Helen Merrill (born Jelena Ana Milcetic on July 21, 1930 in New York City) … Read Full Bio ↴Helen Merrill (born Jelena Ana Milcetic on July 21, 1930 in New York City) is an internationally known jazz vocalist.
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.

Just Imagine
Helen Merrill Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Just imagine
That he loves me dearly.
Just imagine
That I'm here sincerely.
I'm pretending
That he's sending
Love note ending
"I love you!"

Seems that he's there
As the day is closing;
On his knees there,
I hear him proposing!
He's not present,
Still it's pleasant,
Just imagine that it's true.

Seems that he's there
As the day is closing;
On his knees there,
I hear him proposing!
Till I win you,

I'll continue
To imagine that it's true.

Overall Meaning

The song Just Imagine by Helen Merrill is a melodic ballad that speaks of the power of imagination in sustaining hope for a love that may not be present. The powerful opening lines “Just Imagine, That he loves me dearly. Just imagine, That I'm here sincerely” describe the singer's immense longing for a deep and sincere connection with a loved one. The song's chorus further emphasizes the idea of imagining love that is not present by saying, "I'm pretending That he's sending Love note ending 'I love you!'"

Throughout the song, the singer is searching for comfort in her imagination, which allows her to visualize her desired love in more intimate ways. She imagines a scene where her lover is proposing to her on his knees, even though he is not there physically. Despite the physical separation, the singer finds solace in these imaginary scenes and a hope that her longing for love will one day be fulfilled. The final lines, "Till I win you, I'll continue To imagine that it's true", suggest that the singer's imagination has the potential to manifest the love she desires, but until then, she will keep imagining it and keep her hope alive.

Overall, Just Imagine conveys the powerful message of the human desire for love and the importance of the imagination in keeping hope alive. It's a beautiful reminder of the power of the mind to create and sustain moments that may not exist yet or still elude us in our lives.

Line by Line Meaning

Just imagine
Consider the possibility of a hypothetical situation

That he loves me dearly.
Suppose that he has intense feelings of affection towards me

That I'm here sincerely.
Presume that I am present with genuine intentions

I'm pretending
I am acting in a way that is not genuine

That he's sending
Imagining that he is communicating via a message

Love note ending
The closing of a message expressing affection

"I love you!"
The expression of loving sentiment

Seems that he's there
Appears that he is present

As the day is closing;
As night falls

On his knees there,
Assuming a position historically associated with pleading or proposing

I hear him proposing!
Believing I can hear him asking for my hand in marriage