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.
Night And Day
Helen Merrill Lyrics
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Of the tom-tom;
When the jungle shadows fall,
Like the tick, tick, tock
Of the stately clock,
As it stands against the wall,
Like the drip, drip, drip,
Of the raindrops,
So a voice within me
Keeps repeating,
You, you, you
Night and day
You are the one,
Only you
Beneath the moon
And under the sun.
Whether near to me or far,
It's no matter,
Darling, where you are
I think of you
Night and day.
Day and night
Why is it so,
That this longing for you follows
Where-ever I go?
In the roaring traffic's boom,
In the silence of my lonely room,
I think of you,
Night and day.
Night and day
Under the hide of me
There's an
Oh, such a hungry yearning,
Burning inside of me.
And its torment won't be through
Til you let me spend my life
Making love to you,
Day and night,
Night and day.
The lyrics of Helen Merrill's Night and Day describe the all-encompassing presence of the beloved in the singer's life. The song begins by comparing the beat of a tom-tom to the ticking of a clock, and the drip of rain to the repeated refrain of "you, you, you" within the singer's own thoughts. The imagery of the jungle and the rain suggest a natural, almost primal force, underlying the singer's desire for the beloved.
Throughout the song, the singer emphasizes that the beloved is the "one" that they think of "night and day," beneath the moon and under the sun, regardless of whether they are physically close or far away. The longing for the beloved is described as following the singer "wherever [they] go," persistent in both the noisy chaos of the city and the quiet stillness of their own room.
The final verse brings the singer's desire for the beloved to an apex, describing a "hungry yearning" burning inside of them that won't be satisfied until they can "spend [their] life making love" to the beloved day and night. The lyrics convey a sense of passion, urgency and longing that pervades the singer's every moment.
Line by Line Meaning
Like the beat, beat, beat,
Of the tom-tom;
Just like the consistent and constant beat of a tom-tom.
When the jungle shadows fall,
Like the tick, tick, tock
Of the stately clock,
As it stands against the wall,
As time passes on and shadows fall, I still think of you every second like the tick of a clock.
Like the drip, drip, drip,
Of the raindrops,
When the summer show'r is through;
Much like the sound of raindrops in the summer when it's over, the thought of you lingers on in my mind.
So a voice within me
Keeps repeating,
You, you, you
A constant voice within me always repeats your name, reminding me of you in every moment.
Night and day
You are the one,
Only you
Beneath the moon
And under the sun.
Day or night, regardless of the conditions, you are always the one I think of - the only one I need.
Whether near to me or far,
It's no matter,
Darling, where you are
I think of you
Night and day.
Distance doesn't matter, my thoughts of you remain constant day and night.
Day and night
Why is it so,
That this longing for you follows
Where-ever I go?
I question why I always long for you no matter where I am, day or night.
In the roaring traffic's boom,
In the silence of my lonely room,
I think of you,
Night and day.
Even in busy surroundings or in the silence of a lonely room, thoughts of you still fill my mind day and night.
Night and day
Under the hide of me
There's an
Oh, such a hungry yearning,
Burning inside of me.
Beneath the surface, this intense hunger and yearning for you burns inside of me day and night.
And its torment won't be through
Til you let me spend my life
Making love to you,
Day and night,
Night and day.
I won't find peace until I spend my entire life making love to you day and night, always and forevermore.
Lyrics © Roba Music Verlag GMBH, Red Brick Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Cole Porter
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind