She recorded several duets with Jackie Edwards in 1965, as well as solo material, but sales were disappointing. She performed "My Boy Lollipop", " What Am I Living For", and " See You Later, Alligator". This was as part of a concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Kings Domain, Melbourne, part of the Moomba Festival. On 6 March 1965, Small appeared on the Australian television programme Bandstand. In early 1965, she featured in a Ready, Steady, Go! special, Millie in Jamaica, and soon afterwards she embarked on a world tour, with concerts in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, the US, Brazil and Argentina. The play features a number of songs composed by Dolores Claman and performed by Small. On 28 December 1964 she also appeared in ITV's Play of the Week episode "The Rise and Fall of Nellie Brown", playing the role of Selina Brown.
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She appeared on the 1964 Beatles TV special Around the Beatles. Her early Jamaican recordings were also reissued to take advantage of her popularity. In the US it was issued as My Boy Lollipop, with a slightly different selection of tracks. Her first album, More Millie, contained a varied selection of songs arranged by Ranglin. She also performed in a Ska Spectacular show at the 1964 New York World's Fair. She was given a gold disc in New York, and was driven in an open-top car on her return to Kingston where she performed in several major shows, on one occasion topping the bill over Otis Redding, Patti LaBelle, and Inez and Charlie Foxx. Although her next single, "Sweet William", was less successful, reaching number 30 in the UK, number 40 in the US, and number 22 in Canada, she had become an international celebrity. She toured in Britain and appeared frequently on British television, before collapsing from exhaustion and food poisoning she was also involved in a traffic accident.
She was billed as "The Blue Beat Girl" on the single's label in the US. Small was the first artist to have a hit that was recorded in the bluebeat style, a music genre that was a direct ancestor of reggae.
It was the first major hit for Island Records (although it was actually released on the Fontana label because Chris Blackwell, Island's owner, did not want to overextend its then-meagre resources in the US, the record appeared on the Smash Records subsidiary of Mercury Records). "My Boy Lollipop" was doubly significant in British pop history. Including singles sales, album usage, and compilation inclusions, the song has since sold more than seven million copies worldwide. Initially it sold over 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom. She appeared on British TV shows including Top of the Pops, and the single reached number two in the UK Singles Chart, in the US Billboard Hot 100, and in Canada. Released in March 1964, Small's version (on which she was credited simply as "Millie") was a massive hit. Ranglin and his musicians adopted the newly-popular ska style, and his rearrangement of " My Boy Lollipop", a song originally released in the US by teenager Barbie Gaye in late 1956, became immediately successful. Her first recording in London, "Don't You Know", made little impact when released by Fontana Records in late 1963, but for her next recording Blackwell recruited guitarist and arranger Ernest Ranglin to oversee the session. Millie Small performing in Helsinki, Finland in December 1964 In late 1963 he took her to Forest Hill, London, where she was given intensive training in dancing and diction. Her popularity brought her to the attention of Anglo-Jamaican entrepreneur Chris Blackwell, who was convinced of her wider international potential, and became her manager and legal guardian. They had further successes working with Dodd, as well with producer Lindon Pottinger, including the local hit "Marie" in 1963 and then with Prince Buster. Working with producer Roy Robinson, the duo of Roy & Millie had a run of local hits, including "We'll Meet". When Gray resumed his solo career, Small began recording with another singer, Samuel Augustus "Roy" Panton. He paired her with singer Owen Gray, and they made several records together, including "Sugar Plum", which became a local hit.
She auditioned for Studio One record producer Coxsone Dodd, who was struck by the similarity of her voice to that of Shirley Goodman of the American duo Shirley and Lee. Wishing to pursue a career as a singer, she moved to live with relatives in Love Lane in Kingston. Like many Jamaican singers of the era, her career began by winning the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour talent contest, which she won at the age of twelve. She was one of seven brothers and five sisters. Small was born in Clarendon, Jamaica, the daughter of a sugar plantation overseer.