365 Days #234 - Merigail Moreland (mp3s)

MP3:
1.) Reputation (with harmonica solo) - Merigail and Don Moreland (2:41)
2.) Reputation (working on the ending) - Merigail and Don Moreland (0:38)
3.) Reputation (weird ending) - Merigail and Don Moreland (1:46)
4.) Reputation (final 1953 version) - Merigail and Don Moreland (1:46)
5.) Mommy Daddy Bye Bye - Merigail and Don Moreland (2:21)
6.) Head Cheese - Merigail Moreland and Family (2:21)
7.) Head Cheese - Merigail Moreland and Family (2:52)
8.) The Song From Moulin Rouge - Merigail Moreland (1:18)
9.) I'm Walking Behind You - Merigail Moreland (1:45)
10.) I Want My Mommy and Daddy Together for Christmas - Merigail Moreland (2:33)
11.) Reputation (1957 Version) - Merigail and Don Moreland (2:05)
12.) Caught In the Rain - Merri Gail (2:02)
13.) I Feel So Blue - Merri Gail (2:25)
14.) Unchained Melody - Merri Gail (2:21)
15.) Oo-Lee, Oo-Lee, Papa, Oo-Lee - Merri Gail (2:07)

IMAGES:
     A Hit In Show Biz
     New Recording of Yule Song
     Little League Queen
     Teen Club
     Tape Box
     Oo-Lee, Oo-Lee, Papa, Oo-Lee
     A First Week Hit

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO READ MORE ABOUT MERIGAIL MORELAND...

"Clearly, she was born to sing".

That's what a close friend said upon hearing the last few of the songs I'll be sharing today. It captures my thoughts perfectly.

The first time I heard the voice of Merigail Moreland, about 15 years ago, I had no way of knowing who she was. The next time I heard her voice, I had a name to go along with the voice, but nothing more. I wanted to know more, and I wrote as much during the previous 365 days project. I am definitely the type who likes to get to the bottom of a musical mystery. And now, as a result of the previous project, I know much more of Merigail's story, in all it's bittersweet glory.

As I wrote in the project, each fall, for about 18 years, I used to go to a wondrous sale called "The Mammoth Music Mart" in Skokie, Illinois. In the early ‘90's, in a bin of 78's, I found an unlabeled acetate, and grabbed it quick, like I always do with such finds. Later, I was happy to find that it contained, on one side, a jazzy sort of guitar backed song, sung by a male chorus, apparently called "Backfire". But it was the other side, a song which could only have been called "Reputation", which really grabbed me.  A young girl sang the song along with a couple of men, one of whom took the lead for one chorus, accompanied by more nice guitar playing.

After awhile, the song drifted into the back of my brain. Then, at least five years later, I was again at the sale when I came across a batch of tapes, all labeled in the same handwriting, and prominently featuring the phrase "Head Cheese". How could one possibly pass that up? And, looking in more detail at a few of the tapes, I saw that this was a song title, and that another song on some of the tapes was titled "Reputation"! Could it be? I snapped up every tape I could find with this person's writing on it - about ten in all - and bought them.

Sure enough, it was the same girl, singing not only Reputation, both as a very young girl, and in the teen vocal I had already heard on that acetate, but also singing the ridiculous song "Head Cheese", and a handful of other tunes, in between many recordings of other singers and musicians trying out a variety of songs. Her name was spelled at least two different ways, and was sometimes listed with a Don Moreland (who was also featured on another tape hosting and singing on his own radio show).

And that's what I knew of the story when I wrote my original post for the original 365 days project. Two years later, I was astonished to hear from one of Merigail's cousins, who shared Merigail's story with me, starting with the correct spelling of her name, and giving me enough information that I was able to dig into local archives and find out more. Because, by some weird coincidence, it turns out that the house I've subsequently moved to (while in the same Metro area as Skokie, but not particularly close) sits less than two miles from where Merigail lived when these tapes were made. In addition to the family I was in touch with, I was also able to access the archives of the local paper, where I learned that Merigail was quite a local celebrity, with one Christmas single released when she was about 12, a Chicago TV show (akin to Bandstand) that she co-hosted at 14, and two singles she released on a local label at age 16.

