RIP: Mitch Miller

A class act all the way, Mitch Miller died on Saturday at 99. I honestly did not know he was still alive all these years.

Mitch Miller was the guy who showed everybody how to be a producer," said Tony Bennett—probably the greatest of the late musician-producer-conductor's "discoveries"—in 1989. Speaking metaphorically, Mr. Bennett elaborated: "When Mitch had a cigar and a beard, everybody else had to have a cigar and a beard."

The roles played by Miller, who died Saturday at age 99, were many: As a woodwind player and conductor, he collaborated with George Gershwin, Charlie Parker, Igor Stravinsky, Leopold Stokowski and Frank Sinatra. As a pop star in his own right, he became the face of the sing-along craze of the early '60s through a series of bestselling albums and a long-running TV series.

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