外文名：Roger Miller 国籍：美国 出生地：美国德克萨斯州沃斯堡 职业：歌手、词曲作者、音乐家、演员 生日：1936 年 1 月 2 日 简介：by Stephen Thomas Erlewine Roger Miller is best known for his humorous novelty songs, which overshadow his considerable songwriting talents as well as his hardcore honky tonk roots. After writing hits for a number of artists in the 50s, Miller racked up a number of hits during the 60s which became not only country classics, but popular classics as well. Miller was born in Fort Worth, TX, but raised in the small town of Erick, OK, by his aunt and uncle, following the death of his father and his mothers debilitating sickness. Initially, he was attracted to music by hearing country over the radio as well as by his brother-in-law, Sheb Wooley. By the time he was ten, he earned enough money picking cotton to buy himself a guitar. At the age of 11, Wooley gave him a fiddle and encouraged him to pursue a performing career. Miller completed the eighth grade and left school to become a ranch hand and rodeo rider. Throughout his adolescence, he played music in addition to working the ranch. Soon, he was able to play not only guitar and fiddle, but also piano, banjo, and drums. He enlisted in the Army during the Korean war and was stationed in South Carolina, where he met the brother of Jethro Burns who arranged an audition at RCA Nashville for him. Early in 1957, Miller left the army and auditioned for Chet Atkins at RCA. The session was unsuccessful, and he spent a year as a bellhop at a Nashville hotel. While in Nashville, Miller met George Jones and Pappy Dailey, who introduced him to Don Pierce, an executive at Mercury Records. Pierce signed Miller and had him cut three songs. His first single, Poor Little John, disappeared without a trace. Following the failure of his first single, Miller continued to work at the hotel and tour with other musicians — he played fiddle with Minnie Pearl for a short time, then he became the drummer for Faron Young. After a few months, he was signed as a songwriter for Tree Music Publishing and stopped performing as a supporting musician. Instead of playing music, he became a fireman in Amarillo, TX. The abandonment of performing was short-lived, however — within a few months, he became the drummer for Ray Prices Cherokee Cowboys. In 1958, Price recorded Millers Invitation to the Blues, and it went to number three. It was soon followed by three other successful versions of his songs — Youngs Thats the Way I Feel and Ernest Tubbs Half a Mind both went Top Ten, while Jim Reeves had a number one hit with Billy Bayou. That same year, Jones recorded Tall Tall Trees and Nothing Can Stop My Love, which he had written with Miller; neither of the songs were hits. The following year, Reeves had a hit with another one of Millers songs, Home. Since his songwriting career was flourishing, Miller decided it was again time to try to become a performing artist as well. He recorded a few tracks for Decca which werent successful, and then he signed to RCA Records. You Dont Want My Love, one of his first singles for the label, reached number 14 in early 1961, followed by the Top Ten When Two Worlds Collide later that summer. Miller wasnt able to immediately follow the songs with another hit single. Two years later, Lock, Stock and Teardrops scraped the charts, and he left the record label. Around that time, Miller moved to Hollywood began appearing regularly on The Jimmy Dean Show and The Merv Griffin Show, two of the most popular television programs in the country. His guest spots showcased his new style — instead of concentrating on hardcore country, he had developed a willfully goofy persona, singing silly novelty songs. He signed a record contract with Smash Records and released his first single for the label, Dang Me, in the summer of 1964. It was an immediate smash, vaulting to number one and spending six weeks at the top of the charts; it also crossed over into the pop charts, peaking at number seven. Chug-a-Lug followed a few months after it, reaching number three on the country charts and nine on the pop charts. At the end of the year, Do-Wacka-Do was released, becoming a number 15 hit. Miller began 1965 with his best-known song, King of the Road. The single spent five weeks at the top of the country charts and became his biggest pop hit, peaking at number four. Its accompanying album, The Return of Roger Miller, was another crossover success, also peaking at number four on the pop album charts