[78-L] More on Mitch Miller

[Cary Ginell]

I think that Mitch Miller, like any other A&R man, invoked his own personal taste on his company's recording artist roster. He hated rock 'n' roll, and despite the promise of huge sales for the genre, and refused to acknowledge it by not signing Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and others. The Marty Robbins track "A White Sport Coat" was an attempt to placate the r 'n' r crowd with softened-up arrangements. Before this, Robbins had moved from honky tonk to hard-edged rockabilly as well. Columbia did have rockabilly songs throughout the mid-to-late '50s that weren't watered down (Collins Kids, Johnny Horton, Sid King & the Five Strings), but I imagine Miller had no say in non-New York activities (all of those artists were recorded on the West coast, Texas, or elsewhere). I don't think even Ray Price was watered down yet during Miller's regime. I haven't been able to check locations for Columbia's harder-edged country recordings of the late '50s but I would venture a guess that none were done in New York under Miller. 
 
Robbins was being converted to a pop singer at the time and Ray Conniff was assigned to arrange his records in 1957 and '58. Robbins had a string of hits in this vein (including "The Story of My Life," which was the first song hit for MOR composer Burt Bacharach, "Just Married," and others) but rescued himself when he joined the "western saga" trend that hit country music, beginning in 1959 with "El Paso." Country music's descent into the abyss known as "The Nashville Sound" was temporarily aborted for the next few years with western/historically themed songs like "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" (Johnny Cash), "The Battle of New Orleans" (Johnny Horton), "Big Bad John" (Jimmy Dean), and "Tennessee Stud" (Eddy Arnold). 
 
Cary Ginell