78 RPM - Bull Moose Jackson And His Buffalo Bearcats - I Love You Yes I Do / Sneaky Pete - King - USA

78 RPM Record

Artist:	Bull Moose Jackson And His Buffalo Bearcats
Label:	King
Country:	USA
Catalogue:	4181
Date:	Oct 1947
Format:	10"
Collection:	I Own It I Want It
Community:	11 Own, 2 Want
Price Guide:	$28
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PRICE GUIDE

$28

Track	Artist	Title	Composer	Rating
A	Bull Moose Jackson And His Buffalo Bearcats	I Love You Yes I Do	Nix, Glover	Rate
B	Bull Moose Jackson And His Buffalo Bearcats	Sneaky Pete	Sally Nix	Rate

Notes

BB Oct 18, 1947, p. 117 (Advance Record Releases - Race)
BB Nov 15, 1947, p. 25 (Full-page King ad)
BB Dec 13, 1947, p. 104 (Review)
BB #1 R&B (3 weeks), #24 Pop - I Love You Yes I Do
BB #10 R&B - Sneaky Pete

Images

Number: 419651 THUMBNAIL Uploaded By: 55bluesman Edited By: fixbutte Description: a-side label	Number: 419652 Uploaded By: 55bluesman Description: b-side label	Number: 919515 Uploaded By: fixbutte Edited By: fixbutte Description: Full-Page Billboard Ad	Number: 918886 Uploaded By: fixbutte Description: Billboard May 31, 1952, p. 20
Number: 3116696 Uploaded By: fixbutte Description: Sheet Music	Number: 3116697 Uploaded By: fixbutte Description: Sally Nix in the 1940s	Number: 3116701 Uploaded By: fixbutte Description: Sally Nix Obituary (Hartford Courant, Aug 15, 1989)	Number: 2065218 HIDDEN Uploaded By: Berliner 1887 Edited By: Jace59 Description: No Description
Number: 2065219 HIDDEN Uploaded By: Berliner 1887 Edited By: Jace59 Description: No Description	Number: 1058523 HIDDEN Uploaded By: vocalion red Edited By: Jace59 Description: King sleeve 1950

Comments and Reviews


gnomon 12th Nov 2022		That floppy bow tie in Boarding House Blues is a trip. Dad used to do a lot of things just for publicity, any kind of attention. He thought it was good business. My mom was embarrassed by a lot of it and got him to tone things down when she could. One time we went bowling and my dad picked up his ball, held it over his head with both hands, wiggled his hips around then shuffled to the line to send his ball down the lane. That drove my mom nuts, and not in a good way. Mom asked him why he did that ridiculous thing and he said it draws attention. Clearly, my dad was a show-off, but that was part of his aspect of the business. Cab Calloway and Lionel Hampton picked up on some of my dad's antics. Not Duke, Basie, or Pops. They were more elegant. Mom got my dad to put more elegance into his act, but you could still count on him doing spins during a lively number. You might run across some film in your travels of Lucky using a conductor's baton that was more like a switch for a carriage horse. It was huge and, in my opinion, rather annoying. He was certainly known for conducting with a baton a lot of the time. My mom convinced him to start using a classical orchestra conductor's baton. But if you ever see his antics with the switch, you'll know what I mean. I think that floppy bow tie was a similar thing. Nobody had one like that, that I know of, and it wasn't a popular fad to my knowledge either. It is different.



xiphophilos 5th Nov 2022		I finally noticed that Lucky Millinder is wearing a tie on the 1955 images with Cathy Ryan and a bow tie on the image with your mom, Sally Nix, and on an image behind a WNBC mike with what may be another black female singer whose name I don't know. He seems to wear that same bow tie also in this image with Ella Fitzgerald and on this image with his entire band. In the 1948 film "Boarding House Blues", Lucky also wore a bow tie: Otherwise, images usually show him with a tie.



gnomon 5th Nov 2022		It seems like they took my word for things and just made some superficial changes. I agree with Marv that my dad in the pic with my mom does not look like 1955. He is much younger in his face and physique and is wearing completely different attire. The same with Glover. My dad and Glover are wearing that same attire taken with my mom in other photos which places those in the same session as the others, but not the Cathy Ryan session. Popsie Randolph who is credited with taking the photos in both sessions, about 7 years apart, is feasible. He was a well-known music industry photographer in NYC and might have been on-call for noteworthy sessions at that studio, which does seem the same for both sessions. So he either took the 1948 session when he was about 28 and the 1955 session when he was about 35, which is possible, or he only took one of them and not the other. I think he probably took both since he was gaining fame in the 1940s, he had plenty of well-known subjects in the 50s as well, and Getty says so, although that part is not a compelling argument. The excellent quality looks similar for both. I think they based their changes on the pics that had the same clothing as the ones with Cathy Ryan in them and the ones that did not. That makes sense, but that does not give me much confidence in the rest of their changes.



