In A Mellow Tone
Wednesday July 19th, 2023 with Heavy Ben
Helen Merrill

Here is the track listing for this show that originally aired July 21, 2021. https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/94/52821.html Happy 94th birthday to this wonderful singer, born July 21 in New York City in 1929. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Merrill This is your grandparent's Helen Merrill (songs from 1955-2002). This is not your grandparent's Helen Merrill (9 hip hop and electronic tracks that sample the aforementioned). Very few jazz singers sound as natural singing non-jazz material as Merrill does. She sounds just like herself (which she always does anyway), with no particular adjustment to a straighter idiom, as if she had to shed herself of jazz sophistication in order to become more "innocent". - Richard Mortifoglio (Village Voice) Family connection: Helen's son Alan Merrill wrote and sung the original version of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" in 1975, made more famous by Joan Jett in 1982. Alan died at age 69 in 2020 of COVID.