Mitch Miller and His Gang

Mitch Miller
With dancers from Sing Along with Mitch, 1961
Background information
Nascence proper noun	Mitchell William Miller
Born	(1911-07-04)July 4, 1911 Rochester, New York, U.S.
Died	July 31, 2010(2010-07-31) (aged 99) New York, New York, U.S.
Genres	Choral, traditional pop
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer, conductor, record producer, record visitor executive
Instruments	English language horn, oboe, vocals
Years active	1928–2005
Associated acts	Mitch Miller and the Gang Sing Along with Mitch

Musical artist

Mitchell William Miller (July iv, 1911 – July 31, 2010)^{[ane] [ii]} was an American choral usher, record producer, record-industry executive, and professional oboist. He was involved in almost all aspects of the industry, especially as a conductor and artists and repertoire (A&R) human. Miller was one of the about influential people in American pop music during the 1950s and early 1960s, both as the head of A&R at Columbia Records and as a best-selling recording artist with an NBC television serial, Sing Along with Mitch. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester in the early 1930s, Miller began his musical career as a player of the oboe and English horn, making numerous highly regarded classical and popular recordings.

Biography [edit]

Early on life [edit]

Mitchell William Miller was built-in to a Jewish family^[3] in Rochester, New York, on July 4, 1911. His female parent was Hinda (Rosenblum) Miller, a former seamstress, and his father, Abram Calmen Miller, a Russian-Jewish immigrant wrought-iron worker. Mitch had iv siblings, two of whom, Leon and Joseph, survived him.^[2]

Classical and jazz oboe [edit]

Miller took up the oboe at kickoff as a teenager, because information technology was the only instrument available when he went to audience for his junior loftier school orchestra.^[ii] After graduating from Due east High School he attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, where he met and became a lifelong friend of Goddard Lieberson, who became President of the CBS music group in 1956.^[4]

After graduating from Eastman, Miller played with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and and then moved to New York Metropolis, where he was a member of the Alec Wilder Octet (1938–41 and occasionally later), as well as performing with David Mannes, Andre Kostelanetz, Percy Faith, George Gershwin, and Charlie Parker. He worked with Frank Sinatra on the 1946 recording of "The Music of Alec Wilder".^[2]

Miller played the English horn part in the Largo move of Dvořák'due south New World Symphony in a 1947 recording conducted by Leopold Stokowski.^[5]

Miller gave the American premiere of Richard Strauss's Oboe Concerto in a 1948 radio broadcast. Strauss had originally assigned rights to the premiere to John de Lancie, who gave him the idea for the concerto while stationed virtually Strauss'southward villa in Garmisch. However, since meeting the composer, de Lancie had won a section oboist position with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and as a inferior player to the orchestra'due south principal oboist Marcel Tabuteau was unable to fulfill Strauss'southward wishes. De Lancie and so gave the rights for the premiere to Miller.^[6]

As part of the CBS Symphony, Miller participated in the musical accompaniment on the 1938 radio broadcast of Orson Welles's Mercury Theater on the Air production of The War of the Worlds.^[7]

A&R man [edit]

Miller joined Mercury Records as a classical music producer and served every bit the caput of Artists and Repertoire (A&R) at Mercury in the belatedly 1940s, and then joined Columbia Records in the same capacity in 1950. This was a pivotal position in a recording company, considering the A&R executive decided which musicians and songs would be recorded and promoted past that item record label.

He divers the Columbia mode through the early 1960s, signing and producing many important popular standards artists for Columbia, including Johnnie Ray, Percy Faith, Ray Conniff, Jimmy Boyd, Johnny Mathis,^[eight] Tony Bennett, and Guy Mitchell (whose pseudonym was based on Miller's first name).

After arriving at Columbia, Miller enticed both Patti Page and Frankie Laine to join the characterization after their early successes at Mercury. Miller helped directly the careers of artists who were already signed to the label, such as Doris Twenty-four hour period, Dinah Shore, and Jo Stafford. Miller also discovered Aretha Franklin and signed her to the commencement major recording contract of her career. She left Columbia after five years, when Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records promised Franklin artistic freedom to create records outside the popular mainstream in a more rhythm-and-blues-driven direction.

Mitch Miller disapproved of rock 'northward' roll^[8]—one of his contemporaries described his denunciation of it as "The Gettysburg Address of Music"—and passed not only on Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly, who became stars on RCA and Coral, respectively, but on The Beatles as well, creating a fortune in revenue for rival Capitol. Previously, Miller had offered Presley a contract but balked at the amount Presley'south managing director, Colonel Tom Parker, was request.^[ix] Still, in 1958 he signed Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, two of Presley'southward contemporaries at Sunday Records.^[9]

According to former Newsweek music critic Karen Schoemer, Miller's refusal to record in the genre was also due to his fright that the label, and its corporate parent CBS, would exist implicated in the scandal surrounding payola if he did so, remarking:

I knew what was going on—everybody in the business knew what was going on. Yous had to pay to play.^[x]

In defence force of his anti-stone stance, he once told NME in January 1958: "Rock 'due north' roll is musical baby food: it is the worship of mediocrity, brought about past a passion for conformity."^[eleven]

Despite his distaste for rock 'n' roll, Miller emphasized emotional expression over song perfection^[8] and often produced records for Columbia artists that were rockish in nature.^[8] Two examples are "A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)" past Marty Robbins and "Rock-a-Billy" by Guy Mitchell.

Record producer [edit]

As a tape producer, Miller gained a reputation for both innovation and gimmickry. Although he oversaw dozens of chart hits, his relentlessly cheery arrangements and his penchant for novelty material—for example, "Come up On-a My House" (Rosemary Clooney), "Mama Will Bawl" (Frank Sinatra and Dagmar)—have drawn criticism from some admirers of traditional pop music. Music historian Will Friedwald wrote in his volume Jazz Singing (Da Capo Press, 1996) that

Miller exemplified the worst in American pop. He starting time aroused the ire of intelligent listeners past trying to plough—and darn near succeeding in turning—great artists like Sinatra, Clooney, and Tony Bennett into hacks. Miller chose the worst songs and put together the worst backings imaginable—non with the hit-or-miss attitude that bad musicians traditionally used, but with insight, forethought, conscientious planning, and perverted brilliance.^[12]

At the aforementioned time, Friedwald acknowledges Miller'southward great influence on after popular music production:

Miller established the primacy of the producer, proving that even more than the artist, the accompaniment, or the cloth, it was the responsibleness of the human being in the recording booth whether a record flew or flopped. Miller besides conceived the thought of the popular tape "audio" per se: not then much an system or a tune, just an aural texture (usually replete with extramusical gimmicks) that could exist created in the studio and then replicated in live operation, instead of the other way around. Miller was hardly a rock 'n' roller, yet without these ideas in that location could never have been rock 'n' curl. "Mule Train", Miller'south commencement major hitting (for Frankie Laine) and the foundation of his career, set the pattern for nigh the entire first decade of rock. The similarities between information technology and, say, "Leader of the Pack", demand hardly be outlined here.^[13]

While some of Columbia'southward performers, including Harry James,^[14] Frank Sinatra, and Rosemary Clooney,^[15] resented Miller's methods, the label maintained a high release-to-hit ratio during the 1950s. Sinatra particularly blamed his temporary fall from popularity while at Columbia on Miller; the crooner felt that he was forced past Miller to record material like "Mama Will Bark" and "The Hucklebuck".^[16] Miller countered that Sinatra'due south contract gave him the correct to refuse any song.

Recording artist [edit]

Mitch Miller's unmarried for his 1957 recording of the River Kwai March and the Colonel Bogey March

In the early 1950s, Miller recorded with Columbia's house ring as "Mitchell Miller and His Orchestra." He also recorded a string of successful albums and singles, featuring a male chorale and his own arrangements, under the name "Mitch Miller and the Gang" kickoff in 1950. The ensemble's hits included "The Children'south Marching Song" (more commonly known as "This Old Human being"), "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena", and "The Xanthous Rose of Texas", which topped the U.S. Billboard chart, sold over one one thousand thousand copies in the United States alone, and reached #ii on the Great britain Singles Chart.^[17] Miller's medley of the two marches from The Bridge on the River Kwai, "The River Kwai March" and "Colonel Bogey March", lasted 29 weeks on the Billboard pop charts in 1958, longer than any other record completely within that twelvemonth.

In 1957, Miller'due south orchestra and chorus recorded "U.S. Air Force Bluish", a United States Air Forcefulness recruiting song. He and his orchestra also recorded children'south music for the Golden Records label. A choral grouping called The Sandpiper Singers provided the vocals for these recordings, including an album of Female parent Goose nursery rhymes.

