Jodi Miller is a versatile singer with a rich, sonorous voice who won a Grammy Award for “Queen of the House,” a housewife’s response to the hobo’s refrain, and sang the teenage anthem “Home of the House.”・The Brave” recorded the biggest hit. He died on October 6th at his home in Blanchard, Oklahoma. He was 80 years old.
Her daughter, Robin Brooks, said the cause was a complication of Parkinson’s disease.
Signed to Capitol Records as a folk singer, Miller released her first album in 1963 and released the pop song “he walks like a man“
Her career began at Capitol in 1965, and she wrote Roger Miller’s “king of the lord” I hurriedly recorded it.queen of the house‘ is a disstaff lyric by Mary Taylor adapted to Mr. Miller’s melody and finger snapping rhythm.
Mr. Miller (no relation to Mr. Miller, but they both grew up in Oklahoma) said, “A trailer for sale or rent. Miller says, ‘I get up at 6 a.m. every day for 50 cents. Bacon and eggs to fix.’
“I’ll get a maid someday,” she sang, “but until then I’m the queen of the house.
The song became a crossover hit, reaching #5 on Billboard’s country charts and #12 on the Hot 100, and in 1966, Miller won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country and Western Vocal Performance. for “King of the Road” that year. )
That acclaim did not prevent radio stations in several countries from shunning another single she released in 1965.home of the brave‘ is a boy who doesn’t tie his hair ‘as before’ and wears ‘weird clothes’ and is bullied and kicked out of school because ‘it’s not like them and they can’t ignore it’. It is a sympathetic ode to “
“Home of the Brave, Land of the Free” is the chorus of a song written by Brill Building heavyweights Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. “Why don’t you let him be what he wants?”
Despite some radio programmers objecting to its anti-establishment themes, “House of the Brave” went on. Ms. Miller’s best-selling single in the United States.
“I loved that song,” she said in a 2020 interview with Oklahoma State University’s Oral History Project. “Unfortunately, it got a bad rap.”
Over time, Ms. Miller landed about 30 singles on the Billboard charts. Twenty-seven of her albums were in her country category, with several top five hits. In the 1970s, she worked with noted Nashville producer Billy Sherrill on Chiffon’s 1963 song “he is very well‘ reached #5 on the country charts and #53 on the pop charts in 1971.
After making her last major-label album in 1979, Miller spent most of her time in Oklahoma, raising her daughter and helping her husband, Monty Brooks. She later resurfaced with her album of patriotic material, and after she became a born-again Christian, she sang gospel music.
“I love singing all kinds of songs, so I was unconventional,” she told Tulsa World in 2018.
The youngest of five sisters, Myrna Joy Miller was born on November 29, 1941 in Phoenix. A place her family stopped by when they moved from Oklahoma to Oakland, California, where her machinist, her father Johnny, her bell her miller worked. lining up. Her mother, Faye (Harper) Miller, was a homemaker.
The family often played music and sang together. Johnny Miller was an accomplished fiddler, and her sister Patricia, whom Myrna idolized, taught her harmony.
Realizing her daughter’s talent, Myrna’s parents entered her into a singing contest, and her father sneaked her into a bar. She became known as “the little girl with the big voice”, according to Hugh FoleyThe book “Oklahoma Music Guide III”.
The Millers eventually divorced, and when Myrna was eight, she was taken on a bus to Blanchard, a small town just outside Oklahoma City, to live with her paternal grandmother.
Two songs Miller heard growing up made her want to be a professional singer. One is Mario Lanza’s version of “La Donna et MobileFrom “Rigoletto”. Another is his No. 1 hit by Debbie Reynolds in 1957.
“The day I decided to dedicate my life to singing was the first time I heard Debbie Reynolds sing.”Tammy‘ Miller wrote on his website.
After graduating from Blanchard High School in 1959, she took a secretarial job in Oklahoma City, moved to the YWCA, and practiced folk songs she learned at the local library.
Her hopes for a recording career began one night in a coffee shop where she opened for singer Mike Settle.popular folk trio rimlitters Not only did I come to see Ms. Settle, but I also saw Ms. Miller’s performance. Lou Gottlieb of her impressed group encouraged her to move to California if she was serious about her singing career.
She married her high school sweetheart, Mr. Brooks, in January 1962, and they headed to Los Angeles together. After arriving, they reached out to actor Dale Robertson, a native of Oklahoma and a friend of the Brooks family. He helped arrange auditions for Capitol on his record. Capitol Records immediately signed Ms. Miller and offered to change her first name.
Her first record, Wednesday’s Child Is Full of Woe, was a collection of folk songs and she was accompanied by session players like Glen Campbell. She gave her back-up vocals to the Oklahoma publication 405 magazine in 2012, later becoming known as Cher.
The timing of the record was disappointing.
“By the time we released our first LP on Capitol, folk music was dying out,” she said. Thus began her turn to pop and country, and a career that took her to Hawaii, among other places, on her beach tour with Her Boys. She has appeared in television shows such as ‘American Bandstand’, ‘Hullabaloo’ and ‘Hee Haw’. 15 years in a row as a top draw at Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe.
An album of her patriotic songs, recorded in 1987, fell into the hands of Vice President George Bush, who invited her to sing at his campaign rally when he ran for president the following year. She sang at the inaugural ball when he was elected.
Besides her daughter, Miller has two sisters, Carol Cooper and Vivian Cole, and two grandchildren. Her husband died in 2014.
Miller’s final recording, Wayfaring Stranger, will be released next month on her 81st birthday. A mix of her country and gospel songs, the song includes a new version of “Queen of the House” and a folk song that was part of her repertoire when she started out as a singer 60 years ago. Her 19th century spiritual titles include his songs.
Alain Delaquérière contributed to the research.