Some of this material is a bit repetitive, with multiple takes of a few songs, but you may well find the early material rewarding, and some of the latter material is, in my opinion, jaw-droppingly good. On all but the weakest material here, Merigail's voice captivates me like few others I've heard.

Merigail was born in 1943, and the first versions you'll hear of "Reputation" date from when she was about ten years old. First come the initial rehearsals, one largely a cappella (except for a harmonica which plays the solo in a different key), one attempt to learn the ending, and one complete take with an slightly off kilter ending. This is followed by the finished product, which appeared in lower sound quality in the 2003 project. This is the version of the song I prefer - I love the little flip in her voice.

From roughly the same time are a batch of more juvenile recordings, first the maudlin "Mommy Daddy Bye Bye" (again featuring her father Don, as well), and then a couple of takes of the aforementioned "Head Cheese". This may be among the silliest songs ever recorded, and yet... there is still something about that voice, as if even singing something goofy and fun and gleefully stupid, she couldn't stop herself from using the training she undoubtedly was already receiving.

Following this are a couple of a cappella recordings of recent hits, "The Song From Moulin Rouge" (sadly, incomplete) and "I'm Walking Behind You". Although it is clear that we are listening to an amateur here, it surprised me to find out that she was no more than 11 years old at the time of this record.

More amazing, although in the service of a recording that's not really to my tastes as a record or a song, is the voice heard a little more than one year later, on the local Chicago Christmas release "I Want My Mommy and Daddy Together for Christmas". That she was at most 13 at the time of this recording simply amazes me.

At age 14, Merigail, a Freshman at the local High School, was tapped to join an up and coming local personality named Wally Phillips (soon to be a radio legend) as the co-host of an American Bandstand style TV show. I have no idea how long the show lasted, but it got several write-up's in local papers and magazines. That same year, 1958, she recorded the second version of "Reputation", which is heard here in a repeat from the previous project, again in better sound quality. This is definitely the slicker version, tuned down for her more mature voice, slowed down, and Merigail gives a noticeably more controlled performance. I love it, but not quite as much as that manic earlier version.

Virtually all of this music (except the Christmas single, and certainly not the background information), I knew before I heard from Merigail's family, but the big surprise came when I learned that, at age 16 or so, she had recorded two 45's for the Cha-Cha label on the South Side of Chicago. The reason I'd never come across them, in my internet searches, was because they were released under the name "Merri Gail". I was promised a copy, and was soon head over heels in love with a voice from the year I was born.

One single, "Caught In the Rain" b/w "I Feel So Blue" is quite good, and shows a growth in the two years since "Reputation" that is at the very least remarkable. But the other single...

On the B-side, which I heard first, was a heartbreaking version of "Unchained Melody", colored perfectly by accordion, and sung by a sultry, world-weary-sounding voice, still a bit shaky in places, but with a command of dynamics and emotion which stopped me in my tracks, and which was virtually unrecognizable from the recordings made a few years earlier.

But it was the A-side, the oddly titled "Oo-Lee, Oo-Lee, Papa, Oo-Lee" which went into heavy rotation for me, over the next six months. (By the way, yes it really does start in mid-musical-phrase.) Overcoming some occasionally trite lyrics (truly horrendous in places), she captures the longing expressed in the better parts of the lyrics, and her singing of the nonsense lyrics of the title, particularly near the start of the record, expresses a level of desire and passion for the object of her affection that I've rarely heard from someone still at high school age. Her soft-loud dynamics are fabulous, too. Taken with both sides of the 45, particularly "Oo-Lee...", this is, quite simply, one of my favorite records ever.

The trail ends there, for now. There are apparently more recordings, never released on record, that I may get to hear someday. Merigail did some performing in Wisconsin, then married and moved to Atlanta, and spent much of her life entertaining in nightclubs in that area. I always wished to meet her, and to tell her how much my friend and I have grown to love her recordings. What is sad for me, however, is tragic for Merigail, as learned of her early death, at age 47, from Lupus, in early 1990, perhaps a year before I came across that unmarked acetate of "Reputation".

