A 'Life' Story, Retold
A SONG THAT SPANS THE DECADES
For the composer of one of Motown’s most-recorded songs – if not the most-recorded – Orlando Murden is something of a mystery man. By contrast, the life story of its lyricist, Ron Miller, has been told time and time again.
“For Once In My Life” was written 56 years ago by Miller and Murden. It’s celebrated as one of Stevie Wonder’s biggest worldwide hits, while also strongly associated with Tony Bennett. And at Motown Records, numerous versions were made, as if mandatory.
Since 1965, “For Once In My Life” has been recorded by more than 250 singers, musicians and stars, ranging from the iconic – Frank Sinatra, for one – to the entirely obscure. Among the more unexpected: Guy Lombardo, James Brown and Renée Zellweger. It’s collected awards of various stripes, been heard in film soundtracks and commercials, and continues to be a staple of television’s singing and dancing competition shows today.
A ‘Life’ which circled the globe
Lisa Dawn Miller has been talking about her father’s most famous copyright for years, pledging to make a musical or movie about it. There’s even been a minor controversy about who was the first to perform “For Once In My Life.”
But…Orlando who?
Identified for his “boogie piano” virtuosity, Murden was a regular attraction at small nightclubs in America’s Midwest during the 1940s and ’50s, and appeared on Arthur Godfrey’s talent-spotting TV show in 1949. Two years later, he was described in Billboard as a “talented Negro pianist-singer.” Reviewing him at Chicago’s small Le Boeuf club, the trade magazine’s John Sippel wrote, “Working among the customers, the handsome youngster covers the gamut from pure French to latest pops, with some wonderfully intimate and individually styled instrumentals to pace his half-hour stints.” In addition, the musician was under contract to Decca Records.
Murden was born in August 1925 – in Chicago, it’s thought – and Miller (who was white) in October 1932, also in that metropolis. Whether they first met in the Windy City or the Motor City is unknown. If Murden received his first press coverage in the ’40s, Miller’s took a little longer: he was mentioned positively for contributions to a music/comedy/dance revue at Detroit’s Vanguard Theatre in 1963-64. “Give credit here to Ronald Miller for building the songs,” declared the Windsor Star. Also cited was actress-singer Sherry Kaye, who will figure here again shortly.
AN APOCRYPHAL PIZZA?
How the pianist/singer made it to Motown is unclear, although it was probably through a pre-existing Chicago connection to Miller. According to Berry Gordy’s autobiography, the latter got to Hitsville by way of A&R head Mickey Stevenson, to whose hotel room in Chicago he once delivered a pizza, and – realising who the hungry recipient was – began pitching his songwriting skills. Dubious though the story sounds, it’s true that Miller did that sort of job to make ends meet; selling washing machines was another.
Lighting up The Flame in Davenport, Iowa
Differently, Lisa Dawn Miller has claimed that when Gordy saw her father performing at a piano bar in Chicago, he was sufficiently impressed by his songs to offer him an opportunity at Motown. “The next morning,” she wrote, “Miller picked up the family and everything he owned, and headed for Detroit and his many dates with musical history.” The relocation occurred in 1963, and before the year’s end, what may have been the first Miller/Murden collaboration at Motown was released.
It was “Give Your Heart A Chance,” a faux-Broadway ballad recorded by Stevie Wonder for his fifth Tamla album, With A Song In My Heart. It was the set’s only original composition, the other nine being standards such as “On The Sunny Side Of The Street,” “Smile” and “Make Someone Happy.” Coincidentally, the entire project was recorded in Chicago with producers Mickey Stevenson and Clarence Paul; perhaps Miller (and Murden?) was on-site, if not already in Detroit.
But With A Song In My Heart failed to sell when sent to market in December that year. The same fate befell Marvin Gaye’s own easy-listening exercise, Hello Broadway, when issued the following November. This album, too, was stuffed with standards, such as “The Party’s Over,” “The Days Of Wine And Roses” and “Hello Dolly,” together with a couple of Miller originals: the title track, co-written with William O’Malley, and “My Way,” penned with Richard Jacques.
UNPOPULAR IN THE NURSERY
If the specifics of how Miller and Murden first worked together are lost, “For Once In My Life” is blessed with detail. The song came together in the early hours of March 6, 1965, judging by what Miller once explained to TV talk-show host Merv Griffin about when he and his wife, Aurora, learned that she was pregnant. “I said, ‘Nine months from now, we’re going to have a little girl, and I’m going to call her Angel Miller, and when she’s born, I’m going to write a song for her.’” When the birth subsequently took place, late at night, “I had a few drinks and I went home, and Orlando Murden, the fellow I collaborated on the song with, had written this melody the day before. I went home, and against everything I believed in – against technique and discipline – I just wrote the song. And I came to the nursery in the morning about seven o’clock, and said, ‘I got this wonderful hit song for my daughter,’ and I was singing it through the window, and they kicked me out.”
