Two More from Lillay Deay

I thought today we would drop in on our old friend Lillay Daniels, aka Lila F. Daniels, aka Lillay Deay, singer, songwriter and owner of the wonderful Timely record label. Although I have written about her before, I have managed to uncover more details of her fascinating career – so an update feels TIMELY…

 

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 

This was followed by the classic of outsider oddness, Lillay singing her own compositions I May Look Too Old/He’s a Devil (incorrectly listed on the accompanying picture sleeve as You’re A Devil), which you can find HERE

 

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