xiphophilos 5th Nov 2022		All those photos seem to come from the same photographer, and it would make sense that they were made at the same session on the same day. I wonder where the Getty people got their original info since it was demonstrably wrong. The only time Lucky Millinder ever recorded with Cathy Ryan was in early 1955, after all. That Getty now sticks to the 1948 date for the one picture that doesn't show Cathy Ryan means nothing. It seems very likely to me that they don't have a shred of evidence for this date. And you could probably find pictures of your mom taken when she was 29 (1948) and others when she was 35 (1955) and see on which ones she looks more like herself on the Getty image.



gnomon 4th Nov 2022		It would appear that there are still some inaccuracies left in the Lucky Millinder section of the Michael Ochs Archives at Getty Images, but all of the images with Cathy Ryan in them they have changed the date to simply 1955. There are a couple of photos from that session without Cathy Ryan in them with just my dad and Glover, which they changed to specifically March 3, 1955. Marv Goldberg has cleared up the confusion about his doubting that this was the same Cathy Ryan because he had only looked at the photo of my mom, Dad, Glover, and the two unknown white guys. The description at that time said it was part of the Cathy Ryan session and Marv knew for a fact that the lady, my mom, was not his Cathy Ryan. Now he knows that the lady was my mom and that Getty was just saying that it was taken during the Cathy Ryan session. But anyone who did not know what Cathy Ryan looked like would assume that the lady in the photo was, therefore, Cathy Ryan. Marv also emphasized that the photo of my parents was definitely in the 40s, so I am accepting the Getty Images date of July 28, 1948. But based on the errors I pointed out to them, which they corrected, I have to wonder about their accuracy in general; at least, in that era.



gnomon 4th Nov 2022		Thanks fixbutte. If I knew how to do that I might. Plus, these days (months) I have been occupied with a few genetic genealogic projects that I am working on, with several sets of mysteries, that are taxing my brain at the moment. I am, however, glad that I accidentally ran across this discussion about my parents and took the time to clear up a few things, especially, when answers to such puzzles are not all that forthcoming. I try to break away and visit here though when I can. If I hear more from Marv or Getty I'll let you all know.



gnomon 4th Nov 2022		I have contacted both Getty Images and Marv Goldberg about the Cathy Ryan session date. I asked Getty Images to see if they still had any good accounting of the date of the Cathy Ryan session which is suspected to be 1955 and not 1948. Getty Images has edited the photo information to now reflect that the session was in 1955 and not 1948, but they still have left most of the other photos as before except the one with Ella Fitzgerald that previously identified it as Lucky and Ella, and some woman, who is clearly a man. They fixed that, but the photo with my parents, Glover, and the two unknown white guys remains the same, 1948. I did ask Getty Images if they knew who those two guys are, but they have not mentioned anything to me. I also asked them a few other things while I was at it that they have ignored, so it is unknown if they ever will address them. Marv, on the other hand, questioned whether it is the same Cathy Ryan. I have just sent a reply asking him why he questions it, which I don't know yet, but it does seem like the same Cathy Ryan to me as is in the photos he sent me, only in the Millinder session Getty Images she would not be considered slender as she was in the 1952 photo (also Getty Images) Marv sent me of her.



fixbutte 31st Oct 2022		Sally Nix' profiles on Discogs and Rate Your Music have been updated. @xiphophilos Convincing find, I will change the photograph description accordingly..I guess gnomon can confirm the 1955 date at first sight. @gnomon Good to know that you own your mom's 45 on Belmont H, so you may add the label images to the entry on 45cat one day. Anyway you are invited to add any info you want to your dad's and mom's records on 45worlds and 45cat.



