Merrill's recording career has spanned six decades and she is popular with fans of jazz in Japan and Italy (where she lived for many years) as well as in her native United States. She has recorded and performed with some of the most notable figures in the American jazz scene.
Youth and early career in the states
Merrill was born in 1930 to Croatian immigrant parents. She began singing in jazz clubs in the Bronx at the age of fourteen. By the time she was sixteen, Merrill had taken up music full time. In 1952, Merrill made her recording debut when she was asked to sing "A Cigarette For Company" with the Earl Hines Band; the song was released on their Xanadu album. Etta Jones made her debut on the same album.
At this time she was married to musician Aaron Sachs. They divorced in 1956.
As a result of the exposure she received from "A Cigarette for Company" and two subsequent singles recorded for the Roost record label, Merrill was signed by Mercury Records for their new EmArcy label.
In 1954, Merrill recorded her first (and to date most acclaimed) LP, an eponymous record featuring legendary jazz trumpet player Clifford Brown and bassist/cellist Oscar Pettiford, among others. It was to be one of Brown's last recordings, as he was killed in a car accident just two years later. The album was produced and arranged by Quincy Jones, who was then just twenty-one years old. The success of Helen Merrill prompted Mercury to sign her for an additional four-album contract.
Merrill's follow-up to Helen Merrill was the 1956 LP, Dream of You, which was produced and arranged by bebop arranger and pianist Gil Evans. Evans' work on Dream of You was his first in many years. His arrangements on Merrill's laid the musical foundations for his work in following years with Miles Davis.
Success abroad
After recording sporadically through the late 1950s and 1960s, Merrill spent much of her time touring Europe, where she enjoyed more commercial success than she had in the United States. She settled for a time in Italy recording an album there, and doing live concerts with jazz notables Chet Baker, Romano Mussolini, and Stan Getz. Merrill returned to the U.S. in the 1960s, but moved to Japan in 1967 after touring there. Merrill developed a following in Japan that remains strong to this day. In addition to recording while in Japan, Merrill became involved in other aspects of the music industry, producing albums for Trio Records and hosting a show on a Tokyo radio station.
Later career
Merrill returned to the US in 1972 and has continued recording and regular touring since then. Her later career has seen her experiment in different music genres. She has recorded a bossa nova album, a Christmas album and a record's worth of Rodgers and Hammerstein, among many others.
Two albums from Merrill's later career have been tributes to past musical partners. In 1987, Merrill and Gil Evans recorded fresh arrangements of their classic Dream of You; the new recordings were released under the title Collaboration and became the most critically acclaimed of Merrill's albums in the 1980s.
In 1987 she co-produced a CD "Billy Eckstine sing with Benny Carter" and sing in duet with Mr.B two ballads.
In 1995 she recorded Brownie: Homage to Clifford Brown as a tribute to the late trumpeter.
One of Merrill's millennium released recordings draws from her Croatian heritage as well as her American upbringing. Jelena Ana Milcetic, a.k.a. Helen Merrill (2000), combines jazz, pop and blues songs with several traditional Croatian songs sung in Croatian.
Helen Merrill has been married three times, first to musician Aaron Sachs, second time to UPI vice president the late Donald J Brydon, and third to arranger-conductor the late Torrie Zito. She has one child, a son, Allan P Sachs, also a singer, who is professionally known as Alan Merrill.
I Feel Pretty
Helen Merrill Lyrics
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Oh, so pretty,
I feel pretty and witty and bright!
And I pity
Any girl who isn't me tonight.
I feel charming,
Oh, so charming
And so pretty
That I hardly can believe I'm real.
See the pretty girl in that mirror there:
Who can that attractive girl be?
Such a pretty face,
Such a pretty dress,
Such a pretty smile,
Such a pretty me!
I feel stunning
And entrancing,
Feel like running and dancing for joy,
For I'm loved
By a pretty wonderful boy!
Have you met my good friend Maria,
The craziest girl on the block?
You'll know her the minute you see her,
She's the one who is in an advanced state of shock.
She thinks she's in love.
She thinks she's in Spain.
She isn't in love,
She's merely insane.
It must be the heat
Or some rare disease,
Or too much to eat
Or maybe it's fleas.
Keep away from her,
Send for Chino!
This is not the
Maria we know!
Modest and pure,
Polite and refined,
Well-bred and mature
And out of her mind!
I feel pretty,
Oh, so pretty
That the city should give me its key.
A committee
Should be organized to honor me.
La la la la
I feel dizzy,
I feel sunny,
I feel fizzy and funny and fine,
And so pretty,
Miss America can just resign!
La la la la
See the pretty girl in that mirror there:
What mirror where?
Who can that attractive girl be?
Which? What? Where? Whom?
Such a pretty face,
Such a pretty dress,
Such a pretty smile,
Such a pretty me!
Such a pretty me!
I feel stunning
And entrancing,
Feel like running and dancing for joy,
For I'm loved
By a pretty wonderful boy!
The lyrics of the song "I Feel Pretty" by Helen Merrill convey the feelings of a confident and beautiful woman who is pleased with herself. She sings of how pretty, witty, and bright she feels, and how she pities any girl who isn't her tonight, emphasizing her self-assuredness. She goes on to describe how charming and stunning she feels, so much that she can hardly believe she's real. She sees herself in the mirror and admires her pretty face, pretty dress, and pretty smile, leaving no doubt that she is enamored by herself. The song concludes with her rejoicing over her love from a wonderful boy, which only adds to her feeling of being truly stunning.
The song "I Feel Pretty" has an interesting history behind it. It is a song from the popular 1957 musical "West Side Story," composed by Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. "West Side Story" is a modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," which tells the story of the rivalry between two street gangs in New York City. The song "I Feel Pretty" is sung by the character of Maria, who is one of the main characters and Romeo's love interest in the musical.
Line by Line Meaning
I feel pretty,
I feel beautiful and attractive
Oh, so pretty,
Extremely beautiful and attractive I feel
I feel pretty and witty and bright!
I feel beautiful, intelligent, and cheerful
And I pity
Any girl who isn't me tonight.
I feel sorry for any girl who isn't feeling as beautiful and confident as me tonight
I feel charming,
I feel delightful and charming
Oh, so charming
It's alarming how charming I feel!
I feel charming, and my charm is so much that it alarms me
And so pretty
That I hardly can believe I'm real.
I feel so pretty that I can hardly believe my own beauty is real
See the pretty girl in that mirror there:
Look at the pretty girl in that mirror over there
Who can that attractive girl be?
Who is that beautiful girl in the mirror?
Such a pretty face,
Such a pretty dress,
Such a pretty smile,
Such a pretty me!
My face, my dress, my smile, and myself overall look extremely pretty
I feel stunning
And entrancing,
Feel like running and dancing for joy,
For I'm loved
By a pretty wonderful boy!
I feel extremely beautiful, charming, and full of joy because I'm loved by a handsome and wonderful boy!
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind