![]() ![]() “Tall, Tall Trees,” A Trip In The Country (1970) The song became one of Miller’s final radio hits, reaching No. Miller was long past having something to prove, and though age is evident in his voice (he passed a decade later), his singing is just as expressive as ever. Roger Miller partnered with Willie Nelson for this 1982 album, and Ray Price joined the party for its title track, a lilting tribute to the Texan ensemble’s long history together as well as friendship in general. “Kansas City Star” is the punny exception to that rule, taking the tale of a local newscaster who would rather be a big fish in a small pond than advance their career Miller’s comic skills are centered in the recording, but the meat of the song is enjoyable as well – and plants the seeds for plenty of later tunes by one of Miller’s foremost acolytes, John Prine. “Kansas City Star,” The 3rd Time Around (1965)įor all his storytelling, very few Roger Miller singles carried a nonautobiographical narrative from beginning to end. His vivid depiction of kids drinking “grape wine in a Mason jar” on field trips evidently resonated with listeners as much as considerably more generic country drinking songs still do today. “Chug-A-Lug” flaunted Miller’s skill at contorting his voice to humorous and evocative effect in a relatively stripped-down setting. The goofy song about being young and getting drunk became Roger Miller’s second consecutive quasi-novelty track to become a massive hit, following “Dang Me” up Billboard’s country and pop charts before peaking on the Hot 100 at No. Miller co-wrote the matter-of-fact waltz with Bill Anderson, while Chet Atkins produced the understated recording, in which even the background chorus never interferes with the song’s melancholy message. “When Two Worlds Collide,” 1961Įven if it failed to instantly propel him to country superstardom, Roger Miller’s first top 10 single became a standard of the genre, earning covers by everyone from Jerry Lee Lewis to John Prine and Trisha Yearwood. Eddy Arnold made it a hit, but Miller’s version is all heart, as is the Dolly Parton and Alison Krauss rendition from a recent Miller tribute album. You hardly need much else when the title is that good, but Roger Miller pours it on with one of his most evocative vocal performances – cementing the song’s status as a pitch-perfect country tune. ![]() “The Last Word in Lonesome Is Me,” The 3rd Time Around (1965) Listen to Roger Miller’s best songs on Apple Music or Spotify.Ĭlick to load video 19. But even once that popular success faded, he was still deeply respected by country music aficionados. His skill, both as a songwriter and one of the most dextrous and diverse singers country music has ever seen, brought him a few years of enormous commercial success during the mid-1960s. Miller, born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1936 and raised just over the Oklahoma border, produced songs and records at a consistent clip almost from the time he reached Nashville in the late 1950s to his death in 1992. Is the two-step-ready honky tonk tune better or worse than the improbably successful and still-compelling novelty song, or are his trendsetting almost-outlaw tracks better than all of them? Not only does he have plenty of great ones to choose from, both as a writer and performer, but stylistically they span such a wide swath of American popular music that it can feel like comparing apples and oranges. Ranking Roger Miller songs is a challenge.
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