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Roger Miller
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Roger Dean Miller (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992) was an American singer, songwriter and musician, best known for his mid-1960s country/pop hits such as King of the Road, Dang Me and England Swings. He also wrote the music and lyrics for the Tony-award winning Broadway musical Big River (1985).
r Miller, the youngest of three boys, was born in Fort Worth, Texas, to Laudene Holt Miller (mother) and father Jean Miller.
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Encyclopedia
Roger Dean Miller (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992) was an American singer, songwriter and musician, best known for his mid-1960s country/pop hits such as King of the Road, Dang Me and England Swings. He also wrote the music and lyrics for the Tony-award winning Broadway musical Big River (1985).
Life and work
Roger Miller, the youngest of three boys, was born in Fort Worth, Texas, to Laudene Holt Miller (mother) and father Jean Miller. Jean died when Roger was only a year old, and he was subsequently sent to live with his aunt and uncle, Elmer and Armelia Miller, in Erick, Oklahoma.
Miller had a lonely and unhappy childhood. Heavily influenced by the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday nights and the Light Crust Doughboys on Fort Worth radio, he desperately wanted to be a singer-songwriter. When he was seventeen, he stole a guitar, but turned himself in and chose to join the Army rather than go to jail. He later quipped, "My education was Korea, Clash of '52." Upon leaving the Army, he went to Nashville to work on his music career. In 1959 he wrote his first number-one song, "Billy Bayou" recorded by Jim Reeves.
Although usually grouped with country music singers, Miller's unique style defies easy classification. He had a string of pop hits in the 1960s, and also his own TV show in 1966. Many of his recordings were humorous novelty songs with whimsical lyrics, coupled with scat singing or vocalese riffs filled with nonsense syllables. Others were sincere ballads, which also caught the public's fancy, none more so than his signature song, "King of the Road", a major 1965 hit, about a presumed hobo who relishes his life and freedom, riding the rails. He also had a big single in this year with the #8 hit "England Swings".
In the 1970s, Miller appeared in ads for Monroe shock absorbers, backed by a re-recording of "King of the Road".
Miller wrote and performed three songs in the 1973 animated Robin Hood film as the rooster/minstrel Alan-a-Dale. One of these, a high-pitched sample of "Whistle Stop", was later sampled in as the musical accompaniment for the Internet phenomenon "Hampsterdance". It was also sampled in the same way, in Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia by The Cuban Boys.
Miller was married to Mary Arnold, who herself was a musician, a member of Kenny Rogers' backing band, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition. Band leader Kenny Rogers introduced the two. Arnold now manages Miller's estate.
His son, Dean Miller, is a singer-songwriter in his own right. Roger's Christmas song, "Old Toy Trains" was written about his son, who was only two years old when the song came out in 1967.
Miller provided the voice of Speiltoe, the equine narrator of the Rankin/Bass holiday special Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (1977).
In addition to 11 Grammy Awards, Roger Miller won Broadway's Tony award for writing the music and lyrics for Big River, which won a total of 7 Tonys including best musical in 1985.
He was voted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1995. In Erick, Oklahoma where he grew up, a thoroughfare was renamed "Roger Miller Boulevard."
The 1984 LP Colosseum (Rough Trade) by Shockabilly featured Miller's "Dang Me" while their 1990 LP "Live... Just Beautiful" (Shimmy Disc) Featured Miller's "Burma Shave".
The chorus of one of his songs, "England Swings", was used for the 1998 BBC radio program, 15 Minutes of Misery. The song was also featured in the 2003 movie Shanghai Knights.
In his 1997 autobiography Johnny Cash compared Miller's bass vocal range favorably with his own, saying it was the closest to his own that he had heard.
Miller ranked #23 in CMT's 40 Greatest Men in Country Music in 2003.
In the 2007 film Into The Wild, "King Of The Road" can be heard, and is also mentioned in a letter from the main character.
Miller's first son, Michael, died of sudden infant death. In the early 60's, Miller and 1st wife, Barbara, had 3 more children subsequent to Michael's death. Those children are Alan, Rhonda and Shari.
Also, in the earlier 60's Roger bought a Cushman scooter on which he later crashed with an automobile at the intersection of Due West Avenue and Gallatin Pike in Madison, TN, a part of Metro-Nashville, TN.
When Miller came to Nashville he lived in the suburb of Inglewood. He supported his young family, Barbara, Alan, and Rhonda, playing fiddle at the Grand Ole Opry. By the time Shari came along Miller's career was just beginning to blossom into national popularity. They remained in Inglewood for a short time after he became famous.
