous Hits” go here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/qcwqusxacrcooie/Billy_%26_Lillie.zip
01 La Dee Dah
02 Lucky Ladybug
03 Happiness
04 Bells, Bells, Bells (The Bell Song)
05 The Monster (Rock & Roll)
06 Draggin'
07 Over The Mountain, Across The Sea
08 I Promise You
09 Love Me Sincerely
10 Nothing Moves Without A Push
11 Ain't Coming Back To You
12 Honeymoonin'
13 Creepin', Crawlin', Cryin'
14 You Made Me Love You
15 Till Death Do Us Part
16 Hangin' On To You
17 Aloysisus Horatio Thomas, The Cat
18 Smokey Grey Eyes
19 Good Good Morning Baby
20 Why I Love Billy
21 Bananas
22 Swampy
23 Terrific Together
24 The In's And Out's Of Love
25 The Greasy Spoon
26 The Gambler
27 That's The Way The Cookie Crumbles
28 Free For All
29 I'll Never Be Free
30 Tumbled Down
31 The Two Of Us
A big thank you to Old Melodies – Wings of Dream blog for original link.
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