Tuesday, August 3, 2010

RIP Mitch Miller

My parents thought he was great.



This is the sort of thing that, in my day, would only be watched while under the influence of major mind-altering substances.

3 comments:

Mike Thomas said...

It would be easy to just laugh and dismiss him as the guy who passed on Elvis and Buddy Holly, I think. But I believe he should be appreciated for helping to maintain and promote forms of popular music that were falling out of favor back then. It is not like he was going to stop rock-n-roll, but perhaps he helped keep other forms of music from being completely swamped by the rock tsunami.
However, some of those songs in the video are mindnumbingly monotonous.

heydave said...

I have memories of watching this show because my parents loved it at the time; I watched with disinterest. But I have to hand it to the Mitch now that his perceived cheesiness might just be the status quo from the kinder, gentler time. And he did back a lot of good talent that looks impressive in retrospect.

I have to figure out how to put a bouncing ball thing on my powerpoint presentations, if only to be a blend of hipster ironic and offer a homage to the collective past.

AnnPW said...

Very well-put, both of you! I used to sing to my boys when they were little tykes, especially in the car, and much of what came bubbling up from the depths of my memory banks obviously came from my days of listening (like heydave, because my parents did) to Mitch Miller. For example, the first song on this YouTube is the old "Five Foot Two" which my oldest used to LOVE (whenever I got to that "could she, could she, could she coo?" he would sing along at the top of his lungs, then dissolve in giggles - it was too much fun.)