xiphophilos 27th Oct 2022		Lucky Millinder's recording session with Cathy Ryan took place in January or February 1955, not June 1948 (Getty's description of the image is wrong). Marv Goldberg quotes a snippet from the April 30, 1955 Pittsburgh Courier: "Lucky Millinder's first recording in almost two years is fast becoming a hit even if 'It's A Sad, Sad Feeling' {released on King 4792}. Funniest part about it, Annasteen [sic] Allen who was scheduled to do the vocals didn't show at the last moment, and white singer Cathy Ryan, who's been waiting ...." Goldberg adds, "Unfortunately, the typesetter didn't bother to finish the sentence, which would have told us that Cathy Ryan was used in her place (and might have told us what Cathy was waiting for)." The picture with Sally Nix seems to have been taken during that Cathy Ryan recording session, so it's also from early 1955, when she was almost 36 years old; in June 1948, she would have been 29. Unfortunately, I still don't know who the two white men are (King Records executives? Fans?).



gnomon 27th Oct 2022		Hello, fixbutte, xiphophilos, Whyperion, et al, Actually, I was born Roger Millinder, but my folks changed it, unofficially, when I was going into elementary school in Granby CT to have my mom's and aunt's family name for my middle name and my uncle's surname as mine. That was supposed to keep busy-bodies from inquiring about why my name was different from my family's. I went along with it, of course, as a child, but that theory didn't make much sense to me. All the kids knew my mom and my aunt and my uncle. The bigger question in my mind was explaining why my uncle had two wives. He didn't, of course, but a man living with two sisters, to me, would have raised more eyebrows. I took up international relations and had to focus on an area, so I went with Latin American studies. When it was evident that I would be studying abroad for a while my folks got an attorney to do an official name change in 1969 I think. I already had my SSN and driver's license in my changed name, so the court just made it official and there were no complications when it came time to get my passport. I do not know who the two white guys are in the photo of Mom, Dad, and Glover. I have wondered for some time. Maybe one day I'll figure it out. I do not know when Nick and my mom produced that 45 on Belmont H. Maybe I can look for some clues on the record itself. Coincidentally, quite recently a friend from high school who was a record collector has been unloading his collection for some time. He said he had a 45 of my mom and Nick and did I want it. I said that I did and he sent it to me. I see that Charlie Grean, who I mentioned before, produced it. If I figure out when it was done, I let you know. But if it came out in the 60s, most likely it would have been the late 60s. I vaguely remember that Mom and Nick were making the 45, but probably I would have had a better recollection of it if it was before I went away to college in 1968. Still, it could have happened in the early 60s. I was in my own world and not really following my mom's musical efforts that much at that time.



fixbutte 27th Oct 2022		Hello gnomon, before I found the article I was going to ask if your father played an instrument, presumably the piano, because he was such a gifted director, arranger and occasional composer. Now I know that he didn't, but as you suggest (and Whyperion paraphrases) he must have had some kind of understanding of the notes at least. I could find the complete photograph of your mother, Henry Glover and your father, apparently made at a recording session with Cathy Ryan on July 28, 1948 in New York, see https://www.gettyimages.de/fotos/lucky-millinder. Do you know who the other two men on the photograph are? And do you have an idea in which year your mother made the Belmont H record? From the single labels and design of the Bill Hein LP I guess it was in the early 1960s.



Whyperion SUBS 27th Oct 2022		Thanks for the fascinating history. With respect to family history recycling first/second names to subsequent children, that occurs in my family (including using a name when a older born child had died !) as well as attributing some children to other parents (esp. if it was a young daughter had given birth, the parents - or older aunts - would claim the parentage on christening, etc). With respect to the oft said "couldn't read music," I suspect folk may claim that as to the detail, I know a lot of music theory and notation (passing my sight reading for violin but failing the rest!), but certain rhythms if I see them I cannot get them right in my head. So it probably means seeing (or creating) a full score for all the colouration played from improvisation or from composing at home or on the road was not done, but some idea of where lower notes are, higher ones, their note duration and just as important, the space between the notes in time would be gleaned from seeing some kind of notation but the detail would come from the hearing and playing back and no doubt some adding in of "it feels right" as the compositions were performed, and that is probably easier by ear than writing, or reading from the dots.



