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MITCH MILLER R.I.P.

pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
edited August 2010 in Strut Central
This anti-rock crusader and long-time fixture of thrift-store record bins has been silenced...



Full New York Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/arts/music/03miller.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&hp;

  Comments

  • Options
    Unknown
    I would have bet he died 20+ years ago.
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    I don't want to be morbid, but he'd been off the scene for so long, it was easy to forget that Mitch was still alive all this time.

    I mean...punk, rap, iTunes, breakbeats, downloads, DVD's, Flavor Flav, Justins Timberlake and Beiber, Motorhead, cell phones, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, Rodney King...and there still was a Mitch Miller???
  • mrmatthewmrmatthew 1,575 Posts
    R.I.P.
    His mug has been staring up at me from the $ dollar bin for as long as i've been digging...
    For some reason, i do not harbr the resentment towards him like i do the Streisands, John Denvers and Mantovannis.
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    I got upset for a second cause I thought you wrote Mitch Mitchell...




    ... but then I just read that Mitch Mitchell died in 2008, without me knowing. Damn. Mitch Mitchell RIP.
  • incompletejigsawincompletejigsaw 756 Posts
    He and that smile of his will live on in the dollar bins of a thrift store near you. Rest well.
  • Options
    Unknown
    Motorhead[/i]

    Lemmy first appeared on a record in 1965. He's almost 65 now.

    Weird.
  • sabadabadasabadabada 5,966 Posts
    "Years later, in 1993, when David Koresh and members of his Branch Davidian cult were holed up in their compound in Waco, Tex., F.B.I. agents tried to flush them out by blasting ???Sing Along With Mitch??? Christmas carols. "


    Now THAT'S torture.
  • sabadabadasabadabada 5,966 Posts
    Its also amazing that at age 99, he's still survived by two brothers.
  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    l was just thinning about him.

    l realized that Garrison Keillor's sing alongs were an extension of Mitch Miller and an homage to the worse music of the 1950s.
  • Options
    Unknown
    I'm seeing multiple references to him as the "inventor of karaoke."
  • tuneuptuneup 586 Posts
    Mitch did the arrangements on the "Charlie Parker with Strings" Lp and they are genius.
    RIP Mitch.
  • DrWuDrWu 4,021 Posts
    Thrift stores should fly flags at half mast this week.
  • HorseleechHorseleech 3,830 Posts
    tuneup said:
    Mitch did the arrangements on the "Charlie Parker with Strings" Lp and they are genius.
    RIP Mitch.

    He didn't do the arrangements, he just played oboe.
  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    I have one Mitch Miller story....

    Mitch didn't like R&R....I once sat down and had a long conversation with Rockabilly singer Boyd Bennett....he recorded on the King label in the late 50's and his LP is one of the rarest ever. In the early 50's Boyd was signed to Columbia by Mitch...he was given a contract to record 4 tracks.....one of the four songs he did was a version of The Prisonaires tune "Just Walking In The Rain" that he had heard on a Sun label 45.....Mitch told him all his tracks were "not good enough", paid him his money and released him from his contract......a short time later Boyd heard Johnny Ray's version of "Just Walkin' In The Rain" which became a big hit....from there on out he didn't like Mitch Miller very much.
  • karlophonekarlophone 1,697 Posts
    Mitch was certainly an early exploiter of the pop n rock explosion*, ruled columbia with a very heavy hand, and is responsible for some of the weakest weaksauce ever committed to vinyl. at the same time, hes cited by Phil Spector as a genius producer, the first to arrange recordings creatively, and break all the conventional arrangement ideas that had been ossified in the 40s. Phil took the cues Mitch laid down and developed his wall of sound.

    *meaning hated rock, took advantage of songwriters and stole/copied anything that would sell, was stingy and all that
  • tuneuptuneup 586 Posts
    Horseleech said:
    tuneup said:
    Mitch did the arrangements on the "Charlie Parker with Strings" Lp and they are genius.
    RIP Mitch.

    He didn't do the arrangements, he just played oboe.

    I stand corrected. However.... being part of that recording in any way shows that he was no slouch and he does play beautifully. RIP
  • HorseleechHorseleech 3,830 Posts
    tuneup said:
    Horseleech said:
    tuneup said:
    Mitch did the arrangements on the "Charlie Parker with Strings" Lp and they are genius.
    RIP Mitch.

    He didn't do the arrangements, he just played oboe.

    I stand corrected. However.... being part of that recording in any way shows that he was no slouch and he does play beautifully. RIP

    True, he was the only other wind instrument to solo on these recordings aside from Charlie Parker.
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