Ray Conniff

Conniff, Ray (November 6 1916 - October 12 2002) was an American musician. He was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and learned to play the trombone from his father. He studied music arranging from a coursebook.

After he was in the army in World War II, he was hired by Mitch Miller , then head of A & R at Columbia Records as their home arranger, and he worked with several artist, among those were Rosemary Clooney, Marty Robbins, Frankie Laine, Johnny Mathis, Guy Mitchell and 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.

Amongst 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 Johnny 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" by Robbins & Ray and "Pet Me, Poppa" by Rosemary Clooney. He furthermore backed the albums "Tony" by Tony Bennett, "Blue Swing" by Eileen Rodgers, "Swingin' For Two" by Don Cherry and "The Big Beat" by Johnnie Ray.

In these years he produced parallel to the backings under his own name some similar sounding records for the Columbia label Epic Records under the name of Jay Raye, amongst them a backing album and singles with Something Smith & The Redheads, an American male vocal group.

This allowed him to make his own record, and this became the successful "'S Wonderful", a collection of famous standard songs that were recorded with an orchestra and a wordless singing chorus (4 boys, 4 girls). In the same vein he released a lot more albums, amongst them "Dance The Bop" (1957), "'S Marvellous" (1957), "'S Awful Nice" (1958), "Concert In Rhythm" (1958), "Hollywood In Rhythm" (1958), "Broadway In Rhythm" (1959), "Concert In Rhythm, Volume II" (1959),. In 1959 he started the Ray Conniff Singers (12 girls and 13 boys singing words) by releasing the album "It's The Talk Of The Town". Extraordinarily successful was the first of four Xmas albums,"Christmas With Conniff" (1959).

Musically different, but highlights in Conniff's career anyway are two albums he produced in co-operation with Billy Butterfield who was an old buddy from earlier swing days, one called "Conniff Meets Butterfield" (1960) featured Butterfield's solo trumpet and a small rhythm group, the other called "Just Kiddin' Around" (after a Conniff original composition from the 40's), released 1963, additional trombone solos by Ray himself. Both albums are pure light jazz and did not have any voices on.

Later in the 60's he produced an average of two instrumental and one vocal albums a year amongst these are: "Young At Heart" (1960), "Say It With Music (A Touch Of Latin)" (1960), "Memories Are Made Of This" (1960), "Somebody Loves Me" (1961), "'S Continental" (1961), "So Much In Love" (1962), "Rhapsody In Rhythm" (1962), "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" (1962), "The Happy Beat" (1962), "You Make Me Feel So Young" (1963), "Speak To Me Of Love" (1963), "Friendly Persuasion" (1964), "Invisible Tears" (1964), "Love Affair" (1965), "Music From Mary Poppins, The Sound Of Music, My Fair Lady & Other Great Movie Themes" (1965), "Here We Come A-Caroling" (1965), "Happiness Is" (1965), "Ray Conniff's World Of Hits" (1966), "En Español" (1966), "This Is My Song" (1967), "Hawaiian Album" (1967), "It Must Be Him" (1967), "Honey" (1968), "Turn Around Look At Me" (1968), "I Love How You Love Me" (1968), "Live Europa Tournee 1969" (1969), "Jean" (1969), "Concert In Stereo - Live At The Sahara Tahoe" (1969), "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (1970), "We've Only Just Begun" (1970), "Love Story" (1970), "Great Contemporary Instrumental Hits" (1971), "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing" (1971), "Love Theme From 'The Godfather'" (1972), "Alone Again (Naturally)" (1972), "I Can See Clearly Now" (1972), "Ray Conniff In Britain" (1973), "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" (1973), "Harmony" (1973), "The Way We Were" (1973), "The Happy Sound Of Ray Conniff" (1974), "Ray Conniff In Moscow" (1974), "Laughter In The Rain" (1975), "Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong" (1975), "Love Will Keep Us Together" (1975), "I Write The Songs" (1975), "Live In Japan" (1975), "Send In The Clowns" (1976), "Theme From SWAT And Other TV Themes" (1976), "After The Lovin'" (1976), "Exitos Latinos" (1977), "Ray Conniff Plays The Bee Gees And Other Great Hits" (1978), "I Will Survive" (1979), "The Perfect 10 Classics" (1980), "Exclusivamente Latino" (1980), "Siempre Latino" (1981), "The Nashville Connection" (1982), "Musik Für Millionen" (1982), "Amor Amor" (1982), "Fantastico" (1983), "Supersonico" (1984), "Campeones" (1985), "Say You, Say Me" (1986), "30th Anniversary Edition" (1986), "Always In My Heart" (1987), "Interpreta 16 Exitos De Manuel Alejandro" (1988), "Ray Conniff Plays Broadway" (1990), "'S Always Conniff" (1991), "Latinisimo" (1993), "40th Anniversary" (1995), "Live In Rio (aka Mi Historia)" (1997), "I Love Movies" (1997), "My Way" (1998), "'S Country" (1999), "'S Christmas" (1999), "Do Ray Para O Rei" (2000).

Between 1957 and 1968, he had 28 albums in the American Top 40, the most famous one being "Somewhere my love"(1966). The title track of the album (also called "Lara's Theme") was written for the film Doctor Zhivago (1965), and was a top 10 single in the US. The album reached the Top 20 too.

He topped the album list in Britain in 1969 with "His Orchestra, His Chorus, His Singers, His Sound". He also was the first American popular artist to record in Russia - in 1974 he recorded "Ray Conniff in Moscow" with help of a local choir. His later albums like "Exclusivamente Latino", "Amor Amor" and "Latinisimo" made him very popular in Latin-American countries.

Ray Conniff sold about 70 million albums worldwide and continued performing until his death in 2002. He is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.