RIP Mitch Miller

The original pre-rock rockist, I guess.

hmmm, I was just trying to decide whether to start this thread. Notable, but not exactly sad.

not a guy i would have thought was still alive tbh!

Because her grandparents would monopolize the TV while his show was on, Mom despised him.

positively Mephistophelean

http://images.channeladvisor.com/Sell/SSProfiles/12000635/Images/54/074646597323.jpg

Miller insisted that Clooney record "Come On-a My House," written in part by playwright William Saroyan and backed by a harpsichord. Her first hit, it sold over a million copies.

^genius

Famous story in my family. There's a sculpture of Christ in one of the entrances to St. Joseph's Hospital in Toronto. Early-to-mid '60s, when I was three or four, I pointed at it and said, "It's Mitch Miller."

If that incident happened now, the kid would say, "I'm fucking Matt Damon."

RIP. He looks so young and alive on that album cover. How can someone live to be 99.

still have not checked out those early 50's records by Miller, but this article by Elijah Wald makes his case pretty well

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/eeca345e-8de1-11de-93df-00144feabdc0.html

still have to read Wald's book, but it's on the list, it really seems to nail all the factors during the 50's when popular music finally shifted over from live performance / sheet music / Hit Parade to Jukeboxes / specific recordings / Billboard Hot 100

When I read the article I linked to start the thread I was thinking of Elijah's work!

well I like his thesis that Miller was the first person who produced albums where the lineup of the band & arrangements would shift drastically from track to track in a way that would be absolutely impossible to achieve in a live ensemble performance. and that in the early 50's that would be bewildering to the ear, that most other records' arrangements stayed consistent enough to provide the illusion that you were at a 'concert', but that Miller was the first one to throw that out the window. I love the thesis, now I just have to hear the records

I do love the Clooney productions, but must admit in my days of thrift store record shopping I was never tempted by those Sing Along With Mitch albums

Music industry friend was thrilled to spot him on a Manhattan bus a few years ago

this dude was hugely important. elijah wald OTM. RIP.

Mitch Miller was still alive!!!!!
wow, really thought he was long gone
def important tho think more remembered by most for all the sing along albums (of which there a a bunch in my house)

I too am surprised ol' Mitch was still kickin'. I would've guessed his age at well over 100 if asked. I recall him on TV as a child with the bouncing ball & all that stuff. Righteous fun for a kid! RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dY9gtYeHhk&feature=related

I understand all the stuff about his arrangements, but everyone's leaving out how much his records just plain sucked — then and now. RIP.

btw DO listen to "Mama Will Bark" (poor Frank)

I understand all the stuff about his arrangements, but everyone's leaving out how much his records just plain sucked — then and now. RIP.

― Jazzbo, Tuesday, August 3, 2010 1:54 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

some of his work as a producer is pretty good, actually. his singalong records, and pretty much anything under his own name, did indeed suck.

Mitch Miller! Noo we will not let him go...

(RIP)

Would like to have been fly on wall when he had dinner with his buddies Jerry Wexler and Alec Wilder. RIP

no wish to speak ill of the dead so RIP to Mitch. I was surprised & embarrassed to learn of his tech achievements in the studio, I sold him short in my book.

but (sound of other shoe dropping) I can't square his infamous hatred of rock % roll as simplistic children's music w/his A&R penchant for novelty songs.

still, quite a life in music!

Wasn't he in the original Book Of Rock Lists top ten enemies list, a slot above or below Mike Curb, but not as high as Albert Goldman? My copy long ago turned to dust so I can't check.

Yeah, he was in there. IIRC Marsh claimed that Miller damned the quality of rock songs in public, but in private was one of the leading merchants of Whitewashed cover versions via the artists he A & R'ed.

Hm, I googled a few of those names it gave me one hit for this book: http://www.amazon.com/Anti-Rock-Opposition-Rock-n-Roll/dp/0306805022/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281029577&sr=1-1

but (sound of other shoe dropping) I can't square his infamous hatred of rock % roll as simplistic children's music w/his A&R penchant for novelty songs.

well he expressed contempt for the public he was serving... saying he was just giving them the crap they deserved, basically. i don't actually believe that, but it's what he said.

The harpsichord playing in Come on-a My House is freaky and wonderful. I like to imagine Jim Morrison singing Rosemary Clooney's part.

Whenever I hear RH Chili Peppers' "Give It Away," I hear that one line as "Mitch Miller."

Heh. That's almost as good as hearing James Brown's "The Payback" as "Vic Tayback."

I wonder if Leslie Uggams ever sang "Is That All There Is?" on the show.

Can someone verify that Mitch Miller say "dick" in the first line of "Must Be Santa" http://youtu.be/k1vf1DYJphA

rest in peace