Millie Small

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Millie Small (1964)

Millie Small (born October 6, 1946 in Clarendon , Jamaica as Millicent Dolly May Small ; † May 5, 2020 in London , England ), often simply Millie , was a Jamaican pop and ska singer. Her greatest success was the song My Boy Lollipop , which reached number 5 in the German single charts in 1964 and number 2 in both the British and American charts.

Career

Millie, the daughter of a sugar cane plantation supervisor, began her singing career as a teenager and had several hits in the Anglophone Caribbean as a member of various duos with names such as Roy and Millie , Owen & Millie and Jackie & Millie .

In 1963 Millie went to London and recorded the single Don't You Know there, which was unsuccessful. Their second UK release was a cover version of My Boy Lollipop , originally recorded by Barbie Gaye in 1956. The recording was arranged by Ernest Ranglin , and it is said that young Rod Stewart played the harmonica on it. In reality, however, it should have been Jimmy Powell of the Rockin 'Berries . Millie Small stated in 2016 that Stewart recorded the song with her. After its release in March 1964, the single became a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic and has sold around seven million times to date. My Boy Lollipop was the first hit of the Island Records label (even if it was licensed by Fontana Records ) and the first ever hit of the Jamaican blue beat in Europe; this genre is the direct forerunner of today's reggae .

With her follow-up singles, Millie Small could not build on the success of My Boy Lollipop . Her last recordings were made in 1970. She then withdrew increasingly from the public and lived at least temporarily in poor conditions. In 2016, she gave the US journalist Tom Graves the first lengthy interview about her career, after mostly rejecting similar requests. Small, who had a daughter named Jaelee, born in 1984, died in May 2020 at the age of 73 after a stroke .

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
My Boy Lollipop
  DE 5 06/01/1964 (24 weeks)
  UK 2 03/14/1964 (23 weeks)
  US 2 05/23/1964 (12 weeks)
Sweet William
  UK 30th 06/27/1964 (9 weeks)
  US 40 08/08/1964 (7 weeks)
Bloodshot Eyes
  UK 48 11/13/1965 (1 week)

Singles

  • 1963: Don't You Know / Until You're Mine
  • 1964: My Boy Lollipop
  • 1964: Sweet William
  • 1964: I Love the Way You Love / Bring It On Home to Me
  • 1965: I've Fallen in Love with a Snowman / What Am I Living For
  • 1965: See You Later, Alligator / Chilly Kisses
  • 1965: My Street / It's Too Late
  • 1965: Bloodshot Eyes / Tongue Tied
  • 1966: My Street / A Mixed Up Fickle Moody Self-Centered, Spoiled Kind of Boy
  • 1966: Killer Joe / Carry Go Bring Come
  • 1967: You Better Forget / I Am in Love
  • 1967: Chicken Feed / Wings of a Dove
  • 1968: When I Dance with You / Hey Mr. Love
  • 1969: Readin 'Writin' Arithmetic / I Want You Never to Stop
  • 2004: Time Will Tell

swell

  1. ↑ Other information about her date of birth vary from 1942 to 1948 ( allmusic.com )
  2. ↑ Steven Kurutz: Millie Small, 'My Boy Lollipop' Singer, Is Dead at 73. In: The New York Times , May 8, 2020. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  3. ↑ Biography at 45-rpm.org
  4. ↑ a b c Ben Beaumont-Thomas: Millie Small, My Boy Lollipop singer, dies aged 73 . In: The Guardian . May 6, 2020, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed May 7, 2020]).
  5. ↑ An Interview with Millie Small. By Tom Graves: Articles, reviews and interviews from Rock's Backpages. Retrieved May 6, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Millie Small. chartsurfer.de, accessed on May 7, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Small, Millie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Millie (stage name); Small, Millicent Dolly May (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jamaican pop and ska singer
DATE OF BIRTH October 6, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Clarendon , Jamaica
DATE OF DEATH 5th May 2020
Place of death London , England