A big band leader and composer who grew into a smooth, easy listening, lounge
crooner, Ray Conniff released over 100 albums, sold 70 million records and
became dubbed the "Godfather of Muzak". Taught to play trombone by his father
and piano by his mother as a child, Conniff started out playing with Bunny
Berigan's Orchestra and Bob Crosby's Bobcats in the 1940s before becoming an
in-house arranger for Columbia Records in 1951. He wrote Don Cherry's
million-selling single Band Of Gold and led his orchestra on hits by Johnny
Mathis, Frankie Laine and Johnnie May, before striking ou...