I think my computer barfed this morning

[Big Al]

Since I got a turntable and INport, my dad and my mother-in-law asked me to transfer a bunch of LPs to CD for them. Dad's stack was fun: a buncha Moody Blues, couple Chet Atkins LPs, a few other obscure guitar players and some classical music. Mom's stack, OTOH, well.... first, you gotta understand I love my in-laws. They're the coolest in the world, and I'm very blessed to be their son-in-law. But Mom's stack of records.....

Actually, it isn't too too bad. However, as a result of some of these records, I now fully understand why the 50's were so unhip (not that I ever truly subscribed to the whole "Happy Days/American Graffiti" wistfulness). Kingston Trio? These guys had a Mosaic under their name?????

But the worst, and I mean the WORST, the one that makes me feel sorry for anyone who actually lived through this when it was popular, was "Sing Along with Mitch." Oh..... my...... LORD!!!! I started this record and the music started and I had to check to see if the turntable-belt had come loose. Not wanting to listen to any more of this than necessary, I left the room and came back to flip the record over. Towards the end of side two, I came back in to check on the recording, and my computer was literally "sputtering:" it sounded as if it was trying to lose the connection to the record player! So I quickly tried to shut down INport, and got the error message "The program has unexpectedly shut down." Translation: if you don't shut off this record NOW, I will shut down PERMANENTLY.

My gramma had a bunch of Sing Along with Mitch Miller (including one called, "Party Sing Along with Mitch." WTF???????), and so I'm curious: just what kinda scourge was this on popular music? Anyone have any permanent scars as a result of having to listen to these records? Anyone ever use these records as punishment on their kids? I might!

[Guy Berger]

Sometimes we give machines less credit than they deserve.

Guy

[marcello]

I guessing that you didn't grow up with a piano in the house for entertainment.

Pre- television Americian homes, like the one I grew up in, had a piano that people gathered around and sing songs. Even after television that kind of fun was still popular. My Mother played in a nice barrelhouse style.

Those Sing A Long records, and the T.V. Show were based on that kind of entertainment. I remember seeing that program and my people happily singing along.

[sidewinder]

"Sing Along with Mitch." Oh..... my...... LORD!!!!

but Charlie Parker liked him...

I still remember those 60s radio shows over here with Mitch Miller and his chorus. Went down well with the Mantovani etc.

Any Lawrence Welk in that stack?

Edited November 4, 2006 by sidewinder

[Big Al]

"Sing Along with Mitch." Oh..... my...... LORD!!!!

but Charlie Parker liked him...

There is that; I do like Miller's playing on that Parker w/Strings album.

Any Lawrence Welk in that stack?

Thankfully, no.

Edited November 4, 2006 by Big Al

[Big Beat Steve]

Big Al, you should be eternally grateful to your ma-in-law that she did not have any of these

MUSIC TO WATCH TELEVISION BY or

MUSIC TO COMB YOUR HAIR BY or

MUSIC TO TAKE THE DOG FOR A WALK BY LP's or whatever they were actually called ...

or those "Background Music - Music Blended To Mix Graciously With Social Gatherings" 10in LP series that Capitol did back then!

Edited November 4, 2006 by Big Beat Steve

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Here's a wonderfully laconic excerpt from "The rise and fall of popular music" by Donald Clarke, which you can read online, here:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/Rise...ll/index.htm#13

"in July 1958, Sing Along With Mitch was the number one album in the USA for eight weeks. Fourteen later male chorus singalong albums, helped by Miller’s television show, reached the top ten albums; twenty-two million were sold, and people stopped buying them only because there were so many of them in the shops that they could not remember which ones they already had."

MG

[Free For All]

I remember this one more than I'd like to admit.

[Big Al]

Kingston Trio? These guys had a Mosaic under their name?????

Uh, no, doofus: you're thinking of the Four Freshman. Sheesh!

[Big Al]

I remember this one more than I'd like to admit.

Well, I know what we're spinning at the next chat! Does Conn need a copy?

[Free For All]

I remember this one more than I'd like to admit.

Well, I know what we're spinning at the next chat! Does Conn need a copy?

Conn has the 25 CD box set. And listens to it regularly.

[(BB)]

For my Dad it's lot's of Dixieland, Doris Day some Chet Atkins and the occasional Glenn Miller.

My Father-in-law on the other hand is all country, bluegrass and folk. He has introduced me to some pretty cool stuff Dr. Watson, alot of Hank Williams, but folks like Rodger Whittaker I have the turn the volume off. I might have to draw the line if he shows up with a stack of Mitch Miller lp's.

[Randy Twizzle]

My grandmother loved him. One of my earliest memories was of sitting with her while she watched "Sing Along with Mitch." She didn't sing along because until her dying day she had trouble with the English language, but she loved MM and that's good enough for me. Of course Frank Sinatra hated Miller with a passion because he sabotaged Sinatra's Columbia recording career, but Grandma Libby didn't travel in Sinatra's circle.

[Ron S]

I remember this one more than I'd like to admit.

Well, I know what we're spinning at the next chat! Does Conn need a copy?

Conn has the 25 CD box set. And listens to it regularly.

Dude, you don't just listen to it. You sing along.

