The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Hazcat on August 03, 2010, 06:30:12 AM
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By RICHARD SEVERO
Published: August 2, 2010
Mitch Miller, an influential record producer who became a hugely popular recording artist and an unlikely television star a half century ago by leading a choral group in familiar old songs and inviting people to sing along, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 99.
His daughter Margaret Miller Reuther confirmed the death Monday morning, saying her father had died after a short illness at Lenox Hill Hospital. Mr. Miller lived in Manhattan.
Mr. Miller, a Rochester native who was born on the Fourth of July, had been an accomplished oboist and was still a force in the recording industry when he came up with the idea of recording old standards with a chorus of some two dozen male voices and printing the lyrics on album covers.
The “Sing Along With Mitch” album series, which began in 1958, was an immense success, finding an eager audience among older listeners looking for an alternative to rock ’n’ roll. Mitch Miller and the Gang serenaded them with chestnuts like “Home on the Range,” “That Old Gang of Mine,” “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen” and “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.”
When the concept was adapted for television in 1961, with the lyrics appearing at the bottom of the screen, Mr. Miller, with his beaming smile and neatly trimmed mustache and goatee, became a national celebrity.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/arts/music/03miller.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general
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Hi;
As a young kid my parents always had his show on. Us kids were told to like it regardless.... His show was at the top of the tv charts and only went off the air due to his refuseal to have beer commercials sponsor him. Beer was big back then..
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Hi;
As a young kid my parents always had his show on. Us kids were told to like it regardless.... His show was at the top of the tv charts and only went off the air due to his refuseal to have beer commercials sponsor him. Beer was big back then..
I must be a throw-back
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Bummer. Still have the Christmas Sing Along album somewhere.
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"Sing Along with Mitch" was my grandparents (both sets) favorite show. When we were at their houses for supper, it was always on. I hated it.