Wow. no kidding. Could have sworn he'd died ages ago. -----Original Message----- >From: [email protected] >Sent: Aug 2, 2010 2:33 PM >To: [email protected] >Subject: [DEADPOOL] Croak Along With Mitch > >wow..a classic case of "I thought he was already dead." >--Deb >usual (cr)AP disclaimers apply... > >NEW YORK — Mitch Miller, the goateed orchestra leader who asked Americans to >"Sing Along With Mitch" on television and records, has died at age 99. > >His daughter, Margaret Miller Reuther, said Monday that Miller died Saturday >in Lenox Hill Hospital after a short illness. > >Miller was a key record executive at Columbia Records in the pre-rock 'n' roll >era, making hits with singers Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page, Johnny Mathis and >Tony Bennett. > >"Sing Along With Mitch" started as a series of records, then became a popular >NBC show starting in early 1961. Miller's stiff-armed conducting style and >signature goatee became famous. > >As a producer and arranger, Miller had misses along with his hits, famously >striking out on projects with Frank Sinatra and a young Aretha Franklin. > >The TV show ranked in the top 20 for the 1961-62 season, and soon children >everywhere were parodying Miller's stiff-armed conducting. An all-male chorus >sang old standards, joined by a few female singers, most prominently Leslie >Uggams. Viewers were invited to join in with lyrics superimposed on the screen >and followed with a bouncing ball. > >"He is an odd-looking man," New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote in >1962. "His sharp beard, twinkling eyes, wrinkled forehead and mechanical beat >make him look like a little puppet as he peers hopefully into the camera. By >now most of us are more familiar with his tonsils than with those of our >families." > >Atkinson went on to say that as a musician, Miller was "first rate," praising >"the clean tone of the singing, the clarity of the lyrics, the aptness of the >tempos, the variety and the occasional delicacy of the instrumental >accompaniment." > >An accomplished oboist, Miller played in a number of orchestras early in his >career, including one put together in 1934 by George Gershwin. "Gershwin was >an unassuming guy," Miller told The New York Times in 1989. "I never heard him >raise his voice." > >Miller began in the recording business with Mercury Records in the late '40s, >first on the classical side, later with popular music. He then went over to >Columbia Records as head of its popular records division. > >Among the stars whose hits he worked on were Clooney, Page, Bennett, Frankie >Laine and Jo Stafford. His decision to have Mathis switch from jazz to lushly >romantic ballads launched the singer as a superstar. > >He had a less rewarding collaboration with Sinatra, whose recording of the >novelty song "Mama Will Bark," featuring a barking dog, was considered the >nadir of the singer's career. Still, Miller became known for his distinctive >arrangements, such as the use of a harpsichord on Clooney's megahit version of >"Come On-a My House." He used dubbing of vocal tracks back when that was >considered exotic. > >"To me, the art of singing a pop song has always been to sing it very >quietly," Miller said in the book "Off the Record: An Oral History of Popular >Music." > >"The microphone and the amplifier made the popular song what it is — an >intimate one-on-one experience through electronics. It's not like opera or >classical singing. The whole idea is to take a very small thing and make it >big." > >Miller and a chorus had a No. 1 hit in 1955 with "The Yellow Rose of Texas," >and that led to his sing-along records a few years later. > >The years of Miller's biggest successes were also the early years of rock 'n' >roll, and many fans saw his old-fashioned arrangements of standards and folk >favorites as an antidote to the noisy stuff the teens adored. As an executive >at Columbia, Miller would be widely ridiculed for trying to turn a young >Aretha Franklin into a showbiz diva in the tradition of Sophie Tucker. > >But Miller was not entirely unsympathetic to rock 'n' roll. > >In a 1955 essay in The New York Times magazine, he said the popularity of >rhythm and blues, as he called it, with white teens was part of young people's >"natural desire not to conform, a need to be rebellious." > >He added: "There is a steady — and healthy — breaking down of color barriers >in the United States; perhaps the rhythm-and-blues rage — I am only theorizing >— is another expression of it." > >"Miller has often been maligned as a maestro of 1950s schlock ... Yet Miller >injected elements of rhythm and blues and country music, however diluted, into >mainstream pop," Ken Emerson wrote in his book "Always Magic in the Air." > >In the Martin Scorsese documentary on Bob Dylan, "No Direction Home," Miller >acknowledged that he was dubious when famed producer John Hammond brought the >nearly unknown Dylan to the staid Columbia label in the early '60s. "He was >singing in, you know, this rough-edged voice," Miller said. "I will admit I >didn't see the greatness of it." But he said he respected Hammond's track >record in finding talent. > >In recent years, Miller returned to his classical roots, appearing frequently >as a guest conductor with symphony orchestras. > >In 2000, he won a special Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. > >Reuther said her father died of "just old age." > >"He was absolutely himself up until the minute he got sick," she said. "He was >truly blessed with a long and wonderful life." > >Miller was born in 1911, in Rochester, N.Y., son of a Russian Jewish immigrant >wrought-iron worker and a seamstress. He graduated from the Eastman School of >Music of the University of Rochester. > >Reuther said there will be a memorial service for her father in the fall. > >-- >You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >"World News Now Discussion List" group. >To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >[email protected]. >For more options, visit this group at >http://groups.google.com/group/wnndl?hl=en. >
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