Kathy Kirby born 20 October 1938

Kathy Kirby (born Kathleen O'Rourke; 20 October 1938 – 19 May 2011) was an English singer, reportedly the highest-paid female singer of her generation. She is best known for her cover version of Doris Day's "Secret Love" and for representing the United Kingdom in the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing in second place. Her physical appearance often drew comparisons with Marilyn Monroe. She peaked in popularity in the 1960s.

Kathy Kirby was born Kathleen O'Rourke on the 20th October 1940 in Ilford, Essex. Her singing career started soon after leaving school when, following a meeting with the bandleader Bert Ambrose at the Ilford Palais, she managed to secure a job singing with his orchestra. It was no mean feat for a girl of such tender years as the Ambrose orchestra, with hundreds of recordings under its belt, once laid claim to being Britain's best hotel band of the thirties and had enjoyed audiences that regularly included royalty. She remained with Ambrose's band for three years and he remained her manager and mentor until his death in 1971.

Kathy achieved national prominence in the U.K. as a resident singer, on the British TV series, "Stars and Garters" (1963). She adopted the look of a 'blonde bombshell', and was compared to Marilyn Monroe. Her looks, lip-gloss and her powerful, pitch-perfect voice became her trademarks. Signed to Decca records, she had several hit singles, Kathy had a hit called "(He's a) Big Man" in Vancouver's CFUN in January, 1963.

She scored her first UK Top 20 smash hit with Dance On, a chart topper by the British Group, The Shadows from earlier that year. Kathy's version also topped the single charts in Australia. An attempt to create similar waves by adding lyrics to another instrumental, this time the version by The Spotniks of the traditional "Hava Nagila" was less of a success, despite being given a similar Kirby treatment. Probably, she is most remembered for her dramatic re-working of the Doris Day song, 'Secret Love' which reached the UK Top 5. That year (1963), she won Top British Female Singer in the New Musical Express poll. 

Further hit singles were provided in the form of a cover version of Teresa Brewer's "Let me go lover," as well as "You're the One," and 1965's British Eurovision Song Contest entry, "I Belong," which came a creditable second. For her performance, author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor describes "I Belong" as being far more representative of current musical tastes than other songs from the contest, but Kathy was beaten by the even more contemporary song from Luxembourg, written by Serge Gainsbourg and performed by France Gall. She also sang the theme tune of the BBC television series Adam Adamant Lives!. In 1965 she also scored a hit single in the U.S. with the song "The Way of Love."

Kirby's star faded in the late 1960s. She recorded twelve singles and an album between 1967 and 1973, but did they did not achieve her previous success. She continued to make television appearances, and her 1974 appearance on The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club TV variety show is available to watch on YouTube.

During the 1970s Kirby's singing career was eclipsed by a turbulent personal life, but she made occasional television appearances and performed a few live concerts on the "nostalgia circuit". On 31 December 1976, she performed her hit song "Secret Love" on BBC1's A Jubilee Of Music, celebrating British pop music for Queen
Elizabeth II's impending Silver Jubilee. In December 1983 she gave one last concert in Blackpool, then retired from show business altogether.She did not perform in public after her retirement, but an amateur recording of Kirby singing the song "He", made in about 2005, is available online.

Interest in Kirby and her work continued long after she stopped performing, particularly among gay men, for whom she was something of an icon. In her last decade, she recorded short greetings for her official website. A biography was published in 2005, and there was a 2008 stage show about her life, written and produced by Graham Smith, called Secret Love. Smith re-wrote the show for the 2012 Haworth Festival, entitling it: Dance On: The Kathy Kirby Story.

Kirby was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was in poor physical and mental health for much of her life. Following her retirement, she lived in a series of apartments and hotels in West London, settling in an apartment in Emperor's Gate, South Kensington, surviving on state benefits and some royalties, and maintaining what has been called a "Garbo-esque" seclusion. Very shortly before her death, Kirby moved to Brinsworth House in Twickenham at the insistence of her niece, Sarah, Lady Thatcher, wife of Mark Thatcher. Another niece, Claudia, became Lady Rothermere after marrying Viscount Rothermere.