In 1961, Miller also provided 2 choral tracks ready to Dimitri Tiomkin's title music on the soundtrack to The Guns of Navarone. Followed by the theme of The Longest Twenty-four hours over the stop credits in 1962 and the "Major Dundee March", the theme song to Sam Peckinpah'due south 1965 Major Dundee. Though the film was a boxoffice flop, the vocal remained popular for years.

In 1987, Miller conducted the London Symphony Orchestra with pianist David Golub in a well-received^[18] recording of Gershwin's An American in Paris, Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue. What made this recording special was that it was produced using the original sheet music that was handed out by Gershwin to his band for an early U.S. tour, along with Gershwin's performance directions equally noted by and so ring member Miller.^{[ citation needed ]}

Sing Forth with Mitch [edit]

Initially ambulation as a one-shot episode of the NBC television testify Startime (season 1, episode 32) on 24 May 1960, Sing Along with Mitch went on to become a weekly serial in 1961 as a community sing-along plan hosted by Mitch Miller and featuring a male chorus. The program, videotaped in New York, was basically an extension of Miller's series of Columbia Sing Forth with Mitch record albums. In keeping with the evidence's title, viewers were presented with lyrics at the lesser of the television screen at the beginning and catastrophe of each episode. While many insist there was a bouncing ball to go on fourth dimension, Miller correctly said this was something they remembered from picture palace Screen Songs and Vocal Cartunes sing-along cartoons.^{[19] [20]}

Singer Leslie Uggams, pianist Dick Hyman, accordionist Dominic Cortese, and the singing Quinto Sisters were regularly featured on Sing Forth with Mitch. One of the tenors in Miller'due south chorale, Bob McGrath, subsequently went on to a long and successful career on the PBS children's show Sesame Street (he was a founding member of the "man" cast in 1969 and McGrath became its longest-serving cast member until his enforced retirement in 2016).^[21]

Sing Forth with Mitch occasionally featured celebrity guests who would appear throughout the 60 minutes, and whose repertoire would be worked into the episode'south listing of songs: George Burns, Milton Berle, and Shirley Temple amid them. The show also offered cameos by uncredited celebrities non necessarily known for their singing ability, who were either visiting or working in New York. These surprise guests were dressed similar the male person chorus members and hidden among them for the endmost sing-along, including Johnny Carson, Jerry Lewis, Wally Cox, Buddy Hackett, and Joe E. Ross (in his police uniform from the Car 54, Where Are You? sitcom).

As the popularity of the TV bear witness rose, Miller connected to produce and record several "Sing Along with Mitch" record albums, consummate with tear-out lyric sheets. The anthology serial ultimately comprised xx titles, released from 1958 to 1963.

Sing Along with Mitch ran on television set from 1961 until the network canceled information technology in 1964, a victim of irresolute musical tastes. Selected repeats aired briefly on NBC during the spring of 1966. The bear witness'south primary audience was over the age of xl and it did non gain the favor of advertisers targeting the youth market.^{[ commendation needed ]}

Miller left Columbia Records in 1965 and joined MCA Inc. as a consultant, signing the same year with MCA'south Decca Records subsidiary.^[22]

In later years, Miller would carry on the sing-along tradition, leading crowds in song in personal appearances. For several years, Miller was featured in a popular series of Christmas festivities in New Bedford, Massachusetts, leading large crowds singing carols. Miller hosted a 1981 TV reunion of the Sing Along Gang for NBC (featuring veterans from the original gang, including Bob McGrath, Andy Beloved, Paul Friesen, Victor Griffin, and Dominic Cortese). Miller likewise appeared equally host of 2 PBS television specials, Keep America Singing (1994) and Voices In Harmony (1996), featuring champion quartets and choruses of SPEBSQSA and Sweetness Adelines International. He besides appeared conducting regional orchestras and filled in many times as guest conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra.

Conducting style, and parodies [edit]

At his commencement rehearsal for idiot box, Miller took his position in forepart of the chorus and began conducting in the usual choirmaster way: arms outstretched with easily gesturing, so the singers could see his signals. The Television set manager stopped him, objecting that Miller'south artillery were out of the camera'due south range and could not exist seen on the television screen. Miller pulled his arms closer to his torso, but the manager stopped him over again. Information technology was not until Miller'due south elbows were nigh touching his trunk, and his arms extremely restricted, that the director was satisfied. Miller dutifully adopted the jerky, confined fashion of conducting and kept it for the duration of the series.

