Talk:The Mills Brothers

Photo

We've got to be able to find a better photo of the Mills Brothers than merely snaps of the current act; I'm sure they're scholar and a gentleman, but how about a snap of the lads back in the day?

If Britannica.com has a photo, does that mean it's not copyrighted, or does it mean it's copyrighted to Britannica?

http://www.britannica.com/eb/art-95595/The-Mills-Brothers-1931-Herbert-John-C-Donald-and-Harry FlaviaR 16:34, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

It means it's copyrighted to Britannica. It is only suitable for Wikipedia under the non-free content criteria. Graham87 01:52, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Okay - I rather thought so, but I figured asking was better than just assuming. Thanks.FlaviaR

Ukulele ?

Hello there,

What about the ukulele mentionned in the article ? It looks that John Jr. played a tenor guitar, not a ukulele - at least I wasn't able to find any picture evidence of the Mill's Brother with a ukulele, while there are plenty of pictures where there's an actual tenor guitar. The idea of a ukulele doesn't fit here, the tenor guitar has a different tuning than the ukulele's and it's very unlikely that a ukulele player or a regular guitar player would switch to a tenor guitar.

My two cents though ;) Ukepedia 01:53, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

African American?

Can someone cite a source for this? I'm pretty sure they're Portuguese. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.172.252.179 (talk) 17:38, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Discography

Getting rather unwieldy? Maybe move it to it's own page? --Manway (talk) 01:44, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

It should be cut way down - there's no reason to list every song on various LPs. We're not a store. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 00:03, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Done - moved to discography page --Manway (talk) 00:15, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

John Sr.'s retirement age?

If he was born in 1882 and retired in 1957....by my calc that made him 75, not 68. Sojambi Pinola (talk) 05:08, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

birth date

What is the reference for Harry Mills August 9? Most sources give birth date as August 19 Thisdaytrivia (talk) 19:00, 29 January 2017 (UTC)

First No. 1?

Right now the introduction says they are "The first African-American artists to have a #1 hit on the Billboard chart" but that's not supported in the article. The only No. 1 that I can see is "Tiger Rag," which was released long before Billboard charts started around 1950. Is there any support for this? - DavidWBrooks (talk) 20:27, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

So I think I found it: Paper Doll was a No. 1 hit in 1943, which was before the Billboard Hot 100 but when the magazine published three different singles charts. Accorindg to the list on List_of_Billboard_number-one_singles_of_the_1940s, it was the first song by a black artist to top the chart for sales of singles. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 20:49, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Discography, revisited

I read the article and found it listed way, way too many songs. A song/piece should only be included if it is notable. And, if it's notable, the reason should be explained (or why bother). I compared the songs mentioned here to their Discography page. 15 of the 36 here do not appear on that page, so those 15 need justification for being here. (I have no means of determining if those pieces were part of an album and reached "non-single" importance, but I think skepticism is in order). An additional 4 of the 36 didn't make it to the top 20 (on BillBoard, see the Discography page). I again argue that their inclusion needs explicit, in-article, justification. Two last things: 1) Dinah is ONLY inserted as a video. According to the Disco., Dinah (with Bing Crosby - which is NOT what plays here) made #1 and as one of their five #1's surely that's notable enough for explicit inclusion. 2) Nine made the Top 5 (again according to the discography page) aren't mentioned here AT ALL. Strange. Plus, one #1 isn't mentioned here: (You Always Hurt the One You Love, 1944)! ....details... I add here the "offending" titles here. Hopefully, it will save some motivated editor some time.

First, the (other) Top 5's not mentioned here (year, title, and Hit position):1931 - "Gems from George White's Scandals" (with Bing Crosby & Boswell Sisters),3; "Nobody's Sweetheart",4; 1932 - "You Rascal, You",3;"I Heard",

3;"St. Louis Blues",2; 1934 - "Swing It, Sister",2; 1950 - "Nevertheless (I'm in Love with You)",4; "Daddy's Little Girl",5

Next, the tracks mentioned here that don't appear on the discography page (and therefore likely should be eliminated or maybe relegated to a footnote):Ain't Misbehavin'; Basin Street Blues; Bye-Bye Blackbird; Caravan; Jeepers Creepers; Lazy Bones; Long About Midnight; Lulu's Back In Town; Ole Rockin' Chair; Organ Grinder's Swing; Shoe Shine Boy; South of the Border; Swing Is the Thing; The Song is Ended; Three Little Fishies;

You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You. [I note that the tracks "Shine and "Rockin' Chair" DO appear there, and resemble two of the above pieces' names, I didn't check if they are alternative titles.]

Finally, these are the tracks that are listed on their discography page but all rank below Top 20 (I include only title and rank here):Get a Job(21); Lazy River(22); Standing on the Corner(57); Yellow Bird(70). [Yellow Bird is actually mentioned twice here, for no obvious reason.] Hope this helps, sorry about the indentation; it's out of my control.174.130.71.156 (talk) 02:39, 23 January 2023 (UTC)