Thesaunderschild
03-21-2025, 09:44 PM
Millie Small toured Australia and New Zealand in early 1965 as part of a world tour on the back of her massive 1964 hit ‘My Boy Lollipop’. Dinah Lee and Millie Small became friends during Millie’s tour of Australia, as did Dinah’s manager James Haddleton and Millie’s manager, Island Records boss Chris Blackwell. Dinah and Millie performed together during the shooting of a Bandstand TV special based around Melbourne’s Moomba Festival in early March. Meanwhile, Haddleton persuaded Chris Blackwell to record Dinah in London after she returned from a 10-day US promotional tour. Blackwell had just started a new label, Aladdin, to release records that didn’t fit the ska style of his Island Records label. Dinah arrived in London in May 1965 and stayed with Millie in her Kensington flat while Blackwell lived next door. Within a few weeks of arriving, Aladdin released the New Zealand-recorded single ‘I’ll Forgive You Then Forget You’ b/w ‘The Nitty Gritty’, which gave them time to decide on what to record next for Dinah. It was well received by the reviewers.