Acrobat Music

Lil Green, American blues singer and songwriter, died on April 14th 1954

Lil Green, American blues singer and songwriter, died on April 14th 1954

Lil Green, one of the largely unsung heroines of Chicago blues, was born Lillian Green in Mississippi on December 22nd 1919. Her parents died when she was quite young, and she moved to Chicago, where as a teenager she began performing blues in the local clubs. She teamed up as a night club act with Big Bill Broonzy during the 30s, and she became noted as a highly individual singer with a fine sense of timing and a distinctively sinuous delivery. She wrote much of her own material, and recorded for local labels, her first major hit coming in 1940 with her song "Romance In The Dark", later covered by many other artists (however, the song of that title recorded by Billie Holiday was a different composition entirely). The following year, she scored again with "Why Don't You Do Right", a song written by Kansas Joe McCoy, which was covered by Peggy Lee the following year, and thereafter by a host of other noted artists. As well as performing in and around Chicago, she also toured with Tiny Bradshaw and other bands, but she never really managed to make her mark on the national stage either as a live performer or on record. Her fortunes appeared to be on the up in that regard when she was signed by Atlantic in 1951, but in truth her health was already failing, and she died in Chicago from pneumonia in 1954 at the age of just 34. Acrobat has on catalogue an album of her recordings, many featuring the accompaniment of Big Bill Broonzy - for details click here

 

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