The rigid format of Sing Along with Mitch lent itself to parodies. Steve Allen in one case performed a pointed satire, with the comedian fabricated up every bit Miller and robotically bending his arms à la Miller while conducting. The sketch spoofed the evidence's production values, including cameras panning among the vocalists, going out of control and knocking them over, so chasing Allen out of the studio and onto the roof. Ross Bagdasarian produced an animated spoof in a segment of The Alvin Prove, with the David Seville grapheme conducting Alvin and the Chipmunks in Miller's herky-jerky style, singing "Downwardly in the Valley" while scrambled lyrics appeared on-screen. Stan Freberg, who had previously recorded "Wunnerful! Wunnerful!", a scathing satire of The Lawrence Welk Show, presented an equally barbarous satire of the show, "Sing Along with Freeb", on his February 1962 ABC special, The Chun Male monarch Chow Mein Hour. Jonathan and Darlene Edwards (Paul Weston and Jo Stafford) produced an unabridged album of sing-along in the Miller style but deliberately off-key, which supposedly greatly angered Miller.^[23] On the cartoon serial The Flintstones, Fred and Barney appeared on the "Hum Forth with Herman" evidence (for people who do not know the words), another satire of Miller'south show.^[24] Bigtop Records in 1963 released a record by The Dellwoods and under the aegis of Mad, titled Fink Forth with Mad.

Personal life and death [edit]

Miller was married for 65 years to the former Frances Alexander, who died in 2000.^[2] They had ii daughters, Andrea Miller and Margaret Miller Reuther; a son, Mitchell Miller, Jr. or "Mike Miller"; 2 grandchildren and two groovy-grandchildren. Miller lived in New York City for many years where he died July 31, 2010, after a brusk affliction, 4 weeks afterward his 99th altogether.^[2]

Discography [edit]

Singles [edit]

Year	Title	Charts
		The states	Great britain
1950	"Tzena, Tzena, Tzena"	3	ane
1955	"The Yellowish Rose of Texas"	1	2
1956	"Vocal for a Summertime Night"	8
1958	"March from the River Kwai" and "Colonel Bogey"" (medley)	20
1959	"The Children'due south Marching Vocal" (also known as "This Old Man")
1959 [25]	"When Johnny Comes Marching Home"

This section needs expansion. Y'all can help by calculation to it. (December 2014)

Albums [edit]

Equally 'Mitch Miller and the Gang':

• Sing Along with Mitch (anthology) (Columbia, 1958)
• Christmas Sing Along with Mitch (Columbia, 1958) (Billboard: Best-selling Christmas album, 1958, 1959, 1960)^[26]
• More than Sing Forth with Mitch (Columbia, 1958)
• Still More! Sing Along with Mitch (Columbia, 1959)
• Folk Songs Sing Along with Mitch (Columbia, 1959)
• Party Sing Along with Mitch (Columbia, 1959)
• Fireside Sing Along with Mitch (Columbia, 1959)
• Saturday Night Sing Along with Mitch (Columbia, 1960)
• Sentimental Sing Along with Mitch (Columbia, 1960)
• March Along with Mitch (Columbia, 1960)
• Memories Sing Along with Mitch (Columbia, 1960)
• Mitch's Greatest Hits (Columbia, 1961)
• Happy Times! Sing Along with Mitch (Columbia, 1961)
• Tv set Sing Along with Mitch (Columbia, 1961)
• Your Request Sing Along with Mitch (Columbia, 1961)
• Vacation Sing Along with Mitch (Columbia, 1961)
• Rhythm Sing Along with Mitch (Columbia, 1962)
• Peace Sing Along (Atlantic, 1970)

As 'Mitch Miller and the Sing Forth Chorus':

• Golden Harvest Sing Along (Columbia, 1961)

Awards and honors [edit]

• Miller received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Honor in 2000.
• He was awarded Honorary Membership in the Barbershop Harmony Gild in 1985.^[27]
• He was inducted into the Rochester Music Hall of Fame in 2013.^[28]

References [edit]

