Mitch Miller Dies At 99

Music and television pioneer Mitch Miller died in NYC this weekend at the age of 99. Miller's Sing Along With Mitch album series and television show essentially created the concept of karaoke.

Mr. Miller, a Rochester native who was born on the Fourth of July, had been an accomplished oboist and was still a force in the recording industry when he came up with the idea of recording old standards with a chorus of some two dozen male voices and printing the lyrics on album covers. The “Sing Along With Mitch” album series, which began in 1958, was an immense success, finding an eager audience among older listeners looking for an alternative to rock ’n’ roll. Mitch Miller and the Gang serenaded them with chestnuts like “Home on the Range,” “That Old Gang of Mine,” “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen” and “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” When the concept was adapted for television in 1961, with the lyrics appearing at the bottom of the screen, Mr. Miller, with his beaming smile and neatly trimmed mustache and goatee, became a national celebrity.

When I was a toddler, my grandmother once got hysterical because she thought I had already picked up my father's famously filthy mouth. But I wasn't saying "son of a bitch," I was pointing at the TV and saying "Sing along with Mitch!" My mom still tells that story. See if you can spot the future superstar in the below clip around 2:50.