gnomon 26th Oct 2022		Yes, that is a good article, although it does have an erroneous reference to Lucius Venable Millinder. Also, it says, as do other articles, that he was born in 1900. He was born in 1910. I am not noted there, most likely because my mom, aunt, and uncle had me sequestered away in northern Connecticut. Vivian Brewington also had a previous child of her own before she married Lucky, but his kids with her were Lucius (L-II) and Tami. L-II had a son L-III, who I am in touch with occasionally. Lucky never had the name, Venable. Having seen it in a jazz history book in the library I asked my mom as a kid where the name Venable came from since it wasn't the LeRoy that I knew. She never heard of it, so when we next visited dad in New York she asked him. Unfortunately, I don't remember exactly what he said, only that his middle name was LeRoy. So, he did give me an answer about Venable but I forget what it was, probably because I did find out that LeRoy was correct and Venable was not. I trust that most people here know Marv Goldberg. I asked Marv if he had any idea where the Venable came from. He said he didn't know for sure, but he thought that Lucky probably just briefly and casually used it to honor an old colleague in Chicago that had helped him a lot when he was new in the business in the 1920s. [I'm paraphrasing.] That person he mentioned was a Venable, but I cannot find my notes on which Venable Marv told me. I believe it was possibly Percy Venable who was a songwriter, a record producer, and an associate of Pops (Louis Armstrong). Even with Marv offering that hypothesis, it still did not jog my memory of whatever Dad had said to me about it. Bottom line: Venable was never part of Lucky's real name. Interesting trivia. You know that Lucky's name was Lucius LeRoy Millinder, but none of you probably know that he had a brother, born the year before him (1909), LeRoy Lucius Millinder. I know, right? LeRoy Lucius and Lucius LeRoy. That confused me to no end until in my genealogy research I found out that people were not accidentally flip-flopping the name and I actually had an uncle by that name.



gnomon 26th Oct 2022		The Belmont record you refer to is my mom. This was done long after Mom had essentially retired from the music business. She had a friend, Nick Casciano, who ran a cement/concrete company in Connecticut and had a huge music hobby. Nick had built a pretty sizable studio in his suburban house that had great acoustics. He had a lot of instruments, all of which he played himself, and could have a group playing, or could tape tracks of himself playing all of the instruments on a piece. He and Mom wrote "It's A Wonderful Life" and "My Big Marine". "My Big Marine" was written for my cousin who had joined the Marines. But that is my mother on the record. She was never a singer professionally. As a songwriter, she sang a lot and loved to sing, but Dad probably never used her as a singer in the band because she was "Country". Mom loved country music more than she liked Dad's music. But she was a talented lyricist and could write the kinds of things that the band wanted and needed. Do you know what Henry Glover looks like? If not, you know that Getty Images photo where you got that snippet of my mom that you posted? In the full photo, Glover is standing next to my mom. In the photo you posted, you can see a little of Glover's left lapel as he is shoulder-to-shoulder there with my mom. You can Google "Millinder Getty Images" and see the whole thing there, plus others. Finally, for today, it is said that Lucky could not read music, which might be true, but I do not know that for a fact. I have seen the conductor's arrangement package for "Sweet Slumber" and my mom "believed" that it was all scored in Lucky's hand. There was a substantial amount of scoring involved. In addition, on several visits to see Dad in the studio, he would often be poring over sheet music laid out on the top of the piano discussing different aspects of the arrangements. That is, of course, not proof that he could read music, but it does seem hard for a bandleader to debate passages of the arrangements using the sheet music if you can't read it. I never saw him play an instrument though. So, I can't say that he could read music, but I also can't say that he couldn't. BTW, my mom could not read music, so she as well mainly surmised that Dad could. She did say that she "could have sworn" that she saw him editing sheet music. This raises the question that if my mom couldn't read music how did she write the music to her songs? The answer is that she had people around her who loved her and did write music (she was quite endearing). She would call them and sometimes even wake them up in the middle of the night and sing her melodies to them over the phone. Then they'd send her the manuscripts. Her #1 go-to guy was Charles Grean. Charlie had been the musical director for the Jack Paar Show, the Jimmy Dean Show, the Eddy Arnold Show, and others. Mom was a close friend of his wife Betty Johnson. Charlie could write music like he was writing a note in English. So, he could literally do it half asleep. She couldn't read those manuscripts, of course, but as soon as anyone would play them she knew what was done correctly and what was off. Then whoever she was with at the time using that sheet music could tweak it to her specs.



fixbutte 25th Oct 2022		Possibly the best article about Lucky Millinder is on Christopher Popa's Big Band Library where it reads: He sometimes sang or danced, but could not read music - yet he was considered an excellent conductor, a "dynamaestro." He also was called a fine master of ceremonies, a great showman, colorful and eccentric, clever and shrewd. And his group was said to have been the greatest big band to play rhythm and blues. When I see the photograph of Sally Nix, I wonder if she may have started her career as a vocalist. Interestingly there is a 7" single on 45cat sung by a certain Sarah Nix, who was also the co-composer of both sides, so I guess it was her. The year of release is unknown, but the small record label (Belmont H) was probably based in Connecticut, like their main act who even had an LP (Bill Hein, see here and here).



