Mitch Miller, music innovator and host of Sing Along With Mitch,' dies at 99

Miller died Saturday after a short illness at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said his daughter, Margaret Miller Reuther. He made a career switch from playing to producing in the late 1940s by becoming A&R (artists and repertoire) director at Mercury Records, a small label that he turned into a major force in the industry.

Miller strongly disagreed with Sinatra's accusations then - and continued to do so decades later.

"When I came to Columbia, he was already at the nadir of his career," Miller told the Chicago Tribune in 1987. "He had lost his television show, he had lost his movie contract, he was chasing after Ava (Gardner), he was behind in his income taxes. In short, his records would not sell, his voice was gone."


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