Mitch Miller (born Mitchell William Miller on 4 July 1911) is remembered as one of the best-selling recording artists of the 1950s and early '60s. He was an executive at Columbia Records for many years and headed his own male choir, "Mitch Miller and the Gang", before striking out on his own. Born to a Jewish family in Rochester, New York, Mitchell William Miller and his choir were famed for their campy Sing Along With Mitch television show of the 1960s. During the second season of "Sing Along with Mitch," Mitch Miller himself coined the catch phrase "All Smiles." These were preceded by the instructions to "sing along; just follow the bouncing ball" (a large dot that "bounced" above the words that were superimposed on television of the song that Mitch was singing). ...show more

Mitch Miller (born Mitchell William Miller on 4 July 1911) is remembered as one of the best-selling recording artists of the 1950s and early '60s. He was an executive at Columbia Records for many years and headed his own male choir, "Mitch Miller and the Gang", before striking out on his own. Born to a Jewish family in Rochester, New York, Mitchell William Miller and his choir were famed for their campy Sing Along With Mitch television show of the 1960s. During the second season of "Sing Along with Mitch," Mitch Miller himself coined the catch phrase "All Smiles." These were preceded by the instructions to "sing along; just follow the bouncing ball" (a large dot that "bounced" above the words that were superimposed on television of the song that Mitch was singing).

Miller's biggest hits with the choir were "The Yellow Rose of Texas," a drum-propelled version of the old March, and "Colonel Bogey March", then enjoying new popularity from its use in the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). In addition to the television show, Miller and his choir recorded a series of best-selling albums. One of the singers in Miller's choir, Bob McGrath, went on to a long career as one of the hosts of the PBS children's television show, Sesame Street. As head of artists & repertory (A&R) at Mercury Records in the late forties, and Columbia Records in the fifties and early sixties, Miller gained a reputation for creating records that created what music historian Will Friedwald calls an "aural texture": " Miller also conceived of the idea of the pop record 'sound' per se: not so much an arrangement or a tune, but an aural texture (usually replete with extramusical gimmicks) that could be created in the studio and then replicated in live performance, instead of the other way around.

Miller was hardly a rock 'n' roller, yet without these ideas there could never have been rock 'n' roll. 'Mule Train,' Miller's first major hit (for Frankie Laine) and the foundation of his career, set the pattern for virtually the entire first decade of rock. The similarities between it and, say, 'Leader of the Pack,' need hardly be outlined here. " -- Will Friedwald noted in Sinatra: The Song Is You, Da Capo Press, 1997. ...show less