When I first posted about Lillay, back in April 2018,
I was only aware of one single issued on Timely, the remarkable I May Look
Too Old/He’s a Devil. Since then, several other discs have surfaced,
and the Timely catalogue now stretches to five 45s.
Born in 1896, Lila and her husband William hailed from
Houston, Texas and had two sons, Robert and Dan (who would perform on the debut
release from his Mom’s company). Lila/Lillay began her songwriting career in
1959 with The Christmas Star (a song that would not appear on record for
another decade at least), written around the same time that she and her husband
retired to Tujunga, in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, the town
where she would set up her record label.
For a reasonably complete list of Lillay’s other compositions, check out the post HERE
My most recent purchase, Our Beautiful Lady backed
with Appreciation, seems to have been the first disc issued by Timely.
Although none of the Timely 45s I’ve seen so far has any dates on either the
labels or the sleeves (although my copy of I May Look Too Old has a rubber-stamped date on the label, from a
local radio station), this more than likely appeared around 1967 judging by the
matrix number, and the fact that Lillay registered copyright in Appreciation
in April of that year. Performed by Lillay’s son Danny Daniels, Our
Beautiful Lady is a song dedicated to the Statue of Liberty, a source of
inspiration Lillay would return to. Appreciation is a perfectly decent
country-pop song, with nothing particularly remarkable about it, but the A-side
is the pip, with a wonderful spoken word interlude from Danny and a great
military snare drum beat throughout.
 |
| Lila is second from the right in this press photo from 1973 |
The third 45 on the label, Lady of Liberty (Timely
1002), a song Lillay wrote in 1966, was sung by Harrison ‘Harry’
Clewley, from Tujunga, the same town that Lillay and Timely were based in.
Clewley had been performing on the local circuit since at least 1958 when, as a
15-year-old he was known as ‘everybody’s boy’. A former member of the Mitchell
Boys Choir, he spent some years working for the US post office before, in the
1980s, he joined former 50s hitmakers The Lettermen. Although I have found a
1960 newspaper article that claims Clewley acted in films including Giant,
Black Beauty and Lassie, he is unlisted at IMDB. Lady of
Liberty is once again inspired by Lillay’s favourite watery icon, the Statue
of Liberty, yet despite stealing its title from the opening line of Our
Beautiful Lady is an entirely different song. The other side, Los
Angeles was copyrighted in 1967, at
the same time as Appreciation, however the legend on the single’s picture
sleeve ‘a song for the 70s’ would suggest that it was not issued until at least
1969.
Lila was 70 by now, a God-fearing woman who believed that pasteurised
milk caused arthritis, but was entering into her most productive period. Soon
came another 45, again credited to Lillay Deay: Our Beautiful Flag is Crying
(written in 1968) backed with Angels of Mercy (from late 1969) issued
as Timely 1003. Again, you can hear that HERE
The final release from Timely (well, the final one
discovered so far) was a Christmas novelty from Lillay’s pen, Dancing
Prancing Reindeer coupled with Christmas Star (Timely 1041) and
credited to the Daniel Singers. This would not be Lillay’s final venture into
vinyl though: In 1969 she penned Is Santa the Man in the Moon, and in 1973
wrote another Christmas-themed song, Santa Clause Sweetheart. These were
recorded in the mid-70s by Dick Kent for song-poem supremos MSR Records.
Outside of Lillay’s composing the music for the songs Have a Happy Birthday
and The Happy Birthday Clown, to words written by Daisy Blackwood (both
dated 1974), that MSR release appears to be the last record that Lila F Daniels
was involved with. Later that decade she moved to Rainier, Oregon and gave up
songwriting and performing for good.
Here are both sides of the first Timely 45, Our Beautiful
Lady and Appreciation. Enjoy
Download Lady HERE
Download Appreciation HERE
Thanks, Darryl! I was just in Tujunga last week - up in the hills far north east of LA, almost at the city limits. Not only is it horsey country, one house we passed had a couple of actual steers in their yard. Over 50 years ago, it probably felt even more rural. Hence the old-timey feel of these songs. She was a long way from Hollywood.
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