Mitch Miller Biography

Mitch Miller (born July 4, 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 Mitchell William Miller to a Jewish family in Rochester, New York, he 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":