Sometimes a hero can be a genuine talent that gets all the recognition they deserve. Sometimes a hero is a wasted talent, someone who is only appreciated by a handful of connoisseurs. And sometimes a hero is someone with completely no talent that struggles through regardless.

Think Eddie The Eagle. Think Nigella trying to present her new daytime TV show. And think this week’s hecklerspray hero – Mrs Miller.

There’s a pretty strong argument that Mrs Miller is the least talented recording artist of all time.

Mrs Miller (full name Elva Ruby Connes Miller) was something of a
1960s legend. She was just a normal housewife who somehow ended up with
a Capitol record deal. And for the life of us, we can’t understand why. She
was 59 years old when her first record, 1966’s Mrs Miller’s Greatest
Hits, was released.

Her shtick was simple – she’d sing modern pop songs in her unique
style. The Mrs Miller style was to blast out her songs in an out of time, out of key
operatic vibrato. Sometimes it’s not even clear if she’s heard
the song before. Often there’s no rhythm and the words are garbled. Listen to
her version of Downtown – you’ll have heard of nothing like it before.

Obviously, everyone knew that she was bad. In a sense, she’s like
the people that go out in the first round of Pop Idol. But with those
wannabes, you get the feeling that they’re only doing it so they can be
on television for thirty seconds, and maybe get a Pizza Hut advert out
of it.

Not Mrs Miller, though. When Mrs Miller’s Greatest Hits sold 250,000
copies in three weeks, she didn’t realise that the joke was on her. And
it’s this innocence that makes her a winner. It’s like when Richard
Madley did his Ali G impression – at first you laughed at his stunning
idiocy. But slowly, he won you over. By the time Mrs Miller’s given up
singing Downtown in favour of bizarre off-kilter whistling, you’re cheering her on,
willing her to finish with a shred of dignity left.

When it was decided that her second album would be entitled Will
Success Spoil Mrs Miller? she began to understand that she was merely a
novelty act. She was resentful at first, but started to play along for a short
time – for the album The Country Soul Of Mrs Miller – before she was
dropped by Capitol.

A further minor-label album, Mrs Miller Does Her Thing (complete
with a big winking Mrs Miller on the sleeve), was released before she
faded away to obscurity and a quieter life before she died in 1999. A compilation album, Wild Cool ‘n’ Swinging, was released as an obituary.

Elva Miller Central is a fantastic Mrs Miller resource, including news articles and audio samples

[story by Stuart Heritage]