The Most Conservative Musician in the Universe: Mitch Miller

Mitch Miller something epitomizes the popular genre for his television program, 'Sing Along with Mitch' from 1961 to 1964, a highly popular broadcast that all young folk knew about but few watched, as Miller addressed nostalgic music out of the great American songbook, old-fashioned for youth more drawn to contemporaries like the Beach Boys or Paul Revere and the Raiders. Marching Miller could at times be so staid that he made Lawrence Welk look like wild child, Iggy Pop. At other times he could be a pretty hep cat. Born in Rochester, New York, in 4 July 1911 to Jewish parents, Mitch first played oboe professionally at age fifteen with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. He would also play English horn (a kind of oboe). In 1932 he graduated from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. He worked with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra until moving to New York City to sign up with CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) to work in radio. He also worked on Broadway, supporting the 1935 premiere of 'Porgy and Bess'. Miller participated in the broadcast of Orson Welles' 'The War of the Worlds' on Sunday, October 30, 1938. That was the 17th episode of the CBS series, 'Mercury Theatre on the Air'. It was eventually released on vinyl in 1968 by Manheim Fox Enterprises. Miller then joined Alec Wilder's Octet, he with that ensemble for the December 19 recording of titles like 'A Debutante's Diary' and 'Concerning Etchings' [Lambert]. Sessions in March and June of 1939 with Wilder yielded such as 'Such a Tender Night' and 'Sea Fugue Mama'. Wilder would be an important figure in Miller's career, they working together numerously into the early fifties. In March of 1939 Miller and Wilder recorded 'Such a Tender Night' which found its way onto an album titled 'Frank Sinatra Conducts Music of Alec Wilder / Alec Wilder Octet'. That LP addressed Wilder compositions in two parts. The first with Frank Sinatra conducting the Columbia String Orchestra wasn't recorded until December 1945, that consisting of six titles. The second portion is Miller with the Alec Wilder Octet, consisting of seven titles recorded earler in 1939 and 1940. Miller contributed oboe and English Horn to all titles on that LP.

'A Debutante's Diary'   Mitch Miller w the Alec Wilder Octet

19 Dec 1938 in NYC   Brunswick 8294 / Columbia 36319

Bassoon: Harold Goltzer   Oboe / English horn: Miller

Clarinet: Eddie Powell (flute) / Jimmy Carroll / Toots Mondello (bass)

Harpsichord: Walter Gross   Bass: Frank Carroll   Drums: Gary Gillis

Composition: Wilder

'Frank Sinatra Conducts Music of Alec Wilder / Alec Wilder Octet'   Album

Mitch Miller w Frank Sinatra and the Alec Wilder Octet

Part 1: Frank Sinatra conducting the Columbia String Orchestra on titles 1-6

Recorded 5/10 Dec 1945

Personnel including Julius Baker (flute) / Harold Goltzer (bassoon) / Miller (oboe / English horn)

Part 2: the Alec Wilder Octet performing titles 7-13

Recorded 31 March 1939-7 Aug 1940  

Suggested personnel:

Bassoon: Harold Goltzer   Oboe / English horn: Miller

Clarinet: Eddie Powell (flute) / Jimmy Carroll / Toots Mondello (bass) / Reggie Merrill (bass)

Harpsichord: Walter Gross   Bass: Frank Carroll   Drums: Gary Gillis

Compositions: Wilder

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'Sea Fugue Mama'   Mitch Miller w the Alec Wilder Octet

13 June 1939   Brunswick 8410 / Columbia 36323

Bassoon: Harold Goltzer   Oboe / English horn: Miller

Clarinet: Eddie Powell (flute) / Jimmy Carroll / Toots Mondello (bass)

Harpsichord: Walter Gross   Bass: Frank Carroll   Drums: Gary Gillis

Composition: Wilder

It was 1939 when CBS acquired the American Record Company and changed its name to Columbia, Miller beginning to do session work that year. His first customer is thought to have been Maxine Sullivan on August 22, 1939 for such as 'Jackie Boy' and 'Turtle Dove'. A month later he would back Mildred Bailey for the first time with Wilder's orchestra, coming up with 'Don't Dally With the Devil', 'Ain't That Good News?' and 'Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child'. Numerous sessions were held with Bailey per Wilder into 1940, he to play oboe for her again on September 1, 1944, per a CBS broadcast of 'Music 'Til Midnight' in New York City to record such as 'Lover Come Back to Me' and 'St. Louis Blues'.

'Turtle Dove'   Mitch Miller backing Maxine Siullivan

22 Aug 1939 in NYC   Matrix 041597-1   Victor 26344

Bassoon: Harold Goltzer   Oboe: Miller

Clarinet: Reggie Merrill / Eddie Powell / Carl Prager (bass)

Piano: Walter Gross   Bass: Frank Carroll   Drums: Gary Gillis

Composition: Lou Singer / Bob Bilder

'Ain't That Good News?'   Mitch Miller backing Mildred Bailey w the Charioteers

21 Sep 1939 in NYC   Matrix 25373-1   See Mosaic MD10-204 (CD)

Trumpet: Red Solomon   Flute: Eddie Powell   Oboe / English horn: Miller

Clarinet: Robert Burns / Jimmy Carroll / Carl Prager (bass)

Piano: Ray Barr   Guitar: Frank Worrell

Bass: Lou Shoobe   Drums: Billy Gussak

Composition: Willard Robison

Miller was featured on English horn with the Philadelphia Orchestra for its December 1947 RCA Victor recording of Jean Sibelius' Swan of Tuonela' under Leopold Stokowski. He arranged and recorded oboe with vocal giant, Dinah Washington, on August 25 1948, for 'I'll Wait' and 'It's Too Soon to Know'. The next year he directed his orchestra to back her on 'I Challenge Your Kiss' released per Mercury 8150. Also in 1949 Miller participated on oboe in tracks by Charlie Parker.

