According to his New York Times obituary, in later years he moderated his views by saying that his objections were on principle rather than taste-objections to the sleaziness of payola, for example, and to the way white audiences were eager to accept white imitations of black music. Rock is “not music, it’s a disease,” he famously said, yet he also produced Johnny Ray’s “Cry,” the influential 1951 hit that topped the pop and R&B charts, and attempted to sign Elvis Presley to Columbia. He’s also responsible for signing Aretha Franklin to her first contract, although Columbia tried to turn her into a songbird along the lines of Doris Day or Jo Stafford, and it wasn’t until she left the label that she became who she became.Īnd that fact segues rather nicely into one of the main reasons Miller is remembered by the rock generation: as one of its supposed enemies. Starting in 1950, Miller headed A&R for Columbia, and in that capacity guided the careers of many significant artists of the MOR era, including Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Patti Page, and Percy Faith, all of whom he brought to the label. And before that, he had shaped the sound of American popular music. Before that, he had scored hits as a bandleader. Before that, however, Miller had established the “sing along” franchise. I am just old enough to vaguely remember Sing Along With Mitch, Miller’s TV program. Same with Mitch Miller, who died over the weekend at age 99. When TV personality Art Linkletter died earlier this year, I was surprised because I didn’t know he was still alive to begin with.
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