Frankie Miller Sings Sweet

First off, you need to listen to the recording below, of Frankie Miller singing Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues). Go on, I’m not saying anything until you’ve listened to this.

This one of my favorite old-but-new-to-me songs I’ve discovered in the last year. I can’t listen to this one without dancing just a little in my chair. I may have even levitated the first time I heard it. It makes me feel good deep down in my soul. This song was my introduction Frankie Miller.

Like most Americans, I didn’t hear any Frankie Miller on the radio when I was growing up in the 1970s. I was vaguely aware of the name, read a few things about him in Rolling Stone or some such thing, but never actually heard any of his music (and I only had a limited number of $$$ to spend on albums).

So with the advent of streaming, Frankie Miller became one of those artists from the past I wanted to catch up on. Wow, what a singer, with a great soul voice that reminds me simultaneously of Rod Stewart, Paul Rodgers and Sam Cooke. Apparently Stewart and Bob Seger were both big fans.

Something Sweet is from Miller’s High Life album, which was produced by the great Allen Toussaint. You can hear Toussaint’s touch in that loose but funky rhythm section, those tight just right horn parts and the snaky New Orleans piano. Frankie’s voice rides on top like a glass of sweet, smoky bourbon. Three Dog Night took their version of this song into the Top 40, but it sounds dull and clunky in comparison.

Even without breaking big in America, Miller had pretty decent career going before suffering a brain hemorrhage in 1994. Although never breaking through on his own, he wrote a number of songs which were covered by others, including Burn One Down which he co-wrote with Clint Black. At the time of the attack he was putting together a new band with Joe Walsh, Nicky Hopkins and Ian Wallace. It’s a shame we never got to hear how that supergroup might have sounded.

High Life is my favorite Frankie Miller album, but he made several very good ones and there’s always a couple of great tunes even on the lesser ones. If you’re a fan of rock’n’soul music, give Frankie a listen. Below is a Tops of the Pops rendition of his biggest hit – Darling