RIP Millie Small.
Died aged 73.
From Meetings With Morrissey:
"Tell me why you covered Timi Yuro’s ‘Interlude’?*
“It was a very obscure song. It was a B-side (of Yuro’s finest song ‘Hurt’ in 1961, later covered by Elvis Presley) and I thought she sang it really beautifully.”
What did you make of other, less commercially successful Sixties singers, like Helen Shapiro?
“Helen Shapiro was younger than most. She was 14 or 15 when she had those stomping great hits. ‘Tell Me What He Said’ was a great record. ‘Don’t Treat Me Like A Child’, that’s quite revolutionary. No, it’s not my theme tune, not reallyat the age of 37, but that’s what all teenagers were saying at that time, at the end of the Fifties. Nineteen Sixty One – ‘Don’t Treat Me Like A Child’! Millie Small?
“Incredible. ‘My Boy Lollipop’ was about one minute 10 seconds long. Fantastic record. Incredibly energetic and spicy and…pert. People don’t sing like that anymore apart from me. She also had a single called ‘Sweet William’, 1964. Millie Small. No relation to Biggie Small of course.”
What about some of the Brit Girls who didn’t really make it in chart terms? Names like Beryl Marsden spring to mind …
“She’s my mother actually, did I mention that?” [He giggles.] “Beryl was Sandie before Sandie was Sandie. She was the forgotten one. Filed under forgotten. More so even than Timi Yuro or Rita Pavone.”"
Regards,
FWD.
www.nytimes.com
www.radiox.co.uk