Kirby died on 19 May 2011, a few days after moving to Brinsworth House. According to a message posted by a relative on a fan website, Kirby suffered a heart attack. (Info edited mainly from Wikipedia)

Gloria Jones born 19 October 1945

 

Gloria Richetta Jones (October 19, 1945, Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California. She recorded the 1964 song, "Tainted Love", later a hit for the British synth-pop duo, Soft Cell. She was the girlfriend of glam rock artist Marc Bolan of the band T. Rex until his death in 1977.

Jones was born in Cincinnati, and moved to Los Angeles, California, at the age of seven, where she first started singing. Jones' first taste of fame came at the age of 14, when, while still at school, she formed with Frankie Kahrl and Billy Preston the successful gospel group the Cogic Singers, with whom she recorded the album It's a Blessing. Although she remained with the group for some four years, she soon found herself drawn into the Los Angeles pop scene.

In 1964, Jones, in her late teens, was discovered by the songwriter Ed Cobb. Signing with Cobb's Greengrass Productions, she recorded her first hit record, "Heartbeat Pts 1 & 2," which Cobb wrote and produced. She toured the United States, performing on several American television programs, footage of which still exists. One performance occurred at a Rock and Soul show in Disneyland in the summer of 1965. "Heartbeat" became a rhythm and blues tune which was recorded later by Dusty Springfield, Spencer Davis and many other artists.

By then, Jones had recorded other songs for Uptown Records, a subsidiary of Capitol/EMI. Included among these was another Cobb-written song, "Tainted Love". Marc Almond of the duo Soft Cell, whose cover version of "Tainted Love" reached #1 worldwide, originally heard the song in a nightclub in Northern England. So strong was Jones's following there that she was proclaimed the "Northern Queen of Soul." Jones also recorded an album for the Uptown label entitled Come Go With Me which was released in 1966.

Jones studied piano, and acquired an advanced classical degree primarily in the works of Bach. In 1968, she joined the cast of Catch My Soul, a rock and soul version of the play Othello, which included cast members Jerry Lee Lewis, The Blossoms, and Dr. John. During the summer of 1968, she performed in a play called Revolution, at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. That winter, she joined the Los Angeles cast of Hair, the musical. Eventually, she was to meet Pam Sawyer, who asked her to write for Motown Records. Jones and Sawyer were amongst the second string of writers at Motown, but still wrote for such artists as Gladys Knight & the Pips, Commodores, The Four Tops and The Jackson 5. As Jones was also initially a singer for the label, protocol demanded a pseudonym, so for some of her earlier co-writes she used the name LaVerne Ware.

Songs that Jones's worked on during this period include The Supremes' "Have I Lost You" (writer), Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross' "My Mistake" (writer), Junior Walker's "I Ain't Goin' Nowhere" (writer/producer) and the Four Tops' "Just Seven Numbers" (writer). The most remembered song that Jones penned was Gladys Knight and the Pips' "If I Were Your Woman", which was nominated for a Grammy in 1971. However, Jones left Motown at the end of 1973, subsequent to the release of her album Share My Love.

Jones first met Marc Bolan of T. Rex in 1969 while performing in Hair (Los Angeles cast). While touring in Europe, Bolan and Jones met for the second time at the Speakeasy in London. In 1972, she was recommended by Warner Brothers Bob Regere to sing backing vocals behind T. Rex at the Winterland in San Francisco.

Soon after joining T. Rex, Jones and Bolan became romantically involved. Together, they had a son, Rolan Bolan. She sang backing vocals and played clavinet with T. Rex from 1973 to 1977. Her rendition of "Dock of the Bay" appears as a bonus track on T.Rex's album Bolan's Zip Gun. Jones released an album in 1976, called Vixen, featuring several songs written by Bolan, and he also was the producer.

In 1977, Jones worked with the group Gonzales, producing several of their singles, and also penning the disco hit, "Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet" for the group. She toured the UK with Gonzales, first on the Bob Marley tour, and then with Osibisa.

She was the driver of the car, a Mini 1275 GT, that crashed and killed Bolan at 4:00 am on 16 September 1977 on the way home to Bolan's Richmond property. They had been out to a restaurant in Mayfair and had been drinking wine. Jones broke her jaw in the
accident and was found draped over the car's bonnet with Bolan lying on the floor. She did not learn of Bolan's death until the day of his funeral. When she was well enough to leave the hospital, she soon found that Bolan's fans had looted what was left of his possessions. Jones and Bolan were not legally married, so she was not entitled to any inheritance, except for £10,000 which Bolan had left her in his will, drafted in 1973. She was later summoned to appear in court in London on charges of being unfit to drive and driving a car in a dangerous condition. She never returned to face the allegations.