1. ^ "Famed Conductor, Mitch Miller, Dies at 99 in Manhattan". WNBC News. Associated Press. August 2, 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-02 .
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Severo, Richard (two August 2010). "Mitch Miller, Maestro of the Singalong, Dies at 99". The New York Times . Retrieved 2 August 2010.
3. ^ Bloom, Nate (December 22, 2014). "All those Holiday/Christmas Songs: So Many Jewish Songwriters!". Jewish World Review.
4. ^ Dannen, Frederic, Hit Men: Ability Brokers and Fast Money Inside The Music Concern, Vintage Books, 1991; (ISBN 0099813106), p. 62
5. ^ Lemco, Gary (May 1, 2009). "Stokowski Conducts = DVORAK: Symphony No. 9". Audio Audition. Archived from the original on Jan 18, 2013. Retrieved 2010-08-03 .
6. ^ Keller, James Thousand. (April 2016). "Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra in D major" (PDF). New York Philharmonic. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
7. ^ Eder, Bruce. "Mitch Miller > Biography". allmusic. Retrieved August 3, 2010.
8. ^ ^{a b c d} Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 23 – Smack Dab in the Middle on Route 66. [Part 2]" (audio). Pop Chronicles. University of Northward Texas Libraries.
9. ^ ^{a b} Worth, Fred (1992). Elvis: His Life from A to Z. Outlet. p. 38. ISBN978-0-517-06634-8.
10. ^ Schoemer, Karen (September 22, 2006). Bang-up pretenders : my strange dear thing with '50s pop music. New York : Free Press. ISBN9780743272469 – via Internet Archive.
11. ^ Tobler, John (1992). NME Rock 'North' Scroll Years (1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. p. 48. ISBN978-0600576020.
12. ^ Friedwald, Volition (August 22, 1996). Jazz Singing: America's Great Voices From Bessie Smith To Bebop And Beyond. Da Capo Press. p. 221. ISBN978-0306807121.
13. ^ Friedwald, Will (March 22, 1997). Sinatra! The Song Is You: A Singer'southward Art . New York City: Da Capo Printing. p. 174. ISBN9780306807428.
14. ^ Hinckley, David (September 20, 2004). "Pop Goes The Little One-time Music Maker - Mitch Miller and the Public Taste". New York Daily News . Retrieved February ten, 2017.
15. ^ Steyn, Mark (April 9, 1998). "The Worst Songwriter of All Time". Slate. Archived from the original on June 24, 2009. Retrieved 2017-05-26 .
16. ^ Gilliland, John (1969). "Bear witness 22 – Smack Dab in the Middle on Road 66: A skinny dip in the easy listening mainstream. [Office 1]" (audio). Pop Chronicles. University of North Texas Libraries. Rails 2.
17. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 367. ISBNane-904994-10-5.
18. ^ Schneider, Edward (December 6, 1987). "Gershwin: His Music Is In Vogue—Still". The New York Times . Retrieved 2008-02-15 .
19. ^ Presenters: Tony Cox; Jim Bessman (3 August 2010). "Remembering Singing Forth With Mitch Miller". Talk of the Nation. NPR.
20. ^ A number of excerpts from Sing Along with Mitch have appeared on video-streaming services such equally YouTube. No bouncing ball is in evidence in the clips presented.
21. ^ "'Sesame Street' permit get 3 longtime cast members".
22. ^ "Mitch Miller & Decca Sing a 'Pact-a-Long'". Billboard. Dec eleven, 1965. p. three. Retrieved October 23, 2011.
23. ^ Interview past Michael Feinstein, Bonus Tracks on Stafford, Jo (2003). Carol of the Blues (Audio CD). Feinery.
24. ^ "Sing Along With Mitch | A Tv Heaven Review". Televisionheaven.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2012-10-xv. Retrieved 2012-12-eighteen .
25. ^ "Mitch Miller And The Gang - Folk Songs Sing Forth With Mitch". Discogs.
26. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Christmas in the Charts (1920–2004). Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. p. 106. ISBN0-89820-161-vi.
27. ^ "Honorary Members". Barbershop Harmony Society. Retrieved 2017-05-26 .
28. ^ "Rochester Music Hall of Fame Announces 2013 Class of Inductees" (Press release). Rochester Music Hall of Fame. Feb 28, 2013. Retrieved 2017-05-26 .

External links [edit]

• Mitch Miller at IMDb
• Mitch Miller at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• Mitch Miller papers, 1921–2003 Music Division, The New York Public Library.
• Mitch Miller at Find a Grave

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Miller

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