Ray Conniff - Biography
By J Poet
Ray Conniff, the Grammy winning producer, arranger, conductor, band leader and recording artist, is sometimes disparaged as “the Father of Muzak,” because his easy on the ears arrangements were often used for background music in the 50s and 60s, but his pop arrangements for singers created some of the most memorable pop hits of the early 50s including Don Cherry’s "Band Of Gold,” Johnnie Ray’s “Just Walking In The Rain,” Guy Mitchell’s light rock “Singing The Blues,” country singer Marty Robbins’s first pop hit “A White Sport Coat” and early million selling Johnny Mathis standards like “Chances Are,” “Wonderful, Wonderful,” and “It's Not For Me To Say.” Although his style of dreamy pop feel out of favor with record buyers by the mid 60s, he charted 28 albums in the late 50s and 60s, and continued an active recording and touring career until his death in 2002, often turning out three or more albums a year.
Conniff was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts to a musical family. His father was the bandleader and trombonist of the Jewelry City Band; his mother played the piano. He picked up trombone in high school and started a dance band with his classmates. After graduation he moved to Boston and played with Dan Murphy’s Musical Skippers, but he headed for New York shortly thereafter to study at the Juilliard School of Music.
Between classes, Conniff jammed in New York’s nightclubs and was soon hired by Bunny Berigan as a performer, but more importantly as his arranger. In 1939 Bob Crosby heard him and hired him away for his Bobcats. Artie Shaw stole him away from Crosby in 1940; Conniff was already known as a first class soloist and fine arranger. He joined Glen Gray’s Casa Loma Orchestra shortly before he was drafted in 1941.
Conniff was stationed in Hollywood and spent the war years with the Army band and arranging music for the Armed Forces Radio Services. He also played part time with the Harry James Orchestra. James hired him as an arranger when Conniff was discharged in 1946. With be-bop replacing swing in the early 50s, Conniff dropped out. He didn’t like the new music, and spent his time putting together theories about what made a perfect pop record. In 1954 he met Mitch Miller, head of A&R at Columbia Records. Miller hired him and his first arrangement for the label, Don Cherry’s “Band Of Gold,” went appropriately gold. He followed that with arrangements that took Guy Mitchell’s “Singing The Blues” and Johnny Mathis’s “Chances Are” to #1 on the pop charts.
His arrangements used female backing voices to double the melody lines of clarinets, high saxophones, and trumpets, and male voices to double the trombones and saxophones. The result was a pop sound that imbued his arrangements with a lush, romantic sound. His debut album, 's Wonderful (1957 Columbia, 1990 Columbia) went gold and stayed on the charts for nine months. The wordless vocals and smooth arrangements of classic pop tunes made it a favorite with would be swingers and he followed up with 's Marvelous (1958 Columbia, 1990 Columbia) and 's Awful Nice (1958 Columbia, 1990 Columbia) which stayed on the charts for a year. Concert in Rhythm, Vol. 1 (1958 Columbia, 1992 Columbia), featured classical pieces by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff given the pop treatment. It went gold as did its follow up, Concert in Rhythm, Vol. 2 (1959 Columbia, 1992 Columbia.) In 1959 The Ray Conniff Orchestra and Singers were the most programmed orchestra on the radio.
Conniff stayed on the charts with Rhapsody in Rhythm (1962 Columbia, 1992 Columbia), 's Continental (1962 Columbia, 1992 Columbia), We Wish You a Merry Christmas (1962 Columbia, 2000 Columbia), Friendly Persuasion (1965 Columbia, 2001 Columbia), Love Affair (1965 Columbia, 1995 Columbia), Happiness Is … (1966 Columbia, 1996 Columbia) and Somewhere, My Love (1962 Columbia, 2008 Columbia), which featured “Lara's Theme” from the Dr. Zhivago soundtrack. It won a Grammy in 1966 for Best Performance by a Chorus and the album eventually went platinum.
His other best selling albums from the 60s included: En Espanol! (1967 Columbia), Ray Conniff's Hawaiian Album (1967 Columbia, 1996 Columbia), This Is My Song (1967 Columbia), Honey (1968 Columbia), It Must Be Him (1968 Columbia), Turn Around Look at Me (1968 Columbia, 2002 Collectables ), I Love How You Love Me (1969 Columbia, 2002 Collectables) and Jean (1969 Columbia, 2002 Collectables.)
In the late 1960s, Conniff, a hi-fi buff, toured the United States and Europe with his Orchestra and Chorus presenting a series of live concerts in three-channel stereo sound, the first live stereo concerts ever. The excitement is captured on Concert in Stereo: Live at the Sahara Tahoe (1970 Columbia.)
After We've Only Just Begun (1970 Columbia,2002 Collectables), Love Story (1971 Columbia, 2002 Collectables), Alone Again (Naturally) (1972 Columbia, 2004 Collectables), I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (1972 Columbia) and The Way We Were (1974 Columbia, 2002 Collectables) Conniff adapted his sound to accommodate his growing interest in Latin and Brazilian music.
He toured more in Latin America, in particular Brazil, during his later days, and kept up a steady stream of albums like: Ray Conniff Interpreta 16 Exitos de Manuel Alejandro (1978 Sony Discos, 1990 Sony Discos), Exclusivamente Latino (1980 Sony Discos), Amor, Amor, Amor (1984 Sony Discos), Campeones (1985 Sony Discos), Supersonico (1989 Sony Discos, 1990 Sony Discos), Siempre Latino (1990 Sony Discos), Wonderful (1991 Sony Discos), Latinisimo (1993 Sony Discos), and Personalidad (1996 Sony Discos.) His one hundredth album, I Love Movies (1997 T.H. Rodven) was on a small Latin label out of Florida, but he was soon picked up Abril Music of Brazil, now a division of Universal Music International. He made annual tours of Brazil and cut Live in Rio (1997 Polydor), 's Christmas (1999 Abril), 's Country (1999 Abril) and Do rey para o Rei (2000 Abril.)
In March 2002, Conniff performed his greatest hit, “Somewhere My Love” at the wedding of Liza Minnelli and David Gest. Shortly thereafter, he had a stroke but recovered fully. He was planning another tour of Brazil when he died after accidentally falling down at his home in Escondido, California in October 2002. He was 85 years old.