Mitch Miller Dies At 99

Mitch Miller, the host and sing-along leader of his early-1960s television show, Sing Along With Mitch, has died at 99.

The Washington Post is reporting:

Mitch Miller, a musician and record-company executive who became one of the 20th century's most influential forces in popular music as the producer who launched the recording careers of singers Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Johnny Mathis and Patti Page, died July 31 at a hospital in New York. He was 99.

Mr. Miller was a talented conductor and oboist who became a recording star in the 1950s and 1960s, with dozens of defiantly backward-looking "sing-along" albums that sold millions of copies. As the host of a popular television show in the early 1960s, "Sing Along With Mitch," he has been credited by some with being the inventor of karaoke.

Sing Along With Mitch was not exactly a show my family watched, but I do remember it being advertised and talked about. The show ran from 1961 to 1966.

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