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1960s Handbook - Mitch Miller

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Though little known today, the musician and record-company executive Mitch Miller had an enormous influence on the public's listening tastes in the 1950s and 1960s. He began his career touring with George Gershwin and playing in the orchestra during Orson Welles's War of the Worlds radio broadcast. But it wasn't until he joined Columbia Records, in 1950, as the head of A and R -- deciding whom and what to record and promote -- that he became a bona fide tastemaker.

Miller signed on or shepherded the careers of singers like Frankie Laine, Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, and Rosemary Clooney. He favored light pop with catchy tunes. Throughout, he continued to record music (see his popular 1955 rendition of "The Yellow Rose of Texas"), and, in 1961, he landed his own Friday-night television show, Sing Along With Mitch, a kind of proto-karaoke program with lyrics appearing on the screens and a dot bouncing over them.

As the 1960s wore on, Miller became a victim of the times: His show was canceled, and he lost his job at Columbia because he wasn't signing enough rock-and-roll acts.

Posted by Carolyn Koo
October 2, 2008 12:00pm

Filed under: 1960s Handbook

Comments

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By Bestfriendsgirl on October 6, 2008 3:18 PM

My mom and dad loved him and had a boatload of his records.

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By Jamblermm on October 12, 2008 12:23 AM

Well, I was going to college in the early 60's when Mitch Miller's "Singalong with Mitch" was all the rage. To the college crowd he was so square he was a CUBE!

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By rosieplichta on August 24, 2009 2:56 PM

I remember this show, and the bouncing ball with the lyrics. The photo you have of Mitch Miller is much younger than he was when he had his show in the 1960's. On the show he also had a goatee. Sing Along with Mitch was much loved in my house. My family particularly loved Leslie Uggams on this show.