'Swan of Tuonela'   Mitch Miller backing the Leopold Stokowski Symphony Orchestra

Dec 1947   Cala Records CACD0522

Flute: Julius Baker   Oboe: Robert Bloom   English horn: Miller

Harp: Lucile Lawrence

Viola: William Lincer / Walter Trampler   Cello: Leonard Rose

Composition: Jean Sibelius   1893

Jonathan Woolf

'It's Too Soon to Know'   Mitch Miller backing Dinah Washington

25 August 1948 in NYC   Matrix 1950-2   Mercury 8107

Composition: Deborah Chessler   Arrangement: Miller

'I Challenge Your Kiss'   Mitch Miller and His Orchestra backing Dinah Washington

1949   Matrix 2874-2   Mercury 8150

Composition: Leon Gary / Stephen Paul

'Just Friends'   Mitch Miller backing Charlie Parker

30 Nov 1949 in NYC   Matrix C319-5   Mercury 11036

Oboe / English horn: Miller   Alto sax: Parker

Piano: Stan Freeman   Harp: Meyer Rosen

Violin: Bronislaw Gimpel / Max Hollander / Milton Lomask

Viola: Frank Brieff   Cello: Frank Miller

Bass: Ray Brown   Drums: Buddy Rich

Composition: John Klenner   Arrangement: Jimmy Carroll (conducting)

It was the latter forties that Miler became an A&R (Artists and Repertoire) man for Mercury Records, then Columbia in 1950. Miller there handled the careers of a load of big-name popular vocalists such as Patti Page and Frankie Laine, he also credited with the discovery of Aretha Franklin, she a blues pianist at the time. He might have signed her upon her turn to R&B, but Miller lost no love on rock, believing it to be conformist mediocre "baby food" concerning which, as a producer, he passed off Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and the Beatles, the last landing at Capitol Records instead. (Miller did offer Presley a contract but Presley's manager wanted too much.)

Miller began to issue records as Miller and His Orchestra in 1950. 'Tzena, Tzena, Tzena' saw issue that year. Other successes in the fifties followed such as 'The Yellow Rose of Texas' in 1955 which sold over a million copies in the United States alone. 'Air Force Blue' was released for the United States Air Force in 1957. 'The Children's Marching Song' ('Nick Nack Paddy Wack') surfaced in 1958, as well as 'The River Kwai March' / 'Colonel Bogey March' which remained on Billboard's charts for seven months and a week. It was also 1958 when Miller's first 'Sing Along with Mitch' LPs began to appear by Mitch Miller and the Gang. He'd already issued ten of them by 1961 when it was time to become a household name with the television program, 'Sing Along with Mitch', running until 1964. One of that program's major features was vocalist, Leslie Uggams.

'Tzena, Tzena, Tzena'   Mitch Miller and His Orchestra

11 June 1950 in NYC   Columbia 38885

Arrangement: Norman Leyden

Music: Issachar Miron   Lyrics: Yechiel (Yehial) Haggiz   English: Gordon Jenkins / Spencer Ross

'The Yellow Rose of Texas'   Mitch Miller and His Orchestra & Chorus

30 June 1955 in NYC   Matrix AA 21688.1 H   Columbia 40540 / 4-40540

Composition: Don George from traditional at least as early as c 1836

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'Air Force Blue'   Mitch Miller

3 Feb 1957 for CBS Radio

Composition: Alan Scott / Keith Textor

'Sing Along with Mitch'   Mitch Miller and the Gang   First Sing Along album

1958   Columbia CL-1160 / Stereo Fidelity CS-8004

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'Joy to the World'   Mitch Miller and the Gang

1958   From ''Christmas Sing-Along with Mitch' on Columbia CL-1205 / CS-8027

Music: Lowell Mason 1848 from Georg Handel   Lyrics: Isaac Watts 1719

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'More Sing Along with Mitch'   Mitch Miller and the Gang   Third Sing Along album

1958   Columbia CL-1243

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'The Children's Marching Song' aka 'Nick Nack Paddy Whack' aka 'This Old Man'

Mitch Miller and His Sing Along Chorus

1958   Columbia 41317 / 4-41317

Also on the album 'More Sing Along with Mitch' (above)

From the film 'The Inn of The Sixth Happiness' w Ingrid Bergman

Composition: British traditional arranged by Malcom Arnold

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'Still More! Sing Along with Mitch'   Mitch Miller and the Gang   Fourth Sing Along album

1959   Columbia CL-1283

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