Lil Green

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title: "Lil Green" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["20th-century-births", "year-of-birth-uncertain", "1954-deaths", "classic-female-blues-singers", "american-blues-singers", "blues-musicians-from-mississippi", "deaths-from-pneumonia-in-illinois", "african-american-women-singer-songwriters", "american-women-singer-songwriters", "singer-songwriters-from-mississippi", "age-controversies", "20th-century-african-american-women-singers", "20th-century-american-women-singers", "20th-century-american-singers"] description: "American singer-songwriter" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lil_Green" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American singer-songwriter ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist "]

Field	Value
name	Lil Green
image	Lil_Green_singer.jpg
background	solo_singer
birth_name	Lillie May Johnson or
Lillian Green
birth_date
birth_place	Port Gibson, Mississippi, United States
death_date
death_place	Chicago, Illinois, United States
genre	Blues
occupation	Singer
label	Bluebird
Atlantic (1951–54)
::

| name = Lil Green | image = Lil_Green_singer.jpg | caption = | image_size = | background = solo_singer | birth_name = Lillie May Johnson or Lillian Green | alias = | birth_date = | birth_place = Port Gibson, Mississippi, United States | death_date = | death_place = Chicago, Illinois, United States | origin = | instrument = | genre = Blues | occupation = Singer | years_active = | label = Bluebird Atlantic (1951–54)

Lil Green (probably born Lillie May Johnson; December 22, 1901 (some sources give 1905, 1910 or 1919) – April 14, 1954) was an American classic female blues singer and songwriter. She was among the leading female rhythm and blues singers of the 1940s, with a sensual soprano voice. Gospel singer R.H. Harris lauded her voice, and her interpretation of religious songs. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Lil_Green_-_Mississippi_Blues_Trail_Marker.jpg" caption="Lil Green - Mississippi Blues Trail Marker"] ::

Life and career

Originally named Lillian Green or Lillie May Johnson, she was born in Mississippi. After the early deaths of her parents, she began performing in her teens and, having honed her craft in the church performing gospel, she sang in Mississippi jukes, before heading to Chicago, Illinois, in 1929, where she would make all of her recordings.{{cite book | first= Tony | last= Russell | year= 1997 | title= The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray | edition= | publisher=Carlton Books | location= Dubai | pages= 114–115 | isbn= 1-85868-255-X}}

Green was noted for superb timing and a distinctively sinuous voice. In the 1930s, she and Big Bill Broonzy had a nightclub act together. In 1940, she recorded her first session for the Bluebird budget subsidiary label of RCA Victor. Her two biggest hits were her own composition "Romance in the Dark" (1940), which was later covered by many artists, such as Dinah Washington and Nina Simone (in 1967) (Billie Holiday recorded a different song with the same title), and Green's 1941 version of Kansas Joe McCoy's minor-key blues- and jazz-influenced song "Why Don't You Do Right?", which was recorded by Peggy Lee in 1942 and by many others since. As well as performing in Chicago nightclubs, Green toured with Tiny Bradshaw and other bands but never broke away from the black theatre circuit.

By 1949, Green had changed direction with the foresight to become a jazz vocalist, and tried to emulate the jazz style of Billie Holiday. She signed with Atlantic Records in 1951, but at this point was already in poor health. She died of pneumonia in Chicago in April 1954 and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, in Gary, Indiana.

Notes

References

References

1. (2013). "Blues: A Regional Experience". [[Greenwood Publishing Group.
2. Herzhaft, Gérard (1992). [https://books.google.com/books?id=2CGNaUpGcbcC&dq=%22lil+green%22+1919&pg=PA128 ''Encyclopedia of the Blues'']. University of Arkansas Press. p. 128.
3. (14 April 2013). "LIL GREEN".
4. [https://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/lil-green "Lil Green", ''Mississippi Blues Trail'']. Retrieved May 9, 2024
5. Riesman, Bob. (15 May 2011). "I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy". [[University of Chicago Press]].
6. [https://chicagoreader.com/music/why-did-blues-singer-lil-green-end-up-forgotten/ Steve Krakow, "Why did blues singer Lil Green end up forgotten?", ''Chicago Reader'', March 23, 2022]. Retrieved May 9, 2024
7. Pearson, Barry Lee. "Lillian 'Lil' Green: Biography".
8. Shadwick, Keith. (2001). "Lil Green". Quintet Publishing.
9. Russell, Tony. (1997). "The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray". [[Welbeck Publishing Group.
10. "Lil Green Biography".

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