B.G. (Jr.) thanks Tony, as well he should
Four months on, actress/singer Connie Haines became the first at Motown to record the daughter-inspired song, with sweeping strings and an overwrought vocal performance. This was swiftly followed by another actress/singer signed to the company, Barbara McNair. Both sessions were produced in California by Hal Davis and Marc Gordon; Haines’ version stayed in the tape library for 50 years, while McNair’s was included in her 1966 album, Here I Am. Subsequently, there were recordings of the song made in-house by Billy Eckstine, the Four Tops, the Temptations, Martha & the Vandellas, the Miracles – and Stevie Wonder.
Fast forward to early 2007, when “For Once In My Life” was garlanded with a Grammy for a then-new recording by Stevie Wonder and Tony Bennett. With the song back in the news, two of Miller’s friends from Michigan – Sherry Kaye and Jo Thompson, singers both – each claimed to the Detroit Free Press that they were the first to perform it, soon after the number was written. “I have the original Motown pre-publication lead sheet,” Kaye advised the newspaper.
“Ron hustled it all over Detroit,” Berry Gordy recalled in To Be Loved, “getting every singer in local bars to include it in their acts. Within a year, most everybody in town knew it.” That included jazz singer Jean DuShon, whose 1966 version for Chess Records proved to be the first commercially-released version of “For Once In My Life.” Its sales as a single, however, were negligible.
“Ron was primarily a lyricist,” added Gordy. “As hard as he worked to find singers to sing his songs, he seemed to work just as hard to find writers to collaborate with.” The Motown founder also remembered disagreeing with Miller over a ballad for Billy Eckstine, “Down To Earth,” even before “For Once In My Life” was written. “We were fighting around with the lyrics, and he refused to change them,” Gordy told me in 1994. “I said, ‘OK,’ although I thought that change would have made a big difference in the record.”
BACKSTAGE AT THE ROOSTERTAIL
Miller’s hustle extended to lobbying Tony Bennett about “For Once In My Life” backstage one night at Detroit’s Roostertail club, during the singer’s stint there in February 1967. His interpretation, recorded five months later, charted only modestly when released as a single, but evolved into a staple of his live repertoire. Moreover, the song’s endorsement by Bennett led to a wave of new interpretations by the likes of Nancy Wilson, Vikki Carr, Jackie Wilson, Della Reese, Wayne Newton, Paul Anka – and Frank Sinatra.
With Stevie, a grateful Ron Miller
As for Stevie Wonder’s global smash, the track and lead vocal were committed to tape in Detroit in early 1968, with an arrangement by Wade Marcus and Hank Cosby in the producer’s chair. As noted, the singer had recorded an earlier version, but this was decidedly different. Marcus once told me that there was some internal dispute over the remake, and that “Berry said, ‘Hey, I can’t release this, this isn’t the Motown sound,’ but boom, as soon as they dropped the record, it spread across the country.” True enough: the single reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in December ’68, and one step higher on the Cash Box countdown, while also achieving chart success in Britain, Canada and Australia.
Ron Miller sustained his career with further hits for Wonder (“Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday,” “Heaven Help Us All”), while his 1966 tune with Bryan Wells, “Someday At Christmas,” has developed into a seasonal standard. He co-wrote Diana Ross’ “Touch Me In The Morning” and Charlene’s “I’ve Never Been To Me,” both huge hits, and “If I Could,” recorded by Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles and Celine Dion, among others.
The lyricist also ventured into the realm of stage musicals, co-authoring Daddy Goodness in 1979, while Orlando Murden pitched into the 1982 contest to create a new signature tune for the city of Chicago, commissioned by its mayor. Murden died in 1994, the year when yet another interpretation of “For Once In My Life” – uniting Sinatra, Wonder and Gladys Knight – reached the Billboard Top 10 on Sinatra’s Duets II album. Miller passed in 2007, the year when the Wonder/Bennett remake netted its Grammy.
“For Once In My Life” seems likely to live on. A younger generation has been drawn to its charms, notably new British star Emeli Sandé in 2019 (as soundtrack-featured in the TV remake of Four Weddings And A Funeral) and, just last summer, Noah Cyrus, the youngest sibling of TV and music star Miley. It’s sure to figure in movies and commercials, too, judging by its recent use in a TV spot for a French cellphone network, seen here.
Whatever we know – or don’t – about the pair of songwriters born almost a hundred years ago, theirs has been a remarkable “Life.”
Music notes: given how many versions there have been of “For Once In My Life,” this cross-section can hardly do it justice. Still, here’s the first recorded rendering – by Connie Haines, from long-ago California – as well as the first to chart, by Tony Bennett. You’ll likely be familiar with Stevie’s 1968 smash, but perhaps not his recording in Spanish. James Brown renders the song as only he can, while Renée Zellweger gives it the Judy Garland treatment. Both ends of the age spectrum are represented here, too: Frank Sinatra, born in 1915, and Noah Cyrus, born in 2000. What a life this song has had.