Before commencing this interview with Millie Kirkham, may I write a few words about this lady who played such a major part in many of Elvis’s early recordings.
Briefly, Millie Kirkham is well known for her backing vocals on many of America’s finest recordings for well over five decades. The names, songs and recording sessions are endless, so in this interview I hope to concentrate on her vocal contributions to the music recorded with Elvis Presley.
Going over all the Presley recordings it is most noticeable that Millie and the Jordanaires contributed enormously with their talents to every Elvis recording session they were involved with.
(Picture owned by Millie Kirkham. Used with her permission July2003.
Please obtain permission before use.)
Millie’s first studio session with Elvis was for the 1957 Christmas album and the very first song was “Blue Christmas”.
After Elvis returned from the army, all the same musical friends got back together again and a number of big hits followed for Elvis. There are too many to mention here but Millie will mention a few during the interview.
The interview is below.
Millie, firstly a very big and warm welcome from all here in Australia. “Thank you” Bob, it has been very nice of you to go to the trouble. It has taken a little while to get us together, so I will let you get down to the questions you have been waiting years to ask me.
Q…Millie your musical career started in what type of music? (ie home singing along with the family and radio?)
A…Of course I listened to music on the radio. I took piano lessons as a kid – played clarinet in the high school band - and sang in the church choir.
Q… May I ask you when and where you performed your first professional singing engagement?
A…My first “paying” job was with a vocal group on radio station WSM around 1950.
Q…Which artists and bands did you like when you were growing up?
A… Well, I grew up with the Big band era. So I listened to bands like Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, etc, and the singers who worked with them.
Q…Did you enjoy the Black Gospel type of music, or wasn’t you allowed to listen to that type of music?
A…We were allowed to listen to Black Gospel, but there was only one radio station in Nashville that occassionally played it, so I was never actually exposed to it.
Q…May I ask about your husband? Did you meet through music?(please tell the story of your life together including family?)
A…My husband, Doug and I met in the music business. He was a drummer and singer.
We both sang with the Anita Kerr Singers.
We had two children – a boy and a girl, and have one grandson. Our son was killed in an automobile accident in 1971, and Doug died in 1986.
My daughter lives in Nashville, and my grandson is in college in California.
Q…How did become involved in the rock and roll, pop music scene?
A…I was singing with the Anita Kerr Singers when recording started in Nashville, so we were in the “right place at the right time”, so to speak. Thru the years I also sang with The Jordanaires and other vocal groups. So, we worked with pop, gospel, country, and rock and roll artists who came to Nashville to record.
Q…Who were some of your favourite recording artists of that era?
A… That’s hard to answer. We enjoyed recording with so many of them, it would be along list.
Q…Can I ask you to describe the following artists from the rock and roll era?
(Bob Luman, Connie Frances, Brenda Lee, Roy Orbison
George Jones, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Crash Craddock) .
A….It’s almost impossible to “describe” an artist. In that era, they were all different, with their own individual style. When you heard a record you knew immediately who it was. Connie didn’t sound like Brenda, and George didn’t sound like Jerry Lee. But all the artists you mentioned were good singers.
(Picture used with permission of the Jordanaires/Millie Kirkham July 2003)
Q…Please tell me about the Original Bradley’s Barn?
A…It really was a barn out in the country several miles outside Nashville. Owen Bradley bought it and remodeled it into a great recording studio, but kept the outside like the original barn. I have pleasant memories of a lot of great sessions done there.
Q…What about the late GRADY MARTIN? I have a collection of his recordings released here in Australia? Was he as good a guitarist as I was told by Bob Moore?
A…Bob Moore was right. Grady was a great guitar player. Most of the time we had no written arrangements for a recording session. They just played a demo and we all did what we felt, and Grady was very inventive.
(a very rare Austraian Extended play album)
Q…Was Grady and all the musicans friends with each other as I have read about over the years?
A…YES. We all worked together day after day, so we were good friends. However, we didn’t have much time to socialize outside the studios because of our work schedules.
Q…How did you meet The Jordanaires?
A… I met them in the music business. In the early days of recording in Nashville there were only a few musicans and singers, so we all knew each other. I worked on sessions with the Jordanaires almost every day for about 25 years. We’re real close friends and I still work with them occassionally.
( a few old friends getting together still !)
Q…Was it Gordon Stoker that asked you to sing Soprano for Elvis?
A…In 1957 The Jordanaires had gone to California to do some recording sessions with Elvis. They told him they had been working with me on sessions in Nashville, and I was the girl who sang the high part on Ferlin Husky’s record “Gone”. Elvis said “See if she will come out here and work with me”. So, Gordon called me and I hopped on a plane and went immediately.
Q…Did you go on the road with the younger Elvis and the band in the early days?
A… No. I didn’t start working with him until 1957 and his early travelling days were just about over by then, because he went into the army shortly thereafter.
Q…Tell us about the recordings with Elvis in the studio? (ie the christmas album and others)
A… The Christmas album, the one with “Blue Christmas” on it, was done on the sessions in California. After he came back from the army, he started doing his sessions in Nashville at RCA Studio B. He liked to record at night, so the session would start around 7pm and go into the wee hours of the morning, sometimes all night until 5 am or 6 am. We usually had the same musicians and singers on the sessions, and we treated Elvis like one of us – which was the way he wanted it. So, it was like a bunch of friends getting together and having fun
(The Australian LP titled Blue Christmas)
Q…Did you like most of the songs you sang with Elvis? Was there any you would like to forget about?
