TIN-PAN ALLEY: The Sing-Alongs

Enrico Caruso and the phonograph drove the parlor tenor to the bathtub. Now Columbia Records’ Mitch Miller is trying to lure him out from behind his shower curtain. Miller, a now inaudible oboist who is nonplaying captain of Columbia’s pop musicians, worked up a gimmick just corny enough to click: a chorus of 28 men singing simple, slow arrangements of the old, golden songs, and an album-jacket invitation to listeners to join in the schmalz.

The first album, Sing Along with Mitch, was a rousing bestseller when it came out 15 months ago. The 28 choristers, picked from a local aviary of singing commercialists, managed to sound like so many lonesome Kiwanians mooning by the banks of the Budweiser. The words were easy to understand—for good measure, they were printed on the jacket—and the repertory never got far from the old millstream. By last week, Columbia and Conductor Miller had issued five more albums, and the sing-along series had sold an astounding 1,750,000 copies.

Whether anyone actually sings along with the sing-along albums probably does not bother bearded Idea Man Miller. It is a little difficult to picture the sentimental householder warming up his woofer, dusting off his diamond needle, and joining in for an evening of mooed music. More likely, the nation’s mature citizens are merely striking back at rock ‘n’ roll, buying the sing-alongs because they like listening to simple, straight songs.

Whatever the reason, Columbia has one set of listeners singing along in earnest—its competitors at RCA Victor. By last week, Victor had three imitations in the stores, lavish albums lined with paper that looks like the kind used for $20 bills. Hum and Strum Along with Chet Akins, the Robert Shaw Chorale’s Stephen Foster Song Book, and Words and Music with the Ames Brothers include booklets giving not only the words but also piano or ukulele and guitar chords.

As A. & R. men congratulate one another, a worrier may still brood. Now that an evening of parlor singing can be bought at a record store, eliminating the need for any actual singing in the parlor, why not a night’s recorded conversation, eliminating the need to talk? Possible titles: Sneer Along with Mort Sahl, Rant and Rave with Senator Eastland, Analyze with Famous Freudian and Moan and Groan with Joseph Alsop.