Death
A lifelong cigarette smoker, Miller died of lung and throat cancer in 1992. In a TV interview, he once explained that he composed his songs from "bits and pieces" of ideas he wrote on scraps of paper. When asked what he did with the unused bits and pieces, he half-joked, "I smoke 'em!" One of his songs, "A Man Can't Quit", centered on the subject of addiction to cigarettes.
Discography
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart Positions |
|---|
| US Hot 100 | US Country | US AC | UK Singles Chart |
|---|
| 1960 | "You Don't Want My Love" | - | 14 | - | - | | 1961 | "When Two Worlds Collide" | - | 6 | - | - | | 1963 | "Lock, Stock, and Teardrops" | - | 26 | - | - | | 1964 | "Dang Me" | 7 | 1 | - | - | | 1964 | "Chug-a-Lug" | 9 | 3 | - | - | | 1965 | "Do-Wacka-Do" | 31 | 15 | - | - | | 1965 | "King of the Road" | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | | 1965 | "Engine Engine No. 9" | 7 | 2 | 2 | 33 | | 1965 | "One Dyin' and A-Buryin'" | 34 | 10 | - | - | | 1965 | "It Happened Just That Way" | 105 | - | - | - | | 1965 | "Kansas City Star" | 31 | 7 | 3 | 48 | | 1966 | "England Swings" | 8 | 3 | 1 | 13 | | 1966 | "Husbands and Wives" | 26 | 5 | 2 | - | | 1966 | "I've Been a Long Time Leavin'" | 103 | 13 | - | - | | 1966 | "You Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd" | 40 | 35 | - | - | | 1966 | "My Uncle Used to Love Me But She Died" | 58 | 39 | - | - | | 1966 | "Heartbreak Hotel" | 84 | 55 | - | - | | 1967 | "Walkin' in the Sunshine" | 37 | 7 | 6 | - | | 1967 | "The Ballad of Waterhole 3" | 102 | 27 | - | - | | 1967 | "Old Toy Trains" | 13 | - | - | - | | 1968 | "Little Green Apples" | 39 | 6 | 5 | 19 | | 1968 | "Vance" | 80 | 15 | - | - | | 1969 | "Me and Bobby McGee" | 122 | 12 | - | - | | 1969 | "Where Have All the Average People Gone?" | - | 14 | - | - | | 1969 | "The Tom Green County Fair" | - | 36 | - | - | | 1970 | "South / Don't We All Have the Right" | - | 15 | - | - | | 1971 | "Tomorrow Night in Baltimore" | - | 11 | - | - | | 1971 | "Loving Her Was Easier" | - | 28 | - | - | | 1973 | "Hoppy's Gone" | - | 42 | - | - | | 1973 | "Open Up Your Heart" | 105 | 14 | - | - | | 1974 | "I Believe In The Sunshine" | - | 24 | - | - | | 1974 | "Whistle Stop" | - | 86 | - | - | | 1977 | "Baby Me Baby" | - | 68 | - | - | | 1981 | "Everyone Gets Crazy Now And Then" | - | 36 | - | - | | 1982 | "Old Friends" (with Willie Nelson and Ray Price) | - | 19 | - | - | | 1985 | "River in the Rain" | - | 36 | - | | 1986 | "Some Hearts Get All the Breaks" | - | 81 | - | - |
Awards
- 1964 — Grammy Award: Best Country Song: "Dang Me"
- 1964 — Grammy Award: Best New Country and Western Artist
- 1964 — Grammy Award: Best Country and Western Recording, Single: "Dang Me"
- 1964 — Grammy Award: Best Country and Western Performance, Male: "Dang Me"
- 1964 — Grammy Award: Best Country and Western Album: "Dang Me"/"Chug-a-Lug"
- 1965 — Jukebox Artist of the Year
- 1965 — Grammy Award: Best Country Song: "King of the Road"
- 1965 — Grammy Award: Best Country Vocal Performance, Male: "King of the Road"
- 1965 — Grammy Award: Best Country and Western Recording, Single: "King of the Road"
- 1965 — Grammy Award: Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male: "King of the Road"
- 1965 — Grammy Award: Best Contemporary (Rock 'N Roll), Single: "King of the Road"
- 1965 — Grammy Award: Best Country and Western Album: "The Return of Roger Miller"
- 1965 — Academy of Country and Western Music: "Best Songwriter"
- 1965 — Academy of Country and Western Music: "Man of the Year"
- 1985 — Tony Award : Best Score: "Big River"
- 1988 — Academy of Country Music: Pioneer Award
- 1995 — Country Music Hall of Fame
- 1997 — Grammy Hall of Fame Song : "Dang Me"
- 1998 — Grammy Hall of Fame Song : "King Of The Road"
- 2003 — CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music: Ranked #23.
See also
Bibliography
- Cooper, Daniel. (1998). "Roger Miller." In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 347-8.
External links
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