Mitch Miller, the producer/arranger turned record executive who became a household name with the Sing Along With Mitch TV and record series, has died. He was 99 years old.
As an oboist, Miller started out playing in various orchestras in the 1930s, including one assembled by George Gershwin. He then became head of A&R at Mercury Records and later Columbia in the 1950s and early 1960s, where he helped to turn artists like Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, and Johnny Mathis into stars, and soon became known for his stiff, old-fashioned adherence to pop standards in the pre-rock ’n’ roll era, as well as his taste for relentlessly cheery arrangements—and, to put it less kindly, hacky novelty songs. Among his most well-known—and most derided—credits were Rosemary Clooney’s “Come On-A My House” (which Clooney claimed Miller forced her to record lest she be fired from the label) and Frank Sinatra’s infamous “Mama Will Bark,” which has long been regarded as the lowest point in the singer’s career.
Nevertheless, Miller had one of the highest track records of hits during the era, and he also managed to sign important new talent like Aretha Franklin, whom he gave her first recording contract. (Franklin soon left the label after Miller tried and failed to transform her into a traditional jazz diva.) And even though he had a professed hatred of rock ‘n’ roll, famously saying, “Rock 'n' roll is musical baby food: it is the worship of mediocrity, brought about by a passion for conformity,” he was still instrumental in the production of early rock ‘n’ roll progenitors like Marty Robbins’ “A White Sport Coat (And A Pink Carnation)” and Frankie Laine’s “Mule Train,” and he later even helped a young folk singer named Bob Dylan get signed.
Miller is also credited by some with inventing what would come to be known as modern-day karaoke through his Sing Along With Mitch program: The NBC show adopted from the record series of the same name featured Miller conducting an all-male chorus as they sang old pop standards, with Miller encouraging viewers to “just follow the bouncing ball” while the lyrics appeared on the screen. In the first two years of its run, Sing Along With Mitch was a Top 20 hit.
In more recent years, Miller had returned to conducting, this time with primarily symphony orchestras such as the Boston Pops. He was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.