This is an update on the availability of Mitch Miller’s recording of the theme from The Guns Of Navarone.

Since I originally posted about Mitch Miller’s recording of the theme from Guns Of Navarone, I noticed that the search terms “Mitch Miller” and “Guns Of Navarone by Mitch Miller” are both among the top five search terms that lead to this blog, and that the post about Guns Of Navarone is among the top five viewed pages at StereOldie.com, so I decided to resume hunting.

I’m happy to report that the original recording of Guns Of Navarone by Mitch Miller is available on CD, but the news isn’t ALL good.

Depending on your budget and on exactly what other music you’d be interested in owning, you can find the recording on two different CD’s. That’s the good news. The bad news is, it’s not cheap either way.

A few copies of the original 1961 soundtrack recording of The Guns Of Navarone composed by Dimitri Tiomkin, which – according to the cover artwork – contains the Mitch Miller track, is available, but they are all used copies. It may be worth looking into, though, if you want to own that original soundtrack album.

The other CD I found is the more reasonably priced of the two. It’s a 2003 Japanese import on the Sony label titled Star Box Mitch Miller and containing 20 tracks of Mitch Miller & The Gang‘s hits, and includes both Guns Of Navarone and The Longest Day – another recording I’ve wanted for a long time. It’s nice to find them both on a single disc!

Star Box Mitch Miller is also available at reasonable prices (as of this writing) from Collector’s Choice and CDUniverse. CDUniverse had a few sound samples from the disc at last visit, but claimed to have only one copy available.

Last week I noted the passing of Mitch Miller in a post. I’m back with some more notes now.

I loved Mitch Miller as a kid. I remember some of my fondest memories as a pre-teen were gathering around the Zenith black-and-white television watching Sing Along With Mitch. Some of my favorite childhood songs were courtesy of my mother’s old Decca Phonograph and Mitch Miller LP’s and 45′s.

In that post I mentioned that one of my favorite songs by Mitch Miller was his rendition of the theme to the movie “The Guns Of Navarone.” The music score and the song were composed by Dimitri Tiomkin, who also composed the scores for such highly-acclaimed movies as “The High and The Mighty,” “High Noon,” and “The Alamo.”

In my post, I lamented that that original recording by Mitch Miller was apparently unavailable today in its originally recorded form. Well, I found it, and I invite you to here it, exactly as I did, in 1961. Click below and here it.

The Guns Of Navarone (Theme) by Mitch Miller The Guns Of Navarone by Mitch Miller

Get The Guns Of Navarone on DVD at Amazon.Com

More film music by Dimitri Tiomkin at Amazon.Com

Please Click Here to see the Guns Of Navarone UPDATE Post

Mitch Miller, composer, musician, conductor and leader of Mitch Miller And The Gang passed away today at the age of 99.

Mitch Miller? I know the question must be circling around up there. What’s Mitch Miller have to do with a blog about rock ‘n’ roll oldies but goodies music? The answer is really very simple.

Before I ever heard my first note of rock ‘n’ roll, I’d grown up listening to, and enjoying, the music my parents and grandparents listened to. That music included everything from big bands to opera and the pop standards of the era, including the music of Mitch Miller. I remember many evenings sitting in front of the family television watching Sing Along With Mitch, and loving the words and music of those old-time songs.

Even after I discovered rock ‘n’ roll, I didn’t lose my musical interest in the older stuff. I remember Mitch Miller getting some airplay on then-current rock ‘n’ roll and pop stations I listened to. Yes, Mitch Miller got rock ‘n’ roll airplay. That’s material for another post, though.

As a matter of coincidental fact, just a few weeks ago, I went net-shopping for some music by Mitch Miller. My brother and I had been talking about old movies we loved, and I mentioned The Guns Of Navarone back around 1962 or so. Later I remembered that one of the old LP albums I’d owned as a kid was the soundtrack from that film (composed by Dmitri Tiomkin). One of the songs on that album was the main title theme sung by Mitch Miller and the Gang! So I went searching for it.

It appears that not only is the song no longer available, but the original soundtrack album from then isn’t either. But I did find almost everything else Mitch Miller, including a couple of surprises.

For example, I found a CD called “Sing Along” which contains stereo versions of “The Yellow Rose of Texas” and “March From River Kwai/Col. Bogey.” I also found several of his albums and individual songs available as MP3 Downloads.

Mitch Miller will be missed by this long-time fan.

Please Click Here to read an UPDATE to information about the availability of Mitch Miller’s Guns Of Navarone