and going gold. Miller was at his peak in 1965. Every song he released that year — Engine Engine #9, One Dyin and a Buryin, Kansas City Star, England Swings — reached the country Top Ten, and at the end of the year, his Golden Hits album went Top Ten; it would eventually go gold. In the summer of 1965, he released The Third Time Around, a record that leaned toward his honky tonk roots; it peaked at number 13. After the watershed year of 1965, Millers career dipped slightly. Although other artists were still having hits with his songs — Eddy Arnold took The Last Word in Lonesome Is Me to number two — Miller had trouble breaking the Top 40 following the number five hit Husbands and Wives in early 1966. He continued to record throughout the late 60s, but fewer and fewer of the songs were becoming hits. Occasionally, he would record the songs of emerging songwriters, whether it was Bobby Russells Little Green Apples (number six, 1968) or Kris Kristoffersons Me and Bobby McGee (number 12, 1969). Toward the end of the decade and beginning of the 70s, he began to concentrate on honky tonk, although he still made his trademark novelties. During the 70s, he recorded sporadically, preferring to concentrate on his hotel chain, appropriately called King of the Road. Tomorrow Night in Baltimore, released in the spring of 1971, was his biggest hit of the decade, climbing to number 11. Early in the decade, he wrote songs for Walt Disneys animated adaptation of Robin Hood — he also provided a voice for the rooster in the film — as well as the movie Waterhole Three. In 1973, he left Smash/Mercury for Columbia Records. He spent four years at Columbia and only his debut single for the label, Open Up Your Heart, was a hit, peaking at number 14. Miller didnt record much during the 80s — his biggest hit was Old Friends, recorded with Willie Nelson and Ray Price. In the mid-80s, he wrote the music for Big River, a Broadway adaptation of Mark Twains works. Both the play and Millers music were critically acclaimed and enormously popular. Big River won seven Tony Awards and two of those went to Miller, for Best Musical and Outstanding Score. Big River would be the last major work of Millers career. In 1991, he was diagnosed with throat cancer and died a year later. After his death, his legacy remained strong, as each new generation of country singers found songs in his catalog to cover and reinterpret. 从艺历程：1958 年，米勒与Decca Records唱片公司签订了唱片合约。他与后来以Johnny Paycheck为名声的歌手唐尼·莱特尔搭档，演唱了米勒创作的《A Man Like Me》和后来的《The Wrong Kind of Girl》。这两首酒吧风格的歌曲均未上榜。他与该唱片公司合作的第二首单曲，以 B 面歌曲《Jason Fleming》为特色，预示了米勒未来的风格。为了赚钱，米勒作为鼓手与法伦·杨的乐队一起巡回演出，尽管他从未打过鼓。在此期间，他与RCA Victor的切特·阿特金斯签订了唱片合约，米勒于 1960 年为该唱片公司录制了《You Don't Want My Love》（也称为《In the Summertime》），这是他首次登上乡村音乐排行榜，最高排名第 14 位。第二年，他产生了更大的影响，凭借与比尔·安德森合作创作的单曲《When Two Worlds Collide》突破了前 10 名。但米勒很快就厌倦了写歌，与妻子离婚，开始了派对生活，这为他赢得了“野孩子”的绰号。他被唱片公司解约，开始追求其他兴趣。 在多次出现在深夜喜剧节目中后，米勒决定他或许有机会在好莱坞当演员。由于缺钱，他与新兴的唱片公司Smash Records签约，要求该公司以 1,600 美元现金作为条件，要求录制 16 首歌曲。Smash 同意了这个提议，米勒于 1964 年初首次为该公司表演，当时他录制了热门歌曲“Dang Me”和“ Chug-a-Lug ”。这两首歌都以单曲形式发行，在乡村音乐排行榜上分别排名第一和第三；在Billboard Hot 100上也表现不俗，分别排名第七和第九。这些歌曲改变了米勒的职业生涯，尽管前者是米勒在短短四分钟内创作的。同年晚些时候，他录制了排名第 15 的热门歌曲“ Do-Wacka-Do ”，不久之后，他又录制了职业生涯中最受欢迎的歌曲“ King of the Road ”，这首歌在 Billboard 100 上排名第四，同时在乡村音乐和成人当代音乐排行榜上名列前茅。这首歌还在 1965 年 5 月在英国单曲榜上连续一周排名第一。这首歌的灵感来自芝加哥的一块写着“拖车出售或出租”的牌子，以及一个在博伊西机场偶然遇到米勒的流浪汉，但米勒花了几个月的时间才写完这首歌，这首歌在 1965 年 5 月获得金唱片认证，销量达到 100 万张。它赢得了无数奖项，并在那个夏天获得了 16 万美元的版税支票。 1965 年下半年，米勒凭借《Engine Engine No. 9》、《Kansas City Star》（一首进入乡村音乐排行榜前十的热门歌曲，讲述一位当地儿童电视节目主持人宁愿留在堪萨斯城过着安全的生活，也不愿在奥马哈成为更大的明星，否则就会面临失败的风险）和《England Swings》（一首成人当代歌曲，排名第一）获得了成功。1966 年初，米勒以热门歌曲《Husbands and Wives》开启了 1966 年，这是一首中速华尔兹，反映了影响婚姻的问题。[ 8 ] 1966 年 9 月，米勒在 NBC 获得了自己的电视节目。节目持续了 13 周，于 1967 年 1 月结束。在此期间，米勒录制了其他词曲作者的歌曲。他自己创作的最后一首热门歌曲是“Walkin in the Sunshine”，这首歌在 1967 年分别在乡村音乐和成人当代歌曲排行榜上排名第 7 和第 6。同年晚些时候，他首次录制了鲍比·拉塞尔的“ Little Green Apples ”，获得了他的最后一首十大热门歌曲 第二年，他首次翻唱了克里斯·克里斯托佛森的“ Me and Bobby McGee ”，使这首歌在乡村音乐排行榜上排名第 12。1970 年，米勒录制了专辑《A Trip in the Country 》 ，收录了米勒创作的乡村音乐风格的标准曲目，包括“Tall, Tall Trees”。同年晚些时候，在 Smash Records 倒闭后，米勒签约哥伦比亚唱片公司，并于 1973 年为该公司发行了《亲爱的各位：抱歉，我最近没写信》。同年晚些时候，米勒在迪士尼动画片《罗宾汉》中扮演公鸡和吟游诗人 Allan-a-Dale，创作并演唱了三首歌曲： “ Oo - De-Lally ”、“ Not in Nottingham ”和“Whistle-Stop”（这首歌被采样用于流行的Hampster Dance网站）。1977 年，他为Rankin/Bass假日特别节目《长耳圣诞驴 Nestor》中的马叙述者 Speiltoe 配音。米勒与威利·纳尔逊合作了一张名为《老朋友》的专辑。主打歌基于他之前为俄克拉荷马州的家人创作的一首歌曲。这首歌由雷·普莱斯 (Ray Price) 客串演唱，是米勒职业生涯的最后一首热门歌曲，[ 1 ] 1982 年在乡村音乐排行榜上最高排名第 19 位。