A…Yes, we liked a lot of the songs we did with him, but we did so many over the years, there were naturally some we’d like to forget.
Q…Can I ask about the return live performances in Vegas for August 1969? Who asked you to join the band?
A…I did not work with him in Vegas until 1970, Bob!.
Q… Can I ask you your professional thoughts on the members of the TCB band and The Sweet Inspirations?
A… All those guys are great musicians, and of course the “Sweets” are fantastic.We’re all friends, and had a great time touring together on “Elvis – the Concert” recently. It was like a reunion.
Q…Millie did you know that opening in Vegas had fantastic reviews here in Australia?
A…No I did not know that, but I would not be surprised.
( Millie besides Elvis stage bound. scans of pictures used with permission from Ernst Jorgensen THAT’S THE WAY IT WAS !)
Q…Moving onto the movie “ELVIS THAT’S THE WAY IT IS”. Can I ask you for your views and thoughts on the making of this movie?
A… It was a thrilling experience. The International was a new luxury hotel with a gorgeous showroom. We had sold out shows every night. People from all over the world, and stars like Gary Grant and Sammy Davis came to see us. Opening night we were all a little nervous because we had to learn about 45 or 50 songs for the 5 or 6 shows they filmed. But once on the stage it was relaxed and spontaneous.
Q…Was Elvis that good looking? Bob Luman said that Elvis was so stunning in looks and dress in the 50’s, so what was so different this time about Elvis that made him look so fantastic for you ladies?
A…People are always asking me if I thought Elvis was a handsome man, and my answer is “ I’m not blind, you know !” When I started working with him in 1957 he was in his early 20’s, and his style of clothes was different to the later years. By the 70’s he had evolved into the elegant white jump suits – and “YES” he was stunning!
Q…Have you seen any other performer come close to matching Elvis? If so please mention?
A…No – can’t think of one !
Q…Could Elvis take a joke? Or was he the joker all the time?
A…As I have said, we were all friends. So, we kidded him as much as he kidded us. He loved to do silly things and try to break us up while we were singing.
Q… Did he respect other performers, and mention them during his shows that you were on?
A… Yes., he definitely respected other performers, but I do not remember him mentioning them on stage.
Q…For those who never saw him perform live on stage, please tell them what they all missed?
A… Well, you all missed a lot!. Elvis was not only a good singer, but he was a great performer. He had that unique ability of reaching an audience, no matter how big it was. Whe he sang, each person felt he was singing directly to them.
Q…About “ELVIS THE CONCERT”. Did you enjoy coming back and doing a show with Elvis on the screen behind you?
A…Oh, it was great. It was like a reunion working with the band and the sweets, and the Stamps, and the Imperials again. At first it was a little eerie – we almost felt like Elvis was there, especially when we did a week in Vegas on the same stage we had done “That’s the Way It Is”.
Q…How come you never made it to Australia with “ELVIS THE CONCERT”? Joan Tillitzki and I were looking forward to meeting you and taking you up on top of the Sydney Harbour bridge?
A… After we did the first European tour, Graceland turned the show over to the producer, and he cut expenses and decided he didn’t need me on the show. Guess he thought nobody would miss me. I’m glad to know somebody did !
Actually, I was sort of glad to stay home and rest for awhile. Touring is exciting, but 3 weeks of one nighters was exhausting for this old girl!
Q..Will we ever see you in Australia?
A… I doubt it. I would like to see Australia, but don’t guess I’ll have the opportunity.
Q…What was it like for the recent 25th Anniversary show in Memphis?
A…A once in a lifetime experience, because most of the people who ever worked with Elvis thru the years was there. Of course Memphis was packed with Elvis fans from all over the wotld who still come to celeberate.
Q… Could I ask you to name the songs you remember the most that you sang with Elvis?
A… Well, I remember “Blue Christmas” because it was the first song I recorded with him, and I remember all of the big hits. But there were a few that you don’t hear a lot that I personally like, such as “Just Pretend”, “Stranger in the Crowd” - “Love Letters” and in the religious field “Stand by Me”.
Q….Before closing , can I ask you have you enjoyed your musical career?
A…I certianly have Bob. Most people can’t wait to retire, so they can do what that enjoy. I was very fortunate that I spent my career doing what I enjoy, so I’m not looking forward to retirement.
Q…Would you do anything different, if you had to do it all over again.?
A… Absolutely not. The following is my biography that was used in the programme for “Elvis the Concert”, it will give you an idea of why I wouldn’t doing anything different.
CONCLUSION
Millie,thank you for all the time you have allowed for this interview and I am ever so happy that I have finally got the interview with you completed.
Bob, it was a delight. And I hope that this was the type of interview you had in mind. I tried to keep the answers short and to the point so I wouldn’t be ramblin.
This was a long interview, and I realise you might want to shorten it.
However, I assume the portion you use will be printed without being edited. I hope so, because in the past I’ve been burnt by some interviews where I was misquoted or things were taken out of context.
That is why I don’t usually agree to interviews, but I am “trusting” you!!!
I assured Millie, the interview will be published in full and with no editing!
I trust that you have enjoyed this interview. In asociation with EPGOLD I will try to bring you more items like this in the future.
If other Elvis websites or fan clubs would like to use parts of the interview it would be gratefully appreciated if Millie Kirkham is given full credit. I believe that is not too much to ask.
Bob Hayden
2nd August 2003