Godspeed, Merigail. You live on in the ears, heart and soul of this compulsive collector of wonderful sounds.

- Contributed by: Bob Purse

Comments

[Walter Brennan]

...truly an endearingly warm voice has she - those early tapes are quite exquisite in places...

[B Beard]

Great column. One note though -- you state that Merigail was born in 1943, and that she died in 1990 at the age of 43...she would, of course, have been 47 (or 46, depending on her exact birth and death dates). Anyway, I'm not trying to be a jerk, exposing the single, largely irrelevant, flaw in your column -- just thought you'd like to know so it could be corrected. Anyway, I enjoyed the column -- thanks for bringing this music to light.

[Bob Purse]

Hey there,

Thanks for catching the error - you're not a jerk at all. I wish I'd caught it. Yes, the information that I have is that she died in 1990 at age 47. Must have been right after her birthday, as she died in early January of that year.

[norelpref]

I really appreciate not only the mp3s but the story behind them, which is so well told. Thanks! I totally "heart" this website.

[Allison]

Wow! Thank you so much for all of these additional tracks. Her early version of "Reputation" is my favorite song from the first 365 Project. As a young girl, Merigail's voice and presence reminded me of an amazing, totally genuine hybrid of Judy Garland and Shirley Temple. I think she's wonderful!

I'm so excited to hear all of these other finds. Thanks a million for researching her and surfacing these treasures.

[Bob Purse]

Hi there, Allison (and anyone else who is reading),

There are a few other tracks, maybe four or five more, mostly consisting of further takes of "Reputation" as well as one of "Head Cheese", from 1953 and 1954, and if there is interest, I will put them up on my blog, or will send them as MP3 from my e-mail address, [email protected]

I only left them out of this posting to avoid too much Reputation Repetition.

I have also just received the promised (low-quality) tape of Merigail singing nightclub style material from around 1980, and may put a sample of that up at the blog, too, once I digitize that.

Please let me know if you're interested. I hope to have some of Don Moreland's material submitted for this project before too long, too, including the song "Backfire", referred to in my text.

Bob

[Sammy Reed]

Yes, PLEASE put up that later material from her!

[kevin]

I heard this song about a couple of years ago on the local college station in Pomona, CA (KSPC) and from the first few seconds, it was magic. However, it was a short car ride so I never got any information other than that I could probably safely assume the song was named "Reputation". As time passed on and the songs' rollicking incantations began to burrow ever deeper and lay eggs in my brain I had to hear it again, and I became very disappointed/frustrated when I couldn't track it down(was it a Folkways/Smithsonian thing? Strange radio jingle?). Long story short: You really made my month. Thank You so much! What an odd feeling of relief!

[Jeff Jobson]

Amazing recordings, indeed! Even more amazing that just the right person found them. Any idea how they ended up in the record sale in the first place, and why there was a five year gap between the acetate and the tapes? This also brings up the question: is Merigail Moreland the same person from the credits of "Terror At Halfday"?

[Bob Purse]

Hello again,

I've wondered about the Merigail Moreland who showed up as wardrober for "Monster a Go-Go" (same film you mentioned, different title), but haven't thought to ask the relative with whom I'm in touch. It seems unlikely that there were two people at the right age in the mid '60's with that very unusual name.

As to who the tapes belonged to, that seems to be a very long story, of which I don't have much of the answer. Here's more than you wanted to know (I get longwinded, can you tell?):

I used to call them the "Moreland tapes", but that was clearly incorrect - having learned who was in the Moreland family, I know that the children heard in the more "family" oriented moments on these tapes are not part of the Moreland family.

What I have are a series of tapes featuring a musical friendship, so to speak, starting in 1953, and ending when, in the early '70's (would you believe), some of the members of this group, by then working as electricians in the building of Chicago's Sears Tower, wrote and rehearsed a song about the Tower, which they were allowed to play, backed by a rock band, at the opening of the structure.

