{"id":93387,"date":"2014-12-15T11:16:05","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T16:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=93387"},"modified":"2014-12-15T11:39:34","modified_gmt":"2014-12-15T16:39:34","slug":"r-i-p-millie-kirkham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=93387","title":{"rendered":"R.I.P. Millie Kirkham"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Millie Kirkham had an unearthly high soprano voice, and recorded with some of the biggest stars of her era (and other eras and ours). Perhaps most famously, she provided the swoopy woozy soprano part on Elvis&#8217; original recording of &#8220;Blue Christmas&#8221;. (Speaking of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=60980\" target=\"_blank\">Elvis&#8217; &#8220;Crimmus&#8221; songs<\/a>.) <\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6d2RfblImA4\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\nKirkham appeared on recordings with Carl Perkins, Patsy Kline, Chet Atkins, Bob Dylan, need I go on? She sang on Bobby Vinton&#8217;s Blue Velvet, Roy Orbison&#8217;s &#8220;It&#8217;s Over,&#8221; and Brenda Lee&#8217;s &#8220;I&#8217;m Sorry,&#8221; to name just a few.<\/p>\n<p>She was pregnant when she sang that silly part on &#8220;Blue Christmas&#8221;, and Elvis was not expecting a pregnant woman to walk into his studio. When she entered, none of his guys (musicians, entourage) stood up for her. He chastised them, and found a chair for her. But the funniest capper to the story is: a couple of months after she had the baby, she was called in for another recording session with Elvis. She was feeling good, she had slimmed down and lost some of the weight, which was important to her. She walked into the room, and Elvis, meaning well, poor guy, put his foot in it when he greeted her with, &#8220;Did you have that baby yet, Miss Kirkham?&#8221; He meant it in the friendliest way possible, not at all realizing his faux pas. She laughed when she told the story years later. She loved him and loved working with him. <\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/58198631-1.jordmilel1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/58198631-1.jordmilel1.jpg\" alt=\"58198631-1.jordmilel1\" width=\"576\" height=\"425\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-93394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/58198631-1.jordmilel1.jpg 576w, https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/58198631-1.jordmilel1-100x73.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/58198631-1.jordmilel1-200x147.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/58198631-1.jordmilel1-400x295.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here Kirkham is, reminiscing about her career. It&#8217;s long, but well worth it. The stories she tells!<\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ntfclmXB2xA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\nIn the interview, she says of &#8220;Blue Christmas&#8221; and its phenomenal eternal success: &#8220;If I was gettin&#8217; royalties, I&#8217;d be a rich old woman.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>No official word yet, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nashvillescene.com\/nashvillecream\/archives\/2014\/12\/15\/elvis-presley-backup-singer-millie-kirkham-dead-at-91\" target=\"_blank\">but this <i>Nashville Cream<\/i> piece seems legitimate.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Rest in peace. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Millie Kirkham had an unearthly high soprano voice, and recorded with some of the biggest stars of her era (and other eras and ours). Perhaps most famously, she provided the swoopy woozy soprano part on Elvis&#8217; original recording of &#8220;Blue &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=93387\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,23],"tags":[2095],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93387"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93395,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93387\/revisions\/93395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}