Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Japan) as well. The single and album reached high positions in the international charts (a.o. The album also reached the US top 20 and went platinum, and Conniff won a Grammy. The title track of the album was written to the music of "Lara's Theme" from the film Doctor Zhivago, and was a top 10 single in the US. This group of word- not just syllable - singing singers brought him the biggest hit he ever had in his career: Somewhere My Love (1966). In 1959 he started the Ray Conniff Singers (12 women and 13 men) and released the album It's the Talk of the Town. He released many more albums in the same vein, including Dance The Bop (1957), S Marvelous (1957, gold album), S Awful Nice (1958), Concert in Rhythm (1958, gold album), Hollywood in Rhythm (1958), Broadway in Rhythm (1959), and Concert in Rhythm, Volume II (1959, gold album). In these early years he also produced some similar sounding records for Columbia's Epic label under the name of Jay Raye (which stands for "Joseph Raymond") amongst them a backing album and singles with Somethin' Smith & The Redheads, an American male vocal group.īecause of the success of his backings Mitch Miller allowed him to make his own record, and this became the successful 'S Wonderful, a collection of standards that were recorded with an orchestra and a wordless singing chorus (four men, four women). He also backed up the albums Tony by Tony Bennett, Blue Swing by Eileen Rodgers, Swingin' for Two by Don Cherry, and half the tracks of The Big Beat by Johnnie Ray. He wrote a top 10 arrangement for Don Cherry's "Band of Gold" in 1955, a single that sold more than a million copies.Īmongst the hit singles he backed with his orchestra (and eventually with a male chorus) were "Yes Tonight Josephine" and "Just Walkin' in the Rain" by Johnnie Ray "Chances Are" and "It's Not for Me to Say" by Johnny Mathis "A White Sport Coat" and "The Hanging Tree" by Marty Robbins "Up Above My Head," a duet by Frankie Laine and Johnnie Ray and "Pet Me, Poppa" by Rosemary Clooney. Army in World War II (where he worked under Walter Schumann), he was hired by Mitch Miller, then head of A & R at Columbia Records as their home arranger, and he worked with several artists, including Rosemary Clooney, Marty Robbins, Frankie Laine, Johnny Mathis, Guy Mitchell and Johnnie Ray. He studied music arranging from a course book.Īfter serving in the U.S. He was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and learned to play the trombone from his father.
Joseph Raymond Conniff (NovemOctober 12, 2002) was an American musician.
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