Mikki Milan Biography
Mikki Milan makes her first appearance on the Phillips International label with two pop sides from September 1958. The original label credited her as working with the Bill Justis Orchestra. Either Phillips or Justis had found Mikki in New York and thought she might fit Phillips International’s uptown image. Wayne Cogswell had just appeared at the studio with “Somehow Without You,” and either Phillips or Justis thought it suited Mikki’s style. “I had my vocal group, The Montclairs, on that one,” said Cogswell. “I remember Mikki Milan was an older woman. She never lived in Memphis. Just came down to record a time or two.”
Once again, it is best to view this music as lying deeply within the pop tradition. In fact, the simplest view is that Mikki Milan was a poor man’s Kay Starr. Certainly, Kay’s record “Half a Photograph” seems to have cast a large shadow over these proceedings. Even relative to those standards, Mikki tends to be a tad shrill in places. Perhaps she was an acquired taste. More to the point, somebody at 706 Union acquired it. Mikki was back in the studio seven months later for a series of sessions that left not only a follow-up release on PI, but no fewer than 15 unissued titles, suggesting that an album was planned.
