Monday, December 15, 2014
Cream Elvis Presley Backup Singer Millie Kirkham Dies at 91
Posted By Adam Gold on Mon, Dec 15, 2014 at 7:05 AM
- Photo via the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
- Millie Kirkham
Kirkham was born Mildred Eakes in Hermitage, Tenn., in 1923 and grew up in nearby Donelson. She started her career singing in the National Life and Accident Insurance Girls' Glee Club before becoming a regular performer on WSM broadcasts, including Sunday Down South, working under WSM-AM programming director and Tree Publishing (later Sony/ATV Music Publishing) founder Jack Stapp. She was married to drummer Doug Kirkham, who died in 1986.
Singing as a sort of unofficial fifth member of The Jordanaires, Kirkham didn't just lead the "whoo-ooh-oohs" on "Blue Christmas," her first session with Elvis in 1957 — she came up with the part. As the story goes, The King originally didn't want to record the song, but had to, and called on the singers to come up with something silly enough to keep RCA from releasing it.
“I started going ‘Whoo-oo-oo-oo,’ " Kirkham told Bill Lloyd in a 2012 live Q&A at the Country Music Hall of Fame, which honored her as part of its Nashville Cats series. “[Elvis] motioned for me to keep doing it, so I did it all the way through the whole song. When we were through, we all laughed and said ‘That’s one record the record company will never release.’ But they did. And if I got royalties, I’d be a rich old woman.”
Kirkham became a regular session and stage backup vocalist for Elvis, appearing on hits like "(You're the) Devil in Disguise," gospel cuts like "Milky White Way" and versions of "Polk Salad Annie," "C.C. Rider" and "Bridge Over Troubled Waters."
She also sang on classics by many other artists, such as Ferlin Husky's "Gone," Brenda Lee's "I'm Sorry," Patti Page's "These Fools," Bobby Vinton's "Blue Velvet," Roy Orbison's "It's Over" and George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today." Other names on Kirkham's sprawling list of credits include Chet Atkins, Patsy Cline, Porter Wagoner, Bob Dylan, Charley Pride, Kris Kristofferson, Carl Perkins, Loretta Lynn, Hank Snow and Reba McEntire.
Now take some time and enjoy a selection of Kirkham's most memorable performances, along with the 2012 Nashville Cats presentation and Q&A, below.
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