The latest of the group of tapes were three tapes dated 1973, and featuring endless rehearsals of this song. I had long assumed Don Moreland to have been one of these men, but subsequently learned he was never anything but a musician. And one of the men on the "Tallest Rock" tapes can be heard mentioning having written "Backfire", the flip side to the acetate of "Reputation".

Here's an article I just found, much more detailed than any of the others I've ever seen about that Sears Tower song:

http://www.searstower.org/articles.html

It contains all the names of the men in the group, one of whom was undoubtably a friend of Don Moreland's, and perhaps the guitarist on "Reputation", as well as telling who wrote "Tallest Rock", and, presumably, "Back Fire", which I'll get into this project later.

My guess is that whoever recorded and owned these tapes, probably that same writer, died or was downsizing, back then, and his heirs or whoever, perhaps not knowing what they had, gave away all of his recorded material. I can't imagine doing that, or not instructing my heirs not to do that, but that's just me.

Hope I haven't gone on too long....

Bob

[Frederic]

What an amazing voice! Thanks for posting this, it made my day. The 1953 version of "Reputation" is even greater with the later material: childish at times but with definite seeds of the mastery she displays on "Oo-Lee". When was that one recorded? You wrote about high school age but I have a hard time thinking a teenager could have such a rich voice.

Please post the material from 1980, I'm really interested in hearing what she sounded like later.

Too bad she died without the recognition she deserved. Thanks again for sharing this treasure.

[Bob Purse]

Hi, Frederic,

I share your amazement at Merigail's voice at age 16, less than two years after the second version of "Reputation". And yet, a couple of online discographies show the previous Cha Cha release, C-1407, by Ron Haydock, being released in January of 1960. It's a good bet that the next Cha Cha release came out within weeks, months at the most, later. She was either 16 or 17 when it was recorded!

I'll post again when I have the 1980's recordings up on my blog, but I do want to caution all reading that they are not, in my opinion, the equal of the best of these recordings, in large part due to the quality of the recording and the generic nature of the accompaniment.

Bob

[Todd Frye]

Is this the 'Reputation' sung by the girl and (presumably) her family members from the first 365 Days Project, wherein several versions were found and it was speculated that the song was an amateurish ongoing project? (Sorry, I'm working from memory here.)

Yeah, that was one of the more memorable entries from the first Project, to be sure. I always thought the girl's voice was genuinely sweet, and that the whole song conveyed a certain innocence and naivety that was evocative of the time in which it was written and recorded.

Anyway, overwhelming kudos to you guys for making both Projects available to the world at large. It's a hell of a worthy effort.

[Bob Purse]

For those of you who requested the rest of the Merigail material in my collection, it has all been posted to my blog, which should be listed from my name, either below or above. This includes a few other very early recordings, another take of "Head Cheese", several more passes at "Reputation", and a handful of tracks recorded by Merigail somewhere near Atlanta around 1980. Have a visit and a listen!

Bob

[Sammy Reed]

Thanks for putting the later stuff on your page!

[Kevin]

nice to hear the songs from my aunt still being talked about. This and the article and music from my grandpa has brought back some good memories

as i listened to unchained melody the breeze came and sent chills through my spine. o, what could have been?

as i listened to unchained melody the breeze came and sent chills through my spine. o, what could have been?

[James Shaw]

In my times scoping and reading the 365 Days Project, I have always passed over listening to Merigail and Don's "Reputation" until today.

I am now a fan of the works of the Moreland family. And I agree with others, Merigail should have been a household name in the fifties. She had the voice and the talent. Imagine all the possibilities. The things that may have been.

It is record hounds like yourself Bob that preserve the audio of these great talents that are little known outsidetheir community. Thank you for this.

Maybe one day a recording company will release a greatest hits CD of the best songs and talent the general public have never heard of.

[{>ZZ<}]

"as i listened to unchained melody the breeze came and sent chills through my spine. o, what could have been?"

STILL TO THIS DAY