Mitch Miller is a considered by the Wikipedia kids to be a controversial figure in music's past, but I like to think of him as the guy with the red bouncing ball. Yep, that's Mitch--his television show "Sing Along with Mitch" used the animated bouncing ball to guide viewers in group sing-alongs. He also coined the phrase "All smiles", solidifying his reign as the "king of camp" years before Susan Sontag ever invented the term.

Check out two very scratched tracks from my mom's childhood:

1. "My Melancholy Baby" - Mitch Miller and the Gang
2. "The Anniversary Song" - Mitch Miller and the Gang

From Wikipedia:
As head of artists & repertory at Mercury Records in the late forties, and Columbia Records in the fifties and early sixties, Miller gained a reputation for creating records that created what music historian Will Friedwald calls an "aural texture":

"Miller also conceived of the idea of the pop record 'sound' per se: not so much an arrangement or a tune, but an aural texture (usually replete with extramusical gimmicks) that could be created in the studio and then replicated in live performance, instead of the other way around. Miller was hardly a rock 'n' roller, yet without these ideas there could never have been rock 'n' roll. 'Mule Train,' Miller's first major hit (for Frankie Laine) and the foundation of his career, set the pattern for virtually the entire first decade of rock. The similarities between it and, say, 'Leader of the Pack,' need hardly be outlined here."

1. "Mission Inside" - The Larry Schaffer Orchestra

2. "Mission Outside" - The Larry Schaffer Orchestra

3. "Mission Impossible" - The Larry Schaffer Orchestra

This is the Larry Schaffer Orchestra version of the soundtrack--not the LP by Lalo Schifrin. The entire album is packed with great espionage-inspired jazz and rather sophisticated orchestra arrangements. Googling indicates that this album is somewhat rare. One collecter calls it "a rare gem."

So, what are you waiting for? Grab a martini and make like Holly GoLightly.