Mitch Miller And The Gang – Holiday Sing Along With Mitch

Mitch Miller was a prolific arranger, producer and record executive. Simultaneously, he was a top executive at Columbia Records, produced records for them featuring his choral group The Gang and had his own TV show on NBC. 

Mitch Miller was born in Rochester, NY on the 4^th of July in 1911.  After high school and college, he moved to New York and played in various music groups throughout the 40’s.  He spent most of his time in orchestras as opposed to big bands which were also very popular at the time.  Throughout most of his career he was known as more of a producer, but with his musical knowledge, he entered the record business as an A&R man in the late 40’s.  An A&R man is the person that goes out looking for talent and is responsible for signing an artist to the record label.  Some guys lead orchestras that are then discovered by A&R men who sign them to a record deal.  Mitch Miller did it all.

After arriving at Columbia Records in 1950, he was able to start the careers of some of the biggest artists of the 50’s; Percy Faith, Ray Conniff, Johnnie Ray and Frankie Laine, while also working with Columbia’s biggest female stars, Doris Day, Jo Stafford and Dinah Shore.  If they were on Columbia in the 50’s and 60’s, Mitch Miller was there.

Mitch Miller also produced his own records.  Starting in 1950, he put together a male chorus and named them The Gang.  Mitch Miller arranged the music with an orchestra he put together and arranged the voices in the choir.  They have what I would describe as a collegiate sound.  Perhaps that’s because it was comprised of only males, but also, all voices sing at the same time singing the same melodies.  Not like layered voices and vocal arrangements found in other choirs.  This gave The Gang it’s own unique sound.  And everything was produced in a manner that allowed listeners at home to join in.  Hence the term ‘Sing–Along’ used throughout his album releases.

In 1961, he was presented with his own TV show on NBC, called…Sing Along With Mitch.  It was basically the records he was known for producing, being presented on TV for viewers at home to see the choir in action and …Sing Along With Mitch!  They even scrolled the lyrics at the bottom of the screen to make it that much easier.  (This is not to be confused with the sing along cartoons with the bouncing ball that were also popular in the 1960’s).

Difficult to imagine here in the 21^st century, but Mitch Miller And The Gang were very big on record and on TV during their time.

Mitch Miller – Wikipedia

Holiday Sing Along With Mitch is the second Christmas album Mitch Miller produced with The Gang.  The first, Christmas Sing–Along With Mitch was released in 1958.  (Look for it sometime later in this blog’s future).

Released in 1961, it easily went to #1 on the Billboard Pop charts.  It charted every year from 1961 to 1968, appearing on the Christmas charts for the first time in 1963 and usually charting in the Top 20.

This CD, released in 1999 on Sony Music Entertainment Inc., includes original art work on the cover.  The original LP features 13 songs and the CD re-issue includes 3 bonus tracks, 2 from his first Christmas album in 1958 and one from a Columbia compilation LP released in 1959.  The artwork includes a 6 page booklet with the song titles and lyrics to all the songs, including the bonus tracks.

All songs are popular Christmas standards as opposed to traditional Christian hymns.  Quite a few singles were released, the first being Must Be Santa with a song called Christmas Spirit on the B-side in 1960 and again in 1961 with a song called Be A Santa on the B-side.  Neither of these B-side songs appeared on Mitch’s Christmas albums. (Bummer!)  As said, a total of 6 singles were released from this LP, but none charted on the Billboard Hot 100 nor the Christmas charts.

The album begins with Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, and as stated earlier, goes through all the classic Christmas songs known at that time.  All the favorites are here.  Frosty The Snowman, Sleigh Ride, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Twelve Days Of Christmas, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!, Jingle Bells and 9 more.  Most of the musical arrangements are very similar and feature an organ / accordion taking front stage throughout.  It was the Mitch Miller sound.

Some of the standout selections, and my favorites, include Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, Frosty The Snowman, The Twelve Days Of Christmas and Must Be Santa, with Sleigh Ride being one of the best selections on the whole album – classic 60’s Christmas stuff here.

The album does tire easily if you’re not a big Mitch Miller fan.  I like it because, well, I love the classic Christmas albums of the Classic Christmas Era, and this is one of them.  It definitely evokes the Christmases of the late 50’s and early 60’s.  Fun music for fun times getting together with all your friends for a little eggnog and singing Christmas songs around the fireplace.  Afterall, this was 1961.

2 of the 3 bonus tracks, Deck The Halls and Silent Night (both from the first Christmas LP in 1958) feature female voices in the choir.  The third, Auld Lang Syne, is from the 1959 album Season’s Greetings, a Columbia Records compilation album featuring most of the Columbia recording stars of the day.

Mitch Miller was regarded highly throughout the music industry.  He helped many recording artists reach their greatest successes and achieved his own greatness with well over 40 albums throughout his career.  He released 2 Christmas albums during that time, this is the second and last one released.

I will recommend this CD reissue if you want to have an inclusive collection of Classic Christmas albums from the Classic Christmas Era.  But most people will be satisfied with the occasional Mitch Miller And The Gang songs that appear on CD compilation releases of 1950’s and 60’s Christmas pop standards.

I give this CD

*** ½*