Helen Merrill was born on Jelena Ana Milcetic; July 21,1929 and is an American jazz vocalist.
17 Facts About Helen Merrill
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Helen Merrill's first album, the eponymous 1954 recording Helen Merrill, was an immediate success and associated her with the first generation of bebop jazz musicians.
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Helen Merrill began singing in jazz clubs in the Bronx in 1944 when she was fourteen.
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Helen Merrill had three sisters and a brother who died before she was born.
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In 1952, Helen Merrill made her recording debut when she was asked to sing "A Cigarette for Company" with Earl Hines; the song was released on the D'Oro label, created specifically to record Hines' band with Helen Merrill.
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Helen Merrill was signed by Mercury Records to their EmArcy label.
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In 1954, Helen Merrill recorded an eponymous LP, which featured trumpeter Clifford Brown and bassist Oscar Pettiford.
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The success of Helen Merrill prompted Mercury to sign her to an additional four-album contract.
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Helen Merrill's follow-up was the 1956 LP Dream of You, which was arranged and conducted by Gil Evans.
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Helen Merrill settled for a time in Italy, recording an album there and doing concerts with jazz musicians Piero Umiliani, best known to American baby boomers for his song Mah Na Mah Na, Chet Baker, Romano Mussolini, and Stan Getz.
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Parole e Musica: Words and Music was recorded in Italy with Umiliani's orchestra in the early 1960s while Helen Merrill was living there.
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Helen Merrill returned to the US in the 1960s but moved to Japan in 1966, staying after touring there and marrying Donald J Brydon, Tokyo-based Asia Bureau Chief of United Press International, in April 1967.
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Helen Merrill developed a following in Japan that remains strong decades later.
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Helen Merrill recorded a bossa nova album, a Christmas album, and a Rodgers and Hammerstein album.
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Helen Merrill, which drew on her Croatian heritage as well as her American upbringing.
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Helen Merrill is the mother of one child, Allan Preston Sachs, born in New York in 1951 from her first marriage to Aaron Sachs.
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Helen Merrill was later known professionally as Alan Merrill, and was a successful singer and songwriter who wrote and recorded the original version of the rock classic "I Love Rock N Roll" as lead vocalist of the British band Arrows.