Ray Conniff

Singles & EPs

About Ray Conniff

Vocal pop and easy listening icon Ray Conniff was an international star with a career spanning eight decades. ∙ Conniff got his start as a trombonist and arranger in the 1930s, working with such swing-era jazz artists as Bunny Berigan, Bob Crosby, Artie Shaw, and Glen Gray. ∙ After pop producer Mitch Miller hired him as an in-house arranger at Columbia Records in 1954, Conniff contributed to hits by Don Cherry, Johnny Mathis, and Guy Mitchell. ∙ Buoyed by his success behind the scenes, he persuaded Columbia to let him record a solo album, and he debuted in 1956 with ’S Wonderful!, which spent nearly a year on the charts. ∙ He scored his first Gold album with 1957’s ’S Marvelous, and 1966’s Somewhere My Love was his first Platinum-certified LP. ∙ Conniff’s biggest hit was “Somewhere, My Love (Lara’s Theme from ‘Dr. Zhivago’),” which reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won a Grammy for Best Performance by a Chorus. ∙ In 1974, he recorded Ray Conniff in Moscow with members of local vocal ensembles, becoming the first Western pop artist to make an album in the USSR. ∙ Enamored with Latin sounds, he recorded numerous Spanish-language albums and built a large following in South America, where he continued touring regularly through the 1990s.

HOMETOWN
Attleboro, MA, United States
BORN
6 November 1916
GENRE
Pop

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