[Randy Twizzle]

Dude, you don't just listen to it. You sing along.

I think the day will soon come when people who use dude in conversation will seem as silly as those who once bought Mitch Miller records.

[GA Russell]

We didn't regularly watch the show, but I can remember singing along once to...

When you're down and out,

Lift up your head and shout.

There's going to be a great day!

Mitch had a peculiar way of directing. He stuck his elbows out, made fists of his hands, kept his hands close to his chest, and moved them abruptly to the beat up and down six inches.

[JSngry]

Dude, you don't just listen to it. You sing along.

I think the day will soon come when people who use dude in conversation will seem as silly as those who once bought Mitch Miller records.

Dude, that time has long since come, which is why I dudify with great regularity.

Hopefully the cynical irony will be lost on those for whom it is intended. Otherwise what's the point?

[(BB)]

Dude, you don't just listen to it. You sing along.

I think the day will soon come when people who use dude in conversation will seem as silly as those who once bought Mitch Miller records.

Dude, that time has long since come, which is why I dudify with great regularity.

Hopefully the cynical irony will be lost on those for whom it is intended. Otherwise what's the point?

Pardon for off topic "Dude" moment

a little clip for those that missed the movie

[Kevin Bresnahan]

When I was a kid, Mitch Miller's Christmas sing-alongs were our family favorites. They were easy to sing along with since it was about 40 guys singing at full volume. No matter how badly you sang with them, they would easily cover your boo boos.

BTW, this thread is bumming me out incredibly. In the past few years, I've burned a lot of old C&W stuff for my Dad. He was a huge Hank Williams fan. When he first asked for my help, I used to gack at some of the stuff he had me convert from LP to CD. Since his death in July, I no longer have this onerous task. I wish I still did.

[sidewinder]

When I was a kid, Mitch Miller's Christmas sing-alongs were our family favorites. They were easy to sing along with since it was about 40 guys singing at full volume. No matter how badly you sang with them, they would easily cover your boo boos.

I'm sure these made it across the Atlantic onto the BBC radio 'light' programme.

At least I have some subliminal memories of Mitch Miller singalongs from back in the day !

[brownie]

Mitch Miller and friends

[Ron S]

Dude, you don't just listen to it. You sing along.

I think the day will soon come when people who use dude in conversation will seem as silly as those who once bought Mitch Miller records.

Dude, that time has long since come, which is why I dudify with great regularity.

Hopefully the cynical irony will be lost on those for whom it is intended. Otherwise what's the point?

Word. I knew you were hip enough to dig it . . . . . . Dude.

[Big Al]

Mitch Miller and friends

Wow! Imagine how THAT record might've sounded. Seriously!

[JSngry]

I guessing that you didn't grow up with a piano in the house for entertainment.

Pre- television Americian homes, like the one I grew up in, had a piano that people gathered around and sing songs. Even after television that kind of fun was still popular. My Mother played in a nice barrelhouse style.

Those Sing A Long records, and the T.V. Show were based on that kind of entertainment. I remember seeing that program and my people happily singing along.

Well, I didn't grow up w/a piano in the house, and ours wasn't a pre-television home, but I am old enough to have witnessed the "community sing" go from a fairly commonplace event undertaken wholly un-self-consciously to a kinda creepy thing that only the old folks did to something that only really weird people did to being ran through the societal wringer of increased focus on self to be reborn as karaoke.

Really, there was the whole "follow the bouncing ball" thing in the movies/cartoons, and before that, as indicated above, people just got together and sang because it something fun to do as a group.

No love for Mitch Miller here, the shit's pretty hard to take, but I will give props to the concept, and wonder if a society that has evolved from being content with singing as a group to one where it seems that everybody, no matter how bad, now looks forward to having the stage to themself has moved in the best of all possible directions.

[Big Al]

Big Al, you should be eternally grateful to your ma-in-law that she did not have any of these

MUSIC TO WATCH TELEVISION BY or

MUSIC TO COMB YOUR HAIR BY or

MUSIC TO TAKE THE DOG FOR A WALK BY LP's or whatever they were actually called ...

or those "Background Music - Music Blended To Mix Graciously With Social Gatherings" 10in LP series that Capitol did back then!

I recently saw a whole bunch of those at the local Half-Price Books. Got a pretty giggle out of seeing them.

Well, I'm bringing the thread back up because I'm gettin' ready to sell a whole bunch of these records that used to belong to my Gramma, including all the Sing Along With Mitch records. My mother-in-law asked if I could make a whole bunch of these LPs into CD. (I gotta say right now, my Gramma took great care of her records. Some of these are in fantastic condition!)

So, tonight, while doing other things on the computer, I'm saving MORE SING ALONG WITH MITCH. My opinion hasn't changed. This stuff is coma-inducing. I've heard funeral dirges with more rhythm. I'd like to think that those who grew up in houses with a piano, their parents played something a little more high-spirited. I've tried to figure out why this stuff was so popular; maybe it was a soothing alternative to that "devil-music rock & roll."

But at least my computer survived 'em all. Maybe my computer figured the Mitch records couldn't be nearly as bad as that Loggins & Messina live record I played thru it!