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.

Memories of You
Helen Merrill Lyrics

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Waking skies
At Sunrise,
Every sunset too,
Seems to be
Bringing me
Memories of you.

Here and there,

Everywhere,
Scenes that we once knew,
And they all
Just recall
Memories of you.

How I wish I could forget
Those happy yesteryears
That have left a rosary of tears.

Your face beams
In my dreams,
Spite of all I do!
Everything
Seems to bring
Memories of you.

How I wish I could forget
Those happy yesteryears
That have left a rosary of tears.

Your face beams
In my dreams,
Spite of all I do!
Everything
Seems to bring

Memories,
All those memories of you.

Overall Meaning

Helen Merrill's "Memories of You" is a heartfelt ballad about the enduring power of memory and the lasting impact someone can have on a person's life. The opening lines, "Waking skies at sunrise, every sunset too, seems to be bringing me memories of you," set the tone for the song's introspective mood. The singer is haunted by memories of someone who they loved deeply, and even the passing of time and the changing of seasons cannot erase the strength of those memories.

The song's middle section reflects on the power of memory to hold onto the places and people that were a part of the singer's past. "Here and there, everywhere, scenes that we once knew, and they all just recall memories of you" - nothing is exempt from being tied to the person who has left such a profound impact. The longing to forget is palpable in the next section, but the singer acknowledges that some things are simply too deeply ingrained to be forgotten. Through it all, the person's face remains a constant presence, both in waking and dreaming life.

Overall, "Memories of You" is a poignant reflection on the ways in which our memories shape our lives and our understanding of love and loss.

Line by Line Meaning

Waking skies
The early morning skies remind me of you

At Sunrise,
At the break of dawn, my heart aches for you

Every sunset too,
Even in the evening, the sunset brings memories of you

Seems to be
It appears that every moment

Bringing me
Reminds me of

Memories of you.
Beautiful memories we once shared.

Here and there,
In every place

Everywhere,
Wherever I go

Scenes that we once knew,
Reminders of the moments we spent together

And they all
Every single one of them