Music Monday - So Bad It's Good

Ahh, the perspective of age!

As I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate many of the things that I couldn't stand as a kid. Things like vegetables, which I think I went at least 15 years without eating ANY; but now I get upset if I go more than two meals without some fresh vegetation.

In much the same way that my tastes in food have evolved, my tastes in music have expanded and broadened as well. Most of this happened through my experiences of working in Music Retail and Programming Music for Businesses. Those career phases put me in positions where I had to work with music that I would have never listened to on my own, and you know how it goes... You're forced to work with something you don't like, and over time you find a few aspects that don't annoy you so much, and given more time and exposure, you even start to find little highlights that go a bit further, and actually qualify as enjoyable!

Among the types of music that my forced exposure helped me learn to appreciate: Country, Traditional Jazz, Smooth Jazz, Classical, and Nostalgic Vocals. That last category was one that I really have grown to love. The amount of quality music produced, primarily from the mid-'50s to the mid-'60s, from Frank Sinatra, Nat "King" Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and many, many more is amazing. And about ten years ago, there was a resurgence in "Lounge Music" which caught much of the Classic Vocals category in its wake. I was programming business music at the time, and it seemed that nearly all of our customers were asking for that hip retro lounge sound.

Naturally, as soon as the music industry realized that it had a new avenue to make huge profits by re-releasing back-catalogue material, they jumped all over that. Capitol Records started up a sub-label called "Ultra Lounge" that released countless compilations and classic albums aimed at the 20-somethings who were driving the trend.

In the midst of the seemingly endless tide of irresistibly hip, swingin' music, one day this showed up in our library...

Ok.. I'd never heard of Mrs. Miller, but I had a program to produce, so I grabbed the CD and headed to my studio to scan through it and see what I could use to enhance various retailers' ambiance.

The first song on the disc was "The Girl From Ipanema," a seemingly safe classic. Sure enough, for the first minute or so, it's a very light bossa nova arrangement, totally harmless, maybe even too tame to pull off the hip vibe everyone was looking for.

And then Mrs. Miller began to sing.

It was as if the gentle breeze of the instrumental arrangement gave way to a category 5 hurricane! It's actually very hard to describe in writing just how Mrs. Miller's voice sounds, but I'll try...

First, Vibrato. Elva Miller LOVES her Vibrato. I'm pretty sure she has a personal vendetta against any pitch that holds steady for more than 1/4 of a second. So she keeps her voice modulating, up and down and up and down. And all around...

Second, Timing. I've heard it said that Sinatra often made a song his own, by ignoring the traditional phrasing, instead singing the song the way he wanted, coming in early on some parts, late on others, mixing it all together and creating a new arrangement in the process. Well, Mrs. Miller does the same thing. Only it doesn't really enhance or redefine the song - in fact, it rather confuses the listener, trying to understand why NONE of the singing goes with the music.

According to her supporters, the bad timing was "done to her" by the record company, to increase the comic factor of her recordings. There are stories of her being conducted one beat off from the orchestra... And that at first she didn't realize what was going on, then became aware but decided to play along with the joke. But the thing is, she sounded the same way after leaving Capitol records, and likely had that aspect of her performance intact when she was discovered by them in the first place.

All in all, listening to the entire CD in one setting is difficult at best. But for an occasional bit of comic relief, one or two tracks of Mrs. Miller can be a great thing! She is an excellent example of music that is so bad it's good!

BONUS - Video of Mrs. Miller in action!

Oh, and no, I never did end up using her music in any of our programs at AEI...