fixbutte 23rd Oct 2022		Thanks again, gnomon (aka Roger), for your substantial comments, and especially for the Boarding House Blues movie recommendation. I agree with all you say about it, good and bad, but anyway there is a lot to watch and listen to, culminating in the 20 minute finale with your dad and his band. Yes, The Doors must have known the film with its title very similar to their "Roadhouse Blues" and with Annisteen Allen constantly singing "Let it roll ... all night long". No, I don't know the title of the first number the band plays although it sounds very familiar to me too. And yes, I know the "Hucklebuck" discussion which I had outlined 15 years ago in a comment on RYM: Paul Williams had heard the tune, called "D-Natural Blues" then and based loosely on Charlie Parker’s "Now's the Time", when playing a show with Lucky Millinder in 1948. He played it on his own shows and saw the audience do a new dance, the Hucklebuck. When the 1948 recording ban was over, Williams was the first to record and release it under this title. So Charlie Parker may have been the real originator of the tune in 1945, and Paul Williams may have heard your dad's "D-Natural Blues" in the film which apparently premiered in 1948. Here is the complete film on YouTube, although possibly truncated a bit at the top:



gnomon 22nd Oct 2022		Dad had a lot to do with the song "I Love You, Yes I Do". If you ever check out the old movie "Boarding House Blues" featuring my dad's friend Jackie "Moms" Mabley, at about 1 hour 4 minutes in (I skip to the good part; the movie itself leaves a lot to be desired) there is a run of five songs done consecutively by my dad and his band. I'm not that crazy about all of the acts in the "entertainment section" of the movie that leads up to the finale with my dad. But it does start off with "Crip" Herd, the famous one-legged/one-armed dancer. Moms Mabley does some light banter and a little soft shoe. The dancing Berry Brothers are featured as are the comedy act of Stump and Stumpy who also dance. There is a lot of vaudeville holdover. Una Mae Carlisle does a couple of numbers, which seemed a bit out of place for a black revue; although, of the acts besides dad's I liked Una Mae's the best. But it was not as improvisational as I would have liked. The first number by Dad is possibly the best song in the set, but I don't know its title and I believe it is still something of a mystery. If anyone recognizes it, please let me know. We can play it by ear, but what is it? Then comes "Sweet Slumber" with Paul Breckenridge. The vocal songs here illustrate the use of really long intros before the voices come in. In fact, with these numbers, the vocalists aren't even on center stage (or visible on screen) when the intros start. They amble in when the intros finally wind down. After this comes Annisteen Allen singing "Let It Roll". This song always makes me wonder if the Doors ever made a deal regarding its use when they did "Roadhouse" 20 years later. Next comes one of the saxophonists in the band, Bull Moose Jackson to sing "I Love You, Yes I Do". My mom was very fond of Benjamin Jackson, but I only remember meeting him one time as a child. The closing number they do is "D-Natural Blues". There is some question regarding the evolution of this piece. It was one of my dad's "theme songs". At least he used it a lot. And it is essentially "The Hucklebuck". Which came first? There are some who think "The Hucklebuck" was stolen from the "D-Natural Blues". If there is anyone in the know here who can shed some light on this, it would be appreciated. Anyway, they close here with a rendition of "D-Natural Blues". I like this movie mainly for the five classic numbers, including the public version of my mom's song. There's a lot of good stuff packed into these five consecutive numbers. The photo of my mom you posted is cropped from a Getty Images photo. Hope it's cool with them. That's me, Roger Nix White in her obit, and my daughter Kimberly Margaret White (named after Cookie). I have a copy of that sheet music. Even though Dad was not named as a composer and Bull Moose Jackson had the hit, in the day it was always associated with Lucky Millinder and his orchestra. Singers up until about that time were treated less significantly as "musicians" and the bands they were in took the spotlight. Things changed with Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday, Frank Sinatra, and others who paved the way for singers to be the main attraction. So, to me, it makes sense that it is shown as a Lucky Millinder piece. You know those picture postcards of New England Churches in the winter snow? The funeral service at the First Congregational Church named in the obit was such a church located in Granby CT. My mom did not belong to that church but loved it because it was her quintessential New England. That is why we had her service there. She was cremated in Florida, her ashes sat in an urn on my TV in the Washington DC suburbs for months until we could do the service in Connecticut, then she sat on my TV again for another few months until we could arrange to take her back home to Mineola TX to the Nix family cemetery plot where Aunt Cookie's ashes were already buried.



