Roger Miller - Roger Miller '1964 / 2022

Tracks list

Tracklist:

01. You Don't Want My Love
02. Hitch-Hiker
03. Every Which-A-Way
04. Sorry, Willie
05. Fair Swiss Maiden
06. Hey Little Star
07. When Two Worlds Collide
08. Trouble On the Turnpike
09. Lock, Stock and Teardrops
10. Footprints In the Snow


 moreHe 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

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