Eddie Miller

Eddie Miller was a Broadway performer and songwriter whose career spanned both the stage and the music industry. His Broadway appearances ran from 1957 to 1960 and included the landmark musical West Side Story.

Miller co-wrote the song "Release Me" with Robert Yount in 1949, though Miller later claimed to have composed it as early as 1946. At the time of writing, the two collaborators were working with James Pebworth, who used the pseudonym Dub Williams, and they credited him with one-third of the song. The release listed the writing credits as Miller-Williams-Gene, as Yount was performing under the stage name Bobby Gene. The song was published through 4 Star Records, whose owner, William McCall, typically attached his own pseudonym, W.S. Stevenson, to songs he published, though he did not do so in 1949.

In 1953, Jimmy Heap and the Melody Masters recorded "Release Me," and the following year it became a hit for Patti Page, Ray Price, and Kitty Wells, all in 1954. Ray Price's recording peaked at number six on the country charts and is sometimes regarded as a breakthrough moment in his career. Jimmy Dean recorded a version in 1959, and Jivin' Gene Bourgeois and the Jokers followed in 1960, with that recording later inspiring Little Esther Phillips, whose cover reached number one on the R&B chart and number eight on the pop chart. Subsequent recordings were made by the Everly Brothers in 1963, Lucille Starr in 1964, Jerry Wallace in 1966, and Dean Martin in 1967.

In 1957, the same year Miller began his Broadway run, he and Yount entered into a new publishing agreement with 4 Star Records, under which W.S. Stevenson replaced Dub Williams as a credited co-writer. Yount signed away his royalty rights to William McCall in 1958, after which the official writing credit became Miller-Stevenson, though multiple variations of the credit continued to appear on different releases. Following the bankruptcy of 4 Star's successor, the copyright to "Release Me" was acquired by Acuff-Rose Music. When the initial copyright term expired in 1983, it was renewed, and Acuff-Rose paid royalties to Yount between 1983 and 1985 until McCall's family presented documentation of the 1958 assignment. The resulting dispute was resolved on December 24, 1996, when the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the McCall family's claim.

The most commercially successful recording of "Release Me" was made by Engelbert Humperdinck in 1967. Humperdinck performed the song on Sunday Night at the London Palladium after being asked to substitute for an ill Dickie Valentine. The recording reached number one on the UK Singles Chart on March 2, 1967, and held that position for six weeks, preventing the Beatles' double single "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" from reaching the top spot. Humperdinck's version remained on the UK charts for fifty-six consecutive weeks and sold over 1.38 million copies, making it the highest-selling single in the United Kingdom for that year. The UK pressing of Humperdinck's single carried the writing credits of Eddie Miller, Robert Yount, Dub Williams, and Robert Harris, with Harris being yet another pseudonym used by James Pebworth.