gnomon 22nd Oct 2022		That's right. When I speak of northern Connecticut, we first moved to Simsbury, then to West Hartford. From West Hartford, we moved to Granby, where I went to elementary school and high school. Over the years, my aunt and uncle and my mom were getting on each other's nerves, so when I was 16 (theoretically, old enough to withstand the trauma of a household reorganization) my mom moved to Hartford. I had a residence in both places. Aunt Cookie was my aunt who was my second mother. This is from my AncestryDNA tree. Dad: Lucius 'Lucky' LeRoy Millinder B: 8 Aug 1910 Anniston, Calhoun, Alabama, USA D: 28 Sep 1966 New York City, New York, USA Mom: Sarah Josephine Nix B: 28 May 1919 Mineola, Wood, Texas, USA D: 14 July 1989 Daytona Beach, Volusia, Florida, USA Second Mom: Margaret "Cookie" Virginia Nix White B: 15 Feb 1916 Mineola, Wood, Texas, USA D: 20 Jun 1988 Elkhart, Elkhart, Indiana, USA Second Dad: James Andrew White Sr B: 9 Nov 1917 Marshall, Lyon, Minnesota, USA D:12 Jan 2012 Elkhart, Elkhart, Indiana, USA My mom's home address was in Allendale just south of Daytona Beach and across the Halifax River from the long strip of land that is the oceanfront of Dayton Beach, but she died in the hospital in Daytona Beach. My uncle, Jim White, was an electronics engineer. In Connecticut, he worked for United Aircraft. Later he and Cookie moved to Elkhart, Indiana because a company called Ames that was later bought out by Miles Laboratories, and subsequently Bayer (of aspirin fame), hired him to invent the workings of the "Glucometer". They owned the rights to the name "Glucometer, but it didn't work. Working there, my uncle got several patents on his inventions that actually measured blood sugar levels accurately. Unfortunately, he did so under contract with Ames/Miles/Bayer, so he got bonuses and not wealthy. But there is no diabetic in this country today that does not use some modern version of my uncle's invention.



fixbutte 22nd Oct 2022		Thanks, xiphophilos, for the link to the biographical dates of Sally Nix. As we can't create biographies for composers on this site, I have uploaded her photograph and her obituary here. I have also uploaded a sheet music cover for "I Love You Yes I Do" that actually shows a picture of Lucky Millinder, which is somehow strange because his participation in the genesis and the recording of the song was not evident. As the 1952 Billboard article about the plagiarism lawsuit shows, however, Lucky Millinder had "supervised the King disking" and "figured as a defendant in the court action" (and, as suggested by gnomon, he may have traded or sold his authorship to Henry Glover). So the family (Sally Nix, Lucky Millinder and their son) is eventually united here on this page.



xiphophilos 19th Oct 2022		You can find Sarah Josephine Nix's biographical dates on her grave stone at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/23409763. According to her obituary, she last lived in Allandale, Volusia County, Florida. The obituary was published in the Hartford Courant, though, because she had spent many years living in Meriden, Hartfort, and Granby, Connecticut.



fixbutte 19th Oct 2022		Fantastic! So you were fortunate to meet the greatest jazz artists of the world when you were a youth. Something very special indeed. I intended to ask you if your aunt was Margaret Nix White, a songwriter as well, but then I noticed that on Discogs she is identified as your mother's sister, not as her alias anymore, apparently corrected on your suggestion about two years ago. I'd also like to add at least your mother's life dates to Discogs and RYM (Rate Your Music). Maybe you can specify the days of birth and death that you have not given yet.



