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.
Round About Midnight
Helen Merrill Lyrics
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'round midnight, midnight.
I do pretty well, till after sundown,
Suppertime I'm feelin' sad;
But it really gets bad,
'round midnight.
Memories always start 'round midnight
When my heart is still with you,
And ol' midnight knows it, too.
When a quarrel we had needs mending,
Does it mean that our love is ending.
Darlin' I need you, lately I find
You're out of my heart,
And I'm out of my mind.
Let our hearts take wings'
'round midnight, midnight
Let the angels sing,
for your returning.
Till our love is safe and sound.
And old midnight comes around.
Feelin' sad,
really gets bad
Round, Round, Round Midnight
The song 'Round About Midnight', originally recorded by Thelonious Monk, has been performed by several artists including Helen Merrill who added her own touch to the song with her distinctive vocal stylings which were characterized by a soft and sultry delivery. The lyrics of the song describe the loneliness and sadness felt by the singer after sundown, particularly around midnight when memories of a lost love begin to emerge. The lyrics suggest that the singer is still in love with their former partner and is struggling to move past the heartbreak that they have experienced.
The opening lines of the song "It begins to tell, 'round midnight, midnight.
I do pretty well, till after sundown," expresses the singer's initial reluctance to feel sad, but they are unable to avoid it. The singer then reveals that memories of their lost love always start around midnight, causing them to feel increasingly melancholic as the night goes on. The lines "When a quarrel we had needs mending, Does it mean that our love is ending. Darlin' I need you, lately I find You're out of my heart, And I'm out of my mind." indicate that the singer is still very much in love with their former partner and feels a sense of desperation to reconcile with them.
In the last verse of the song, the singer seeks solace in the possibility of a reunion with their lost love. The lines "Let our hearts take wings' 'round midnight, midnight Let the angels sing, for your returning. Till our love is safe and sound. And old midnight comes around" suggest that while the singer is feeling lonely and sad around midnight, they are hopeful that their love will be restored and they can be reunited with their former partner.
Line by Line Meaning
It begins to tell,
'round midnight, midnight.
The song starts telling a story that always starts at midnight.
I do pretty well, till after sundown,
Suppertime I'm feelin' sad;
But it really gets bad,
'round midnight.
The singer starts to feel sad after sunset but it gets worse around midnight.
Memories always start 'round midnight
Haven't got the heart to stand those memories,
When my heart is still with you,
And ol' midnight knows it, too.
The singer is reminded of old memories around midnight that she can't handle when her heart is still with a past lover.
When a quarrel we had needs mending,
Does it mean that our love is ending.
Darlin' I need you, lately I find
You're out of my heart,
And I'm out of my mind.
The singer wonders if their love is ending after a fight and realizes that she needs her lover because she can't stop thinking about them.
Let our hearts take wings'
'round midnight, midnight
Let the angels sing,
for your returning.
Till our love is safe and sound.
And old midnight comes around.
The singer hopes for their love to be safe and sound and for their lover to come back, while the midnight hour signifies that hope.
Feelin' sad,
really gets bad
Round, Round, Round Midnight
The singer expresses her increasing sadness that peaks at midnight, which is repeated in the title as a reminder of this feeling.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Cootie Williams, Bernard D Hanighen, Theolonious S Monk
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind