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“The term classical just means something that lasts. You know, taste, musicianship, balance, get the best out of the artist,” he told Audio magazine in an interview published in 1985. Miller thought the move was unremarkable. Miller, who played under such esteemed conductors as Sir Thomas Beecham and Leopold Stokowski, surprised many when he made the switch to pop music. The marriage produced three children: Andrea, Margaret and Mitchell. The two met at Eastman, where Alexander was a student of piano following his 1932 graduation, Miller wooed her long distance by air mail, special delivery and 1,000-mile auto trips from New York City to her hometown of Quincy, Illinois. He courted his future wife, Frances Josephine Alexander, with similar aplomb. Caught in a police raid of a craps game, the quick-witted Miller offered a professor’s name when asked to identify himself, the New Yorker magazine recounted in a 1953 profile. There he displayed a touch of flamboyance as he drove a Model T Ford, cut classes and voiced his criticism of school administrators.

#Mitch miller little golden records full#

Miller also played the English horn, a woodwind instrument similar to the oboe but larger and lower-pitched.Īfter high school, Miller enrolled in the Eastman school on a full scholarship.

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By the time he was 14, he was taking oboe lessons at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, and at 15, he made his professional debut with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. His father was a wrought-iron worker, and his mother was a seamstress who once worked in the Russian czar’s summer palace outside Warsaw, according to “Current Biography.”Īlthough Miller took piano lessons as a child, he didn’t discover the oboe until junior high school, when he decided to sign up for orchestra and found just one instrument left. Mitchell William Miller was born on July 4, 1911, in a Rochester, New York, neighborhood of Jewish and Italian immigrants. Four years later, NBC canceled the show due to youthful viewers’ scorn.

#Mitch miller little golden records tv#

The host encouraged viewers to sing along as the song’s lyrics scrolled across the bottom of the TV screen. The program was a huge ratings success and turned Miller into a nationally recognized figure, with his trademark goatee and baton in hand. He moved to television in early 1961, hosting “Sing Along With Mitch” as a musical variety show on NBC. Miller released almost two dozen more “Sing Along” albums for CBS over the next few years. The album sold more than 8 million copies and stayed on the record charts for 204 weeks. That same year, he released his first “Sing Along With Mitch” album, on the shrewd bet that many Americans still hankered for enduring melodies such as “Down by the Old Mill Stream” and “You Are My Sunshine.” He accused disc jockeys in 1958 of “abandoning adults” in their rush to embrace the new genre. Miller resisted the rise of rock n’ roll in a fierce and outspoken way. In addition to his fulltime job at CBS, he simultaneously worked part-time as director of popular recordings for Simon & Schuster’s Little Golden Records. Within two years, Miller took CBS from fourth to first place in pop-music sales. There, he steered Bennett, Clooney and Johnny Mathis to their first hits.

Miller selected and produced songs recorded by Patti Page, Vic Damone and Frankie Laine at Mercury Records, then moved to CBS in 1950. Even during the Great Depression, he never lacked for work.Īfter receiving classical training on the oboe, he played in the orchestra for George Gershwin’s road tour of “Porgy and Bess” in 1935, then joined the CBS Orchestra for more than a decade before he became a music record executive to develop popular artists. Throughout his life, he was noted for the considerable energy and self-confidence that accompanied his musical ability. Miller was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in 2000, when he still worked actively as a guest conductor. He died July 31 in Manhattan after a short illness, the New York Times reported, citing his daughter, Margaret Miller Reuther. Mitch Miller, the baton-wielding host of the “Sing Along With Mitch” television show who promoted performers such as Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney, has died.