Having lost her possessions, Jones and her son moved back to Los Angeles where they stayed with Jones' family.

In 1978, she released the album Windstorm, which was a dedication to the memory of Bolan. On the back cover, it is written "Special Dedication in memory of my son's father, Marc Bolan, whom we miss very much." Her single "Bring On The Love" was a success on the American R&B chart.

Jones stayed in the music industry for several years after, releasing an album produced by Ed Cobb, titled Reunited in 1981. She also collaborated again with Billy Preston and other Cogic Singers for a 1984 reunion album The Cogic's. She has since worked as a musical supervisor for films.(Info Wikipedia)

Nellie Lutcher born 15 October 1915

Nellie Lutcher (October 15, 1912 - June 8, 2007) was an African-American R&B and jazz singer and pianist, who achieved prominence in the late 1940s and early 1950s. She was most recognizable for her distinctive voice, particularly her phrasing and exaggerated pronunciation, and was credited as an influence by Nina Simone among others.

She was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the eldest daughter of the 15 children of Isaac and Suzie Lutcher. Her father was a bass player, and her mother a church organist. She received piano lessons, and her father formed a family band with Nellie playing piano. At age 12 she played with Ma Rainey, when Rainey's regular pianist fell ill and had to be left behind in the previous town. Searching for a temporary replacement in Lake Charles, one of the neighbours told her there was a little girl who played in church who might be able to do it.

Aged 14, Lutcher joined her father in Clarence Hart's Imperial Jazz Band, and in her mid-teens also briefly married the band's trumpet player. In 1933, she joined the Southern Rhythm Boys, writing their arrangements and touring widely. In 1935 she moved to Los Angeles, where she married Leonel Lewis and had a son. She began to play swing piano, and also to sing, in small combos throughout the area, and began developing her own style, influenced by Earl Hines, Duke Ellington and her friend Nat "King" Cole.

She was not widely known until 1947 when she learned of the March of Dimes talent show at Hollywood High School, and performed. The show was broadcast on radio and her performance caught the ear of Dave Dexter, a scout for Capitol Records. She was signed by Capitol and made several records, including "The One I Love Belongs To Someone Else" and her first hit single, the risqué "Hurry On Down", which went to # 2 on the rhythm and blues chart. This was followed by her equally successful composition "He's A Real Gone Guy", which also made # 2 on the R&B chart and crossed over to the pop charts where it reached # 15.

                             

 In 1948 she had a string of further R&B chart hits, the most successful being "Fine Brown Frame", her third # 2 R&B hit. Her songs charted on the pop, jazz, and R&B charts, she toured widely and became widely known. She wrote many of her own songs and, unlike many other African-American artists of the period, retained the valuable publishing rights to them.


In 1950, Lutcher duetted with Nat "King" Cole on "For You My Love" and "Can I Come in for a Second". The same year, her records began to be released in the UK and were actively promoted by radio DJ Jack Jackson. She headlined a UK variety tour, compered by Jackson, with great success, later returning there to tour on her own.

With an orchestra for the first time, Lutcher recorded "The Birth of the Blues" and "I Want to Be Near You" in 1951, but she was losing her appeal with the record-buying public and Capitol dropped her the following year. She went on to record, much less successfully, for other labels including Okeh, Decca and Liberty, and gradually wound down her performance schedule.

Unfortunately her popularity with the record buying public lasted only for 4 years (during which she recorded duets with Nat Cole among others) and her entire recording career a mere 10. In 1957 she retired from both recording and only rarely performed pursuing a career in real estate instead and serving as a director for the Musician’s Union.

  She died of pneumonia at age 95 on June 8th 2007 in Los Angeles.

She was the sister of saxophonist Joe "Woodman" Lutcher and aunt of Latin jazz percussionist Daryl "Munyungo" Jackson. (info mainly Wikipedia)

Ivory Joe Hunter born 10 October 1914

Ivory Joe Hunter (October 10, 1914 – November 8, 1974) was an African American R&B singer, songwriter and pianist, best known for his hit recording, "Since I Met You, Baby" (1956). Billed as The Baron of the Boogie, he was also known as The Happiest Man Alive. He is sometimes confused with Motown producer-songwriter Ivy Joe Hunter.