gnomon 18th Oct 2022		As a young child on up until I could drive myself, Mom would often take me with her when she made her periodic trips from northern Connecticut (Hartford County) down to NYC to see music people and Dad. Whenever we would visit the Duke, or Pops, or Bill Basie, or the Mills Brothers, they would always introduce my mom to others as Sally Millinder. But to my knowledge, Mom was never married to Dad. I know that Dad's marriage to Clara Townsend was essentially over in the early 1940s and by sometime around 1943 or 44 everyone knew that my mom and Lucky were together. They were clearly a couple until shortly after 1950 when I was born. Mom had to stop working with the band full-time to take care of me. When I was born and came home from the hospital I was living with Mom, her sister, her brother-in-law, their adopted son, and their dog. Lucky did not live with us but visited a lot. My birth was anticipated, of course, but eventually led to the breakup of Mom's familial relationship with Dad. Dad was with the band all of the time and Mom could not be. When my aunt and uncle moved from NYC to northern Connecticut, Mom and I had no choice but to go with them since my aunt was my second mother and was the main one looking after me. A few years after that, Dad married Vivian Brewington. Vivian was wonderful and after Mom and Lucky had both died, Vivian and I were put in touch with each other by Mom's closest friend, Ruth Bowen. Some of my earliest memories were of Ruth and Billy Bowen. Every couple of months or so Vivian and I would spend an hour or two on the phone with each other. She being in NYC and me in the suburbs of Washington DC. I was in touch with Ruthie a lot, but even more with Vivian. Mom was born in May of 1919 in Mineola TX, where she is currently buried in the Nix Family cemetery plot. She died of lung cancer in 1989, a few months after my daughter was born. She did have a chance to spend some time taking care of her granddaughter for a few weeks right after she was born. Mom had moved to Daytona Beach FL with friends in the mid-80s. While she was still in Connecticut she was treated for cancer and it went into remission. But Mom, like so many others of her generation, started smoking cigarettes when she was probably as young as 12 or so. Even though she had battled her cancer successfully, she could not stop smoking and her cancer returned. This time she kept it to herself and her doctor. She had said after her first bout that if it ever came back she would not have the strength to fight it again. Unfortunately, that was not enough of a deterrent to prevent her from smoking. So, I lost Mom in July of 1989. Age 70 is so young, but of course not nearly as young as Dad who only lived to 56.



fixbutte 17th Oct 2022		Hello gnomon, I am happy that you have eventually found this page concerning your own parents and I am proud that you can confirm the final result of my 2015 research. As I have the strong impression that your mother has not got the extent of fame that she earns (considering the ongoing stories about her name being a pseudonym of King boss Syd Nathan), I would like you to add some more information about her if you don't mind. When and where was she born, when and where did she die? Were your parents actually married (according to the Glover quote from the plagiarism lawsuit "she has been for many years a friend and employee of Millinder's")? Were there other musicians and songwriters in your family? Feel free to add what is worth telling, so it may spread around the Web. Thank you very much.



xiphophilos 16th Oct 2022		Thanks for giving us the back story!



gnomon 16th Oct 2022		Hello. I just joined specifically to make this comment. My father was Lucky Millinder (Lucius LeRoy Millinder) and my mother was Sally Nix (Sarah Josephine Nix). "I Love You, Yes I Do" was possibly my mother's favorite song that she wrote. It reached its peak as a hit before I was born in 1950. When I grew up she would sing it a lot throughout the house. Frankly, as a child, I got really sick of it, although I later came to appreciate it. The original lyrics in their entirety were never published. The final verse was changed because the original lyrics were supposedly too racy. I grew up with the original lyrics drummed into me as my mother sang them around the house. Originally, the lyrics in the final verse used "to have and hold" as a theme. That theme became "to hug and kiss" in the change. Evidently, "have and hold" was shamefully explicit whereas "hug and kiss" was not. I can only figure that somebody's pockets got lined in the process. I knew Henry Glover, who is named as one of the two original composers. My mom was primarily a lyricist. Sneaky Pete, which she is credited with 100% she said had a lot of input from my dad, who got no official credit. Mom told me that she got the melody for "I Love You, Yes I Do" from my dad, not Glover (as we all called him, even me as a young child). I asked her why Glover was named as her co-writer. She said she didn't know, but she did know that Dad would often sell/trade his authorship of music when there was financial duress regarding the band. That is possibly what happened with Glover in this instance. Glover was involved in a lot of things. Mom would never sell or trade her rights to her work. The "Tonight He Sails Again" fiasco (plagiarism lawsuit) did not really affect my mother's contribution, which was supported by the court. She wrote the lyrics to "I Love You, Yes I Do" based on the melody that was presented to her. The court recognized that fact and so her status as a composer of the song stood. The music, on the other hand, was deemed a rip-off of "Tonight He Sails Again", so that's when Sol Marcus, Eddie Seiler, and Guy Wood were then listed as composers.



