Posted 7:47 PM by Gene

One is expected to say Mitch Miller destroyed pop music. In fact he didn't do too badly with it given what he had to work with. When he came to A&R power the glorious jazz age had ended, retreating into holes in the wall, and all the songwriters seemed to be writing were novelties. With his imperfect commercial sense Miller had lots of his acts record novelties, including a few who weren't worthy of it, like Rosemary Clooney and Jo Stafford; he chased Ol' Blue out of Columbia with a dog. But there was great ferment beyond and beneath the major labels, who largely refused to see it. And Miller could see it; he tried signing Elvis but RCA spent more. And he did introduce superb talents like Tony Bennett. Some might conjure up a schlock act but here too Miller beats his critics; for many over 50 he is a fond memory with his TV sing-alongs. One can mock Mitch Miller but in the end the critics only mock themselves.

P. S. on 8/3/2010 at 5:59 p. m. This blogger comprehensively whacks and chops and slices the KLUMPH! KLUMPH! KLUMPH! KLUMPH! of bigmedia show-biz and cultural groupthink, a rather profound reason our culture STINKS.