Born in Kirbyville, Texas, he was christened Ivory Joe as an infant. Developing an early interest in music from his father, Dave Hunter, who played guitar, and his gospel-singing mother, he was a talented pianist by the age of 13. As a teenager, Hunter made his first recording for Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress in 1933.

In the early 1940s, Hunter had his own radio show in Beaumont, Texas on KFDM, where he eventually became program manager, and in 1942, he moved to Los Angeles, joining Johnny Moore's Three Blazers in the mid-1940s. When he wrote and recorded his first song, "Blues at Sunrise" with the Three Blazers for his own label, Ivory Records, it became a regional hit.

In the late 1940s, Hunter founded Pacific Records, and in 1947, he recorded for Four Star Records and King Records. Two years later, he recorded his first R&B hits; on "I Quit My Pretty Mama" and "Guess Who" he was backed by members of Duke Ellington's band.

After signing with MGM Records, he recorded "I Almost Lost My Mind," which topped the 1950 R&B charts and would later (in the wake of Hunter's success with "Since I Met You Baby") be recorded by Pat Boone. "I Need You" was a number two R&B hit that same year. With his smooth delivery, Hunter became a hot R&B commodity, and he also began to be noticed in the country-Western music community. In April, 1951, he made his network TV debut on You Asked For It.

                             

By 1954, he had recorded more than a hundred songs and moved to Atlantic Records. His first song to cross over to the pop charts was "Since I Met You Baby" (1956). It was to be his only top 40 pop song, climbing to the number 12 position.

While visiting Memphis, Tennessee in the spring of 1957, Hunter

was invited by Elvis Presley to visit Graceland. The two spent the day together, singing "I Almost Lost My Mind" and other songs together. Hunter commented, "He showed me every courtesy, and I think he's one of the greatest." Hunter's "Empty Arms" and "Yes, I Want You" also made the pop charts, and he had a minor hit with "City Lights" in 1959, just before his popularity began to decline. Hunter came back as a country singer in the late 1960s, making regular Grand Ole Opry appearances and recording an album titled "I've Always Been Country."

During the 1950s, white artists recorded covers of top R&B tunes. In 1956, when Pat Boone recorded Hunter's smash 1950 R&B hit, "I Almost Lost My Mind," it became a number one hit in 1956. Country singer Sonny James issued a version of "Since I Met You, Baby," and it topped the country charts in 1969, paving the way for Hunter's album The Return of Ivory Joe Hunter and Hunter’s appearance at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Hunter was a prolific songwriter, and some estimate he wrote more than 7,000 songs. Among those songs are two that Presley put in the top 20: "My Wish Came True" and "Ain't That Loving You, Baby." 

In December 73 Ivory was diagnosed with lung cancer and shortly before his death the Opry held a star studded benefit with George Jones, Sonny James (he'd had recent number 1 country hits with Empty Arms and Since I Met You Baby), Tammy and Issac Hayes appearing. Elvis sent a donation and a telegram. Ivory had been airlifted to the show from his sickbed in a Memphis hospital, where health costs had decimated his royalties. Stoically he performed from a wheelchair. He died in Memphis the following year and was buried in Kirbyville. (info mainly Wikipedia)

Lee Wiley born 9 October 1910

 

Lee Wiley (9 October 1910–11 December 1975) was an American jazz singer popular in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

Her husky, surprisingly sensual voice and exquisitely cool readings of pop standards distinguished her singing, but Lee Wiley earns notice as one of the best early jazz singers by recognizing the superiority of American popular song and organizing a set of songs around a common composer or theme -- later popularized as the songbook or concept LP. She was also a songwriter in her own right, and one of the few white vocalists with more respect in the jazz community than the popular one. Even more tragic then, that while dozens of inferior vocalists recorded LPs during the late '50s and '60s, Wiley appeared on record just once between 1957 and her death in 1975.

