Career
She shot to fame during the same period as her stable-mates The Beatles, with whom she shared space at Abbey Road Studios (as mentioned in the Beatles Anthology DVD bonus materials).
Mills was signed to a management contract by Eric Easton who later went on to manage The Dave Clark Five and The Rolling Stones. After signing to Parlophone, she released her first record — the "Mrs Mills Medley" single — which entered the Top Twenty of the UK Singles Chart, and her career as an entertainer began — a career that would last well into the 1970s. She toured the UK, making many appearances on TV and radio throughout this period. Mills was also a successful recording artist overseas in territories where there were large numbers of expatriates from the UK including Australia, Canada and Hong Kong.
Her oeuvre consisted of standards (British and international), plus cover versions of contemporary hits. A 2003 release (The Very Best Of Mrs Mills, on EMI Gold) includes such hits as "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend", "Hello, Dolly!", "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" and "Yellow Submarine".
She appeared on two episodes of The Morecambe and Wise Show in 1971 and 1974, where she performed a medley of favourites with the studio orchestra. Another satirical example of Mills' style of performance came in an edition of the BBC TV's The Two Ronnies. The sketch ("Family Entertainment — John & Mrs Mills") occupied the end-of-the-show musical slot, with Ronnie Barker as the silk-laden Mrs Mills at piano, and Ronnie Corbett as a uniformed Sir John Mills (who was no relation). They performed a medley of Mills-style classics (on the theme of Mills's character in the 1969 film Oh! What a Lovely War). The show (series 4; episode 4) was originally broadcast on BBC Two on 23 January 1975. In 1973, she appeared in an episode of The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club.
In December 1974, she appeared as the subject of This Is Your Life, hosted by Eamonn Andrews, when it was revealed that the first record she had recorded was "The Girl In Calico", cut in a make-your-own-record booth on Southend Pier, for a half-crown, with her girlhood pal Lily Dormer.
Little was seen of Mills on television in her final years and she died of a heart attack on 24 February 1978 in London.
Read more about this topic: Mrs Mills
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