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 See Your Face Before Me
Helen Merrill Lyrics
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Crowding my every dream
There is your face before me
You are my only theme
It doesn't matter where you are
I can see how fair you are
I close my eyes and there you are
Always
If you could see me too
There would be nothing tragic
In all my dreams of you
Would that my love could haunt you so
Knowing I want you so
I can't erase
Your beautiful face before me.
Would that my love could haunt you so
Knowing I want you so
I can't erase
Your beautiful face before me.
Helen Merrill's "I See Your Face Before Me" is a poignant ballad about unrequited love. The lyrics describe the persistence of the singer's love as she dreams of the object of her affections. The lines "I see your face before me/Crowding my every dream/There is your face before me/You are my only theme" emphasize the overwhelming nature of this love, and how it pervades every aspect of the singer's life.
The song conveys a sense of longing and yearning, as the subject of the singer's affections is seemingly unattainable. This is emphasized in the lines, "If you could share the magic/If you could see me too/There would be nothing tragic/In all my dreams of you". The singer's dreams of being with the person she loves are dashed by the reality that she can never be with them, yet she cannot help but hold on to the idea of that dream.
The final lines of the song, "Would that my love could haunt you so/Knowing I want you so/I can't erase/Your beautiful face before me" are particularly poignant. They suggest that the singer's love will continue, even if the person she loves is never aware of it. There is a sense of bittersweet resignation in these lyrics, as the singer accepts that she can never be with the person she loves, but cannot help but continue to love them nonetheless.
Line by Line Meaning
I see your face before me
The singer keeps visualizing the person's face in their mind's eye.
Crowding my every dream
The person's face dominates the singer's dreams.
There is your face before me
The person's face is ever present in the singer's thoughts.
You are my only theme
The person is the only thing the artist can think of.
It doesn't matter where you are
The person's physical location doesn't influence the artist's feelings.
I can see how fair you are
The singer remembers how physically attractive the person is.
I close my eyes and there you are
The person's face is so distinct that the singer can conjure it up even with eyes closed.
Always
The artist cannot escape the image of the person's face.
If you could share the magic
The artist wishes the person could feel the same way about them.
If you could see me too
The artist longs for the person to reciprocate their feelings.
There would be nothing tragic
If the person returned the singer's affection, there would be no sadness in their relationship.
In all my dreams of you
The artist's dreams always involve the person.
Would that my love could haunt you so
The singer wishes the person could feel the intensity of their love.
Knowing I want you so
The singer desires the person deeply and yearns for them to feel the same way.
I can't erase
The image of the person's face is so indelible in the singer's mind that they cannot forget it.
Your beautiful face before me
The person's face is described as 'beautiful' and remains ever-present in the artist's thoughts.
Lyrics © Songtrust Ave, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: ARTHUR SCHWARTZ, HOWARD DIETZ
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Keith Ireton
Gorgeous.