Conniff, Ray (8th
November 1916-12th October 2002)
He was a musician and
orchestra leader born Joseph Raymond Conniff in Attleboro,
Massachusetts.He was taught the trombone by his
father and he used a book to study music arrangement.He served in the US Army in WWII
under Walter Schumann and after the war he was hired as a home arranger by
Mitch Miller of Columbia Records.He worked with many artists of the time and his own orchestra backed
many hit singles including "Just Walkin'
in the Rain", "A White Sport Coat" and "Chances
Are".His first
recordings were done under the name of Jay Raye
but because of his success Mitch Miller let him cut his own album S Wonderful.He released many albums in the 1950s
and started the Ray Conniff Singers in 1959, who
brought him success and a Grammy Award with "Somewhere My Love"
in 1966.Between 1957 and 1968
there were 28 albums of his in the American Top 40 and he was the first
popular American artist to record in Russia.He has sold 70-million albums
worldwide and continued to perform up until his death at 85 in Escondido,
California on 12th October 2002.
