Ray Conniff - 15210

American composer, arranger, orchestra leader and conductor. Conniff, who began his show business career as a trombonist, was hired as a house arranger with Columbia Records in 1951. He was responsible for Johnny Mathis's Chances Are, Frankie Laine's Moonlight Gambler, Johnnie Ray's Just Walking in the Rain, and Guy Mitchell's Singing the Blues. He also did arrangements for Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, and Marty Robbins. Columbia then decided to try out Conniff as a featured performer in his own right. His debut album, S'Wonderful (1956) in which he combined a chorus of four men and four women with a traditional big band mix of 18 instruments, was a huge hit, staying on Billboard's albums chart for 16 weeks. Conniff made more than 100 recordings and produced 25 top-40 albums for Columbia Records. He arranged such classics as Besame Mucho and New York, New York, in a career that spanned six decades. His most memorable song was probably Somewhere My Love. The song was adapted from French composer Maurice Jarre's Lara's Theme from the film Dr. Zhivago. It rose to the top of the pop and easy-listening charts and won Conniff a Grammy in 1966. Conniff's popularity waned with the rise of rock'n'roll but stars such as the Carpenters, Simon and Garfunkel, the Fifth Dimension, and Burt Bacharach all benefited from his arrangements. He died from a fall he suffered in a bathtub. This is a fine black and white CBS publicity photograph (6" x 3.5"), signed and inscribed ("To John, Best wishes, Ray Conniff") in blue ink. In very good condition.