'Chug-a-Lug' followed a few months after it, reaching number three on the country charts and nine on the pop charts.

It was an immediate smash, vaulting to number one and spending six weeks at the top of the charts it also crossed over into the pop charts, peaking at number seven. He signed a record contract with Smash Records and released his first single for the label, 'Dang Me,' in the summer of 1964. His guest spots showcased his new style - instead of concentrating on hardcore country, he had developed a willfully goofy persona, singing silly novelty songs. Two years later, 'Lock, Stock and Teardrops' scraped the charts, and he left the record label.Īround that time, Miller moved to Hollywood began appearing regularly on The Jimmy Dean Show and The Merv Griffin Show, two of the most popular television programs in the country. Miller wasn't able to immediately follow the songs with another hit single. 'You Don't Want My Love,' one of his first singles for the label, reached number 14 in early 1961, followed by the Top Ten 'When Two Worlds Collide' later that summer. He recorded a few tracks for Decca which weren't successful, and then he signed to RCA Records. Since his songwriting career was flourishing, Miller decided it was again time to try to become a performing artist as well. The following year, Reeves had a hit with another one of Miller's songs, 'Home.' It was soon followed by three other successful versions of his songs - Young's 'That's the Way I Feel' and Ernest Tubb's 'Half a Mind' both went Top Ten, while Jim Reeves had a number one hit with 'Billy Bayou.' That same year, Jones recorded 'Tall Tall Trees' and 'Nothing Can Stop My Love,' which he had written with Miller neither of the songs were hits.

In 1958, Price recorded Miller's 'Invitation to the Blues,' and it went to number three. The abandonment of performing was short-lived, however - within a few months, he became the drummer for Ray Price's Cherokee Cowboys. Instead of playing music, he became a fireman in Amarillo, TX. After a few months, he was signed as a songwriter for Tree Music Publishing and stopped performing as a supporting musician. Following the failure of his first single, Miller continued to work at the hotel and tour with other musicians - he played fiddle with Minnie Pearl for a short time, then he became the drummer for Faron Young. His first single, 'Poor Little John,' disappeared without a trace.

Pierce signed Miller and had him cut three songs. While in Nashville, Miller met George Jones and Pappy Dailey, who introduced him to Don Pierce, an executive at Mercury Records. The session was unsuccessful, and he spent a year as a bellhop at a Nashville hotel. Early in 1957, Miller left the army and auditioned for Chet Atkins at RCA. He enlisted in the Army during the Korean war and was stationed in South Carolina, where he met the brother of Jethro Burns who arranged an audition at RCA Nashville for him. Soon, he was able to play not only guitar and fiddle, but also piano, banjo, and drums. Throughout his adolescence, he played music in addition to working the ranch. Miller completed the eighth grade and left school to become a ranch hand and rodeo rider. At the age of 11, Wooley gave him a fiddle and encouraged him to pursue a performing career. By the time he was ten, he earned enough money picking cotton to buy himself a guitar. Initially, he was attracted to music by hearing country over the radio as well as by his brother-in-law, Sheb Wooley. Miller was born in Fort Worth, TX, but raised in the small town of Erick, OK, by his aunt and uncle, following the death of his father and his mother's debilitating sickness.

In the '80s, he wrote the songs for the Broadway musical Big River, which ran for over 1,000 performances and won seven Tony Awards. Blending country with jazz, blues, and pop, he utilized unusual harmonic and rhythmic devices in his sophisticated songcraft, creating timeless, widely covered gems ('King of the Road,' 'Husbands and Wives') that have been tackled by everyone from Dean Martin to Giant Sand. Though he's known largely as a writer of novelty songs, due to such hits as 'Dang Me,' 'Chug-A-Lug,' and 'England Swings,' Roger Miller was in fact one of the finest country songwriters of the '60s and '70s, and an important influence on the progressive country movement.

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