Mitch Miller Greatest Hits CD

Producer: Mitch Miller.
Compilation producer: Al Quaglieri.
Recorded between 1950 and 1962. Includes liner notes by Will Friedwald.
Digitally remastered by Chris Athens (Sony Music Studios, New York, New York)
Recording information: 03/12/1950-06/16/1962.
Photographers: Don Hunstein; Hank Parker.
Arranger: M. Arnold.
OK, this is the kind of dorky music that your parents listened to when you weren't playing Elvis, Buddy Holly, or Dave Brubeck on the phonograph; and it was the kind of MOR pop of the '50s and early '60s that rock & roll battled tooth-and-nail for supremacy -- but this is also some of the most infectiously tuneful dorky music there is, and some of the most captivating of its '50s nerd-appeal idiom. The 15 tracks, all beautifully remastered for maximum impact, range from straight singalong numbers like "You Are My Sunshine" by Mitch Miller & the Sing Along Gang to instrumentals such as "Song for a Summer Night" by Mitch Miller & His Orchestra. Marches like "Bonnie Blue Gal" and "Colonel Bogey" from Bridge on the River Kwai work best, but ballads ("Autumn Leaves"), movie songs ("The Longest Day"), novelty songs ("Tzena, Tzena, Tzena"), and show tunes ("Do-Re-Me") were also at the center of Miller's repertory, and represented here. For all of the care lavished on it, this disc may still work best as a gag gift, although it's also sure to evoke strong memories in anyone over 50 of camp singalongs and watching Miller on television with the family. ~ Bruce Eder
Even among aficionados of lounge and kitsch, Mitch Miller, producer of the Sing Along With Mitch series on record and TV, is second in reputation to Lawrence Welk as a purveyor of white bread '50s musical dreck. Yet Miller is one of the most innovative, resourceful producers in recording history. His long tenure as Columbia Records chief of A&R saw him use every studio technique at his disposal to create an "audio image" for each of his hit-making artists, who included Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Frankie Laine, and Johnnie Ray, the "angst guy."
This collection doesn't include those classics, like Clooney's "Come-On-A My House" with it's crazy harpsichord or Ray's spare, penetrating "Cry." It does feature various Mitch and the Gang tracks as well as a few choice instrumentals, all of which carry considerable aural punch. It's almost as if Miller challenged himself to create hits from the homeliest material he could find, tunes like "The Children's Marching Song (Nick Nack Paddy Wack)" or "The Yellow Rose Of Texas." That he succeeded so well says something either about popular taste or the power and appeal of a well-made record.