Wiley was born in 1910 in Ft. Gibson, OK; (Other sources give 1908 & 1915) early press reports claimed lineage from a Cherokee princess, as well as a birthdate five years later than the true one. Whatever her background, she began singing at an early age,

influenced by the "race records" of the day by Mildred Bailey and Ethel Waters. She left Oklahoma for New York City as a teenager, and made a few demos in the late '20s before hiring on with Leo Reisman. Her first hit, "Time on My Hands," came in 1931 with Reisman, and earned her solo billing on a few radio programs. Wiley also began recording her own sides for Kapp, backed by the Casa Loma Orchestra, the Dorsey Brothers, and Johnny Green.

Her popular fortunes fell however, after the threat of tuberculosis kept her from singing for more than a year. In the late '30s, Wiley began recording sides for the Liberty music shop. The results were a series of unique sessions, each organized around the work of one composer (first the Gershwins, then Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, and Harold Arlen) and released on the standard catalog album -- four 10" records played at 78 rpm -- for a grand total of eight songs by each composer. These "songbook" recordings also utilized the cream of the era's hot jazz musicians, including Eddie Condon, Bunny Berigan, Pee Wee Russell, Joe Bushkin, Fats Waller, and Jess Stacy; the latter became her husband for several years during the '40s. Wiley also performed often with Stacy's big band and with smaller groups led by Condon during the '40s. She signed to Columbia in 1950 and recorded several additional albums, including the excellent Night in Manhattan. 

 

After recording a single album for Storyville, Wiley had moved again by the mid-'50s, to RCA Victor. Her two albums for the label, 1956's West of the Moon and the following year's A Touch of the Blues, were touching capstones to her career, the first with the delicate arranging of Ralph Burns proving the perfect accompaniment to her voice. Unfortunately, they were practically the last recordings of her career. After 14 years off-record, Wiley returned with one final session, 1971's Back Home Again.

Wiley died on December 11, 1975 in New York City after being diagnosed with colon cancer earlier that year. She was 67 years old. She was survived by her second husband, Nat Tischenkel, whom she married in 1966. (Info edited from AMG & Wikipedia)

Vaughn Monroe born 7 October 1911

Vaughn Wilton Monroe (October 7, 1911 - May 21, 1973) was an American baritone singer, trumpeter and big band leader and actor, most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; for recording and radio.

Monroe was born in Akron, Ohio. He moved to Wisconsin while still a child and focused on his trumpet talent for most of his boyhood. Another early ambition, to be an opera singer, resulted in his signing on as a vocalist with territory bands led by Austin Wylie, Larry Funk (for whom he made his recording debut) and Jack Marshard. While based in Boston with Marshard, Monroe formed his first orchestra and began recording for Victor's low-priced Bluebird label. One of his first singles, "There I Go," spent three weeks at the top of the Hit Parade in 1940. Though his orchestra was rather tame (even for the time), it was voted top college band that year. His longtime theme song "Racing with the Moon" debuted in 1941, and the following year-and-a-half brought no less than three number one hits: "My Devotion," "When the Lights Go on Again (All Over the World)," and "Let's Get Lost." He recorded extensively for RCA Victor until the 1950s and his signature tune was "Racing with the Moon" (1941).

Monroe's first few years of recording had been quite successful, but all his biggest hits were yet to come. Among his other hits were "There I've Said It Again" (1945), "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" (1946), "Ballerina" (1947), "Ghost Riders in the Sky" (1949), "Someday (You'll Want Me To Want You)" (1949), and "Sound Off" (1951). One lost opportunity - he turned down the chance to record "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

 

He was tall and handsome which helped him as a band leader and singer, as well as in Hollywood, although he did not pursue a movie and television career with vigor. He was sometimes called "the Baritone with Muscles", "the Voice with Hair on its Chest", "Ol' Leather Tonsils", or "Leather Lungs". He was admired by some and derided by others for both his singing and his persona. He had a pleasant baritone voice that wasn't always quite good enough for the songs he sang, according to his critics. (One said "If he'd just open his mouth further so the sound would come out of IT, instead of his nose....".) Spike Jones' satirical rendition of "Ghost Riders" openly made fun of Monroe, even mentioning him by name in the song. The judgment of these critics is open to question, as Monroe's recordings reveal that he was one of the rare popular singers with a voice approaching operatic caliber.