Mike Gann 28th Oct 2019		Already in the database https://www.45worlds.com/78rpm/record/4181 [Thanks. Both entries have now been merged. Mod.]



fixbutte 18th Dec 2015		Other sources confirm that Sarah J. Nix is the real name of Sally Nix, e.g. vocalgroupharmony.com (re King 4189): Nix-Glover are shown as composers on both sides. Henry Glover was one of King's main a&r men, but who was Nix? BMI shows her to be Sally Nix (Sarah J. Nix), who also collaberated with Glover on Bull Moose's "I Love You, Yes I Do," Annisteen Allen's "Bongo Boogie," and by herself on Bull Moose's "Sneaky Pete," and many others. And we have several entries in the Copyright Encyclopedia, e.g. this one: But Does That Make You Mine? By Sarah J. Nix a.k.a. Sally Nix, Sydney Nathan a.k.a. Lois Mann, & William Henri Woode This specific entry is suited to verify the Sally Nix identity for one thing and the exclusive Lois Mann pseudonym of Syd Nathan for another thing. So I guess this case is solved too.



fixbutte 18th Dec 2015		Although many sources repeat the story that Sally Nix is Syd Nathan, e.g. here: "...written by Glover with Nathan grabbing a credit (as 'Sally Nix' or 'Lois Mann', his wife's maiden name) ..." and here (AMG): "Some of these songs were composed by King kingpins Syd Nathan and Henry Glover (with Nathan sometimes using the pseudonym Sally Nix) ...", I have to add that this case in not quite solved. Discogs has the unsourced information that Sally Nix's real name is Sarah J. Nix. There are a few other (not King related) compositions credited to "Sarah Nix", so it may be like that. It is strange anyway that we have a joint "Bernard, Mann, Nix" credit on King 965, assuming that "(Lois) Mann" always meant Syd Nathan. This doesn't make much sense when "Mann" and "Nix" is the same person. The Discogs information that "Margaret Nix White" is an alias of "Sarah J. Nix" doesn't make sense either considering the joint "Margaret Nix White, Sarah Nix" credit on Eddy Arnold's "Mary Claire Melvina Rebecca Jane" (RCA Victor 47-8818).



fixbutte 17th Dec 2015		Here's a lot more about the Northern Music v. King Record Distribution lawsuit, with telling sound clips: http://mcir.usc.edu/cases/1950-1959/Pages/northernking.html Highlights are that the Sally Nix identity was never revealed, "Glover also testified that he has known Sally Nix, who wrote the lyrics to I Love You, Yes I Do since 1943. She has been for many years a friend and employee of Millinder's." and that Glover "also played third trumpet in the Millinder orchestra on October 8, 1947 when Tonight He Sailed Again was first recorded." Without knowing that Syd Nathan was Nix, the court restricted "the joint liability ... to the individual defendants, Nix, Glover and Millinder. ...There is no evidence that any of the corporate defendants published recordings or sheet music of the infringing composition with knowledge of the prior publication of plaintiff's composition."



fixbutte 17th Dec 2015		"I Love You Yes I Do" was huge R&B hit, spending 26 weeks on the charts, though only three weeks at the top. It is considered one of the first R&B million sellers, crossing over to the Pop charts. The song is credited to Nix and Glover, thus Henry Glover, producer and A&R director for King, and Syd Nathan, the company's founder and owner, who used "Sally Nix" as a pseudonym (like his long-time alias "Lois Mann"), apparently intending to cut in on the writer's royalty of a song that he published. And actually, Henry Glover later claimed that he had written the song alone. That was not the case either. In a May 1952 article (see above), the Billboard magazine reported on a court decision that found "I Love You Yes I Do" similar in melody, harmony and rhythm to an earlier Decca record, "Tonight He Sailed Again", composed by Guy Wood and Sol Marcus, with lyrics by Eddie Seiler - and recorded by Lucky Millinder of all people, leader of the band from which the Buffalo Bearcats were recruited (and of which Henry Glover had been a member). Although King had to pay damages based on the profits, a settlement was apparently found. Several of the later cover versions (even on Decca) still show the sole composers Nix and Glover, others, e.g. James Brown's 1961 cover on King 45-5547, list the unintended songwriting team of *"Wood, Seiler, Marcus, Nix, Glover"*.



BigBadBluesMan 3rd Apr 2015



BigBadBluesMan 3rd Apr 2015