Mitch Miller

Mitchell "Mitch" William Miller (born July 4, 1911 in Rochester , New York , † July 31, 2010 in New York City ) was an American orchestra leader and classical oboe player , who also had great success as a repertoire director and producer at record companies such as Mercury Records and Columbia Records (in Germany: CBS).

Life

The River Kwai March

Miller graduated from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in 1932 ; in the same year he started in the music division of CBS. He also appeared as an oboist in George Gershwin's orchestra , as well as on the radio as a soloist with the CBS Symphony Orchestra between 1936 and 1947. In 1948 Miller moved from CBS to Mercury Records , where he initially worked in the classical field. In the same year he became music director in the pop music department, where he signed Frankie Laine and produced some high-grossing hits with him such as Mule Train , That Lucky Old Sun , Cry of the Wild Goose and Jezebel . This is where Patti Page came under contract, who landed a million-seller with a cover version of the Tennessee Waltz . In February 1950, he moved back to CBS to take on the same role as at Mercury.

At that time, CBS was one of the big three record labels in the USA, along with RCA Victor and Decca. Among the many artists at CBS since 1942 was Frank Sinatra , who in 1951 turned down some of Miller's suggestions for songs. Miller left it to a young singer he had signed by the artist Guy Mitchell , who had great success with My Heart Cries For You and The Roving Kind (over two million copies sold). He also had record deals with Tony Bennett , Rosemary Clooney and the Four Lads. In 1951 he acquired Johnnie Ray , with whom he produced the million-seller Cry .

From February 1950, Miller's own record career began as an interpreter. The first hit was a stormy version of the Israeli folk song Tzena, Tzena, Tzena . In this folk wave, The Yellow Rose of Texas came out, which remained at No. 1 for six weeks and became Miller's first million seller . The success was even greater in December 1957 with the medley March from the River Kwai - Colonel Bogey March by Malcolm Arnold and Kenneth J. Alford from the film Die Brücke am Kwai , arranged by Miller and played by his orchestra ; the recording became number one in Germany and sold four million times here alone.

More million seller

The trained musician Miller demonstrated an unerring instinct for hits. In 1951 alone, he produced eleven of the top 30 hits, had four million-seller and helped develop CBS from the fourth largest to the highest-grossing label.

Rosemary Clooney, produced by Mitch Miller, brought out three million-seller in 1952, Frankie Laine, who has since been transferred from Mercury Records, brought out two, including the theme tune from the Western classic High Noon . Laine's version was recorded by Tex Ritter only one day after the original (on May 15, 1952) and published on June 20, 1952. It came out three weeks later than the original by Tex Ritter (Capitol # 2120), who sings the song in the film that was released in theaters on July 30, 1952. The hasty production was a wise decision by Miller, because the film version by Tex Ritter only came in at number 12 on the pop hit parade - probably also helped by the hesitant attitude of the Capitol label.

He helped Doris Day , Percy Faith and Ray Conniff to achieve a breakthrough with a clever repertoire and marketing strategy. With his "Sing Along" albums from July 1958, Mitch Miller reached the unbroken record of 23 LPs in the hit parade with sales of 17 million copies in the period up to December 1962. The basis of this series was an extremely successful television show of the same title, the ran until the beginning of the 1960s and animated all of America to sing along by fading in the lyrics.

The only thing that Mitch Miller didn't get along with was Frank Sinatra . The singer left the Columbia label angry in late 1952 and criticized Miller all his life. Miller wasn't a supporter of rock 'n' roll , as can be seen in the Columbia catalog. The professional world accused him of having overslept this music genre with a predominantly affluent youth. The only attempt was the long negotiations with Elvis Presley's management about a record deal, which did not materialize due to excessive demands. Columbia was content with the subsidiary labels Epic and Okeh Records , where mainly rhythm & blues performers appeared.

Miller stuck to light pop music

While the competing record labels turned to young performers with rock & roll music, Miller stuck to his previous concept. In early 1961, Columbia's LP sales were still satisfactory, but overall sales declined. The only adolescent discovery was Bob Dylan , who was brought to Columbia by jazz / blues / gospel producer John Hammond .

Miller's influence declined noticeably when Paul Revere & the Raiders, the first rock & roll band, was acquired in 1964 . In 1965 he left Columbia and then devoted himself only to playing the oboe. Even in old age, he still toured with classical orchestras. Mitch Miller also wrote the song Tunes of Glory , which the Coca-Cola group used as background music in its television advertising during the 2006 World Cup in Germany (slogan “It's your home game” ).

Web links

Commons : Mitch Miller  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Mitch Miller Biographical article by Bruce Eder at allmusic.com (accessed August 3, 2010)
• Mitch Miller at the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Extensive television interview with Mitch Miller (120 minutes) from July 24, 2004 on the website of the Archive of American Television (accessed August 2, 2010)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mitch Miller, Maestro of the Singalong, Dies at 99 Richard Severo's obituary in the New York Times, August 2, 2010 (accessed August 3, 2010)
2. ↑ Billboard Magazine, July 5, 1952, p. 52