Ghost Riders in the Sky, an old Western chestnut, presaged Monroe's attempt at moving into Hollywood's singing-cowboy genre with a couple of early-'50s B-movies including "Singing Guns" and "The Toughest Man in Arizona." He also disbanded his orchestra, and continued to work television and radio (he hosted Camel Caravan for many years). Except for a few mid-'50s novelties (including "They Were Doin' the Mambo" and "Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots"). Monroe never again hit the charts.

He hosted The Vaughn Monroe Show on CBS Television from 1950–51 and from 1954–55, and also appeared on Bonanza and

The Mike Douglas Show, as well as The Ed Sullivan Show, Texaco Star Theatre, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and American Bandstand. He was a major stockholder in RCA and appeared in print ads and television commercials for the company's TV and audio products.

On his last album for RCA Victor, "There I Sing / Swing It Again," a  stereo recording made in April 1958, Monroe prevailed to include several out-and-out swingers into the sessions, never more appealingly. He continued to work for RCA as a spokesman and alent scout. He signed Neil Sedaka. Monroe continued to perform into the early '70s.

Among Monroe's final high-profile appearances were three in New York City: the Rainbow Grill (1966-7), the St. Regis Hotel (1970), and as part of a big band festival at Madison Square Garden (1971).

Monroe died on May 21, 1973 at Martin County Memorial Hospital, shortly after having stomach surgery . He was buried in Fernhill Memorial Gardens and Mausoleum in Stuart, Florida.

His popularity was renewed in 2000 when a number of compact disc labels began reissuing his recordings and broadcasts, including lesser-known performances such as Requestfully Yours.  (info Big Band Library, AMG & Wikipedia)

Mrs. Miller born 5 October 1907

Elva Ruby Connes 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 out-of-tune versions of songs such as "Moon River", "Monday, Monday", "A Lover's Concerto", and "Downtown". She sang in an untrained, Mermanesque, vibrato-laden voice. According to Irving Wallace, David Wallechinsky, and Amy Wallace in The Book of Lists 2, her voice was compared to the sound of "roaches scurrying across a trash can lid." 

 

Miller's rendition of Downtown sounds like a karaoke version as she sings over a professional instrumental section. She briefly breaks into giggling and several times apparently forgets the lyrics. Nevertheless, her Downtown single reached the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in April of 1966, peaking at #82. The single's B-side, A Lover’s Concerto, just barely cracked the Hot 100 that same month at #95.

Elva Connes was born in Joplin, Missouri, to Edward and Ada (Martin) Connes. She grew up in Missouri and Kansas. In 1934 she married John Richardson Miller and moved with him to Claremont, California. She studied music, voice, and composition at Pomona College, and involved herself in church and community projects. 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 a such recording that arranger Fred Bock heard her. He convinced her to try more modern songs, and took the recordings to different record labels.

KMPC disc jockey (and later Laugh-In announcer) Gary Owens featured Mrs. 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 didn't take place until late 1965.

Mrs. Miller was signed to Capitol Records by Lex de Azevedo, a young up-and-coming producer at Capitol Records. His uncle, Bill Conkling, was the then-current president of Capitol Records. Azevedo was also a member of The King Family. He is now a successful music producer in the Mormon Church, and when approached, does not care to discuss his involvement with Mrs. Miller.  

Mrs. 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.

Mrs. 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. However, interest in Mrs. Miller soon waned. She was dropped by Capitol, and in 1968 she released her final album, Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing, on the Amaret label. She later issued several singles on her own Vibrato Records label, then retired from singing in the early 1970s.

She apparently was unaware at first that her musical ability was being ridiculed, but eventually realized it and decided to go along with the joke. She attributed her break with Capitol to her wanting to sing correctly and record ballads, while Capitol wanted to continue the "so bad it's good" style. 

A couple of rare Mrs. Miller performances have appeared on YouTube. It is plain to see by these performances that Miller was capable of skipping beats, and missing cues, all by herself.

 She "retired" sometime around 1972, when interest in her career almost completely waned out. She spent her remaining years doing
charity work and died while living in a nursing home.

Elva Miller died in Garden Terrace Retirement Center, in Vista, California, in 1997, at the age of 89. She was interred in Pomona Mausoleum, at Pomona Valley Memorial Park, in Pomona, CA. That same year, a compilation CD of her work was released on Capitol's Ultra-Lounge label: Wild, Cool & Swingin', The Artist Collection Vol. 3: Mrs. Miller. (Info Wikipedia)