Emerging as one of the most enduring oldies ensembles in American pop history, the Mills Brothers shifted rapidly from perceived novelty performers to mainstream successes and kept captivating crowds across many decades. Marketed at first under the name "Four Boys and a Guitar," their earliest releases carried a printed assurance that listeners would encounter nothing beyond a single guitar. That assurance proved warranted, because the quartet proved so adept at mimicking trumpets, trombones, and saxophones through voice alone that numbers such as "Tiger Rag" and "St. Louis Blues" evoked a spirited Dixieland ensemble more than a vocal group. Long after the gimmick lost its freshness, the quartet's layered harmonies still delighted successive generations of listeners.
All four siblings were born in Piqua, Ohio—John, Jr. in 1910, Herbert in 1912, Harry in 1913, and Donald in 1915. Their father ran a barber shop and organized a barbershop quartet known as the Four Kings of Harmony; the sons absorbed close-harmony techniques directly from him and began performing locally. During one engagement, Harry Mills left his kazoo behind and improvised by shaping his hand around his mouth, producing an unexpectedly convincing trumpet tone that prompted the brothers to incorporate vocal imitations of brass instruments into the act, with John supplying tuba sounds, Donald handling trombone, and Herbert adding a second trumpet. The routine suited vaudeville stages, and the Mills Brothers also began appearing on a Cincinnati radio station in the late '20s.
After relocating to New York, the group created a sensation and scored major successes in 1931 and early 1932 with the singles "Tiger Rag" and "Dinah," the latter recorded as a duet with Bing Crosby. Listeners found it difficult to accept the printed statement on the discs: "No musical instruments or mechanical devices used on this recording other than one guitar." Although the limited fidelity of the period offered some leeway, the Mills Brothers truly produced the impression of being accompanied by a compact studio band. (In a reversal of the effect heard on early Duke Ellington's Orchestra sides, where plunger-muted trumpets and trombones by Bubber Miley and Tricky Sam Nanton made the horns resemble voices.)
Further visibility came in 1932 through a role in the film The Big Broadcast and additional hits that included "St. Louis Blues" and "Bugle Call Rag." The sudden passing of John, Jr. in 1936 dealt the ensemble a severe setback, yet their father, John, Sr., stepped in to sing bass while Bernard Addison joined as guitarist. By the late '30s the novelty element had begun to fade; even pairings with Ella Fitzgerald on "Dedicated to You" and with Louis Armstrong on "Darling Nelly Gray" failed to match the commercial impact of the group's earlier releases. Everything changed in 1943 when "Paper Doll" appeared—a gentle, close-knit ballad that ranked among the decade's biggest successes, holding the top chart position for twelve weeks and selling six million copies in addition to sheet music. The Mills Brothers appeared in several motion pictures in the early '40s and returned to number one in 1944 with "You'll Always Hurt the One You Love."
Middle-of-the-road pop influences gradually entered their repertoire during the '40s; toward the end of the decade the Mills Brothers began working with conventional orchestras, most often directed by Sy Oliver, Hal McIntyre, or Sonny Burke. In 1952 "The Glow Worm" became their final chart-topping single. The group persisted through the '50s, although John, Sr. withdrew from regular participation in 1956. A shift from Decca to Dot yielded a modest 1958 success with a version of the Silhouettes' "Get a Job," underscoring the clear stylistic debt that early doo wop acts owed to the Mills Brothers' pioneering recordings. Performing thereafter as a trio, Herbert, Harry, and Donald remained active on the oldies circuit until Harry's death in 1982 and Herbert's in 1988. The sole remaining brother, Donald, continued appearing with the next generation of the family, represented by his son John II, until Donald's own death in 1999.
