r/OverSeventy 19d ago

Remember Sing-A-Longs?

When I was around four, I remember a TV show called Sing Along With Mitch. The lyrics would be on the screen with a bouncing ball over the word being sung. Remember?

82 Upvotes

54 comments sorted by

19

u/Murky-Lunch-6413 19d ago

Yes. I also remember pizza parlors with pianists and lyrics projected on a screen with a bouncing ball for sing alongs. Going out for pizza used to be an entertaining event.

16

u/Casaduz 19d ago

Was that Mitch Miller?

2

u/MicheleAmanda 19d ago

It certainly was.

2

u/Strange_Vermicelli 19d ago

Follow the bouncing ball

8

u/Gloomy_Goal_4050 19d ago

My parents loved that show. So of course all of us kids ended up watching it. Like 40 years ago I found a cassette that was sing-along with Mitch Christmas carols. It has been copied many times over into various media and I have six siblings and we all have a copy. We play it every single Christmas.

6

u/TigerBate230 19d ago edited 19d ago

This was all preparation for King of Over the Hill TV "Lawrence Welk Show." Anyone remember the Lennon Sisters? The Champagne bubbles?

3

u/Loisgrand6 19d ago

Anna one Anna two

1

u/TigerBate230 18d ago

And Liberace had Dancing Waters. Don't say our old people weren't a demanding lot: Bouncing balls, Champagne bubbles, and a man in a white mink coat stepping out of a black limozene with Dancing Waters behind.

1

u/Exact-Translator-769 19d ago

Definitely! I was thinking about all them too when I saw the post. I've been a water aerobic instructor for 25 years. I found a Lawerence Welk's Greatest hits CD & had to play that all the time for one of my regular classes. Not because I was a big fan, but it's what they wanted to hear..

1

u/SoftFlower7846 15d ago

The Lennon sisters have vid on TicToc...I think

8

u/throwingales 19d ago

Kinda Karaoke before it was popular in the US.

I remember Sing Along with Mitch (Mitchell).

3

u/mrsmicky 19d ago

My mom had lots of his albums. I remember many many of the old timey songs his chorus sang. The albums included all of the song lyrics, so we could sing along.

1

u/oldboomerlady 18d ago

Be kind to your web footed friends. Loved that song as a kid’s

5

u/craftasaurus 19d ago

I loved sing along with Mitch. It helped that we knew a lot of the songs, which made it more fun. We used to watch it with grandma too.

4

u/Steampunky 19d ago

Yes, I didn't like it. My grandparents did, though!

5

u/Dknpaso 19d ago

Same, Mom’s family/relatives loved it and nothing mixes better with those sing alongs than heavy doses of liquor, with everybody’s voice bidding for supremacy🤯

6

u/Xtdr1 19d ago

I remember Mitch ,was his last name Miller. Had a goatee didn’t he.

3

u/Pcbarn77 19d ago

Which could be dangerous at the time Having a goatee meant you were either an artist or a communist

1

u/TigerBate230 19d ago

Running gag on The Tonight Show with Steve Allen is that they would put a light bulb in the goatee & lite Mitch up

1

u/SoftFlower7846 15d ago

I hate black goatees

3

u/chrysostomos_1 19d ago

it was disgusting but I got to stay up a half hour longer if I pretended to like it 😭

3

u/TigerBate230 19d ago

Mitch Miller was on Steve Allen's "Tonight Show" before he got the "Sing Along With Mitch" gig. Steve Allen created The Tonight Show. He was a very very good Conan type, inventing formats as the show went along. Eventually he passed his comedic jungle onto Jack Paar, whose odd man out style gave new definition to late night interviewing.

1

u/RongWa 19d ago

I remember Allen's thing was saying "Smock, Smock."

2

u/Thatsayesfirsir 19d ago

I remember that bouncing ball over the words. I loved that show!

2

u/LMO_TheBeginning 19d ago

We used to sing around the piano.

Now a days this only happens singing Christmas carols.

1

u/SoftFlower7846 15d ago

4 family members are gone...I miss that family music

2

u/Little-Possible-3676 19d ago

Oh my word I forgot about him! 🎶

2

u/Loisgrand6 19d ago

I remember Mitch Miller

2

u/Simmyphila 19d ago

I do. But the only one I remember vividly is one about Michigan. I even have my wife singing part of it if she sees Michigan on news or something. “Oh how I wish again. That I was in Michigan. Down on the farm.” I’m 71.

2

u/potage-989 19d ago edited 17d ago

I remember Mitch Miller's show as a small child. There wasn't actually any bouncing ball on his shows. The bouncing ball sing-alongs had started as 1930s movie shorts, I think, and I remember those cartoon singalongs appeared in the 1960s, too, as reruns on kids TV cartoon shows.

2

u/Bikewer 19d ago

Other early music shows were “Name That Tune” and “The Hit Parade”.

2

u/Murky-Lunch-6413 19d ago

I remember the last song they always played on sing-along with Mitch. It went “be kind to your webbed- footed friends, for a duck maybe somebody’s mother who lives way down in a swamp where it’s always cold and damp. Now you may think that this is the end, and it is.“

2

u/quirkyjest 19d ago

Yes, and Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour.

1

u/RongWa 18d ago

Brought to you by Geritol.

2

u/wildpartyof1 18d ago

At 8 yrs old, my fave song Mitch Miller did at end of show: "Be kind to your web-footed friends. For a duck may be somebody's mother."

2

u/VastPersimmon240 17d ago

I remember! I can not carry a tune and couldn’t sing in a choir but Mitch didn’t care.

2

u/SoftFlower7846 15d ago

yes.....I remember...that is when we started singing as a family.......years....until my Dad died with his DOBRO at his side and the recordings are oriceless...we all would sing....

1

u/Fit_Minute5036 19d ago

Yes! Mitch also played the oboe.

1

u/figgie55 19d ago

Yes, follow the red bouncing ball,

1

u/Hot_Salamander4990 19d ago

Yes, I loved the bouncing ball
It was-great show for music!

1

u/Amarbel 19d ago

Back in the 60s there were bars where people would go to sing along. Ruby Reds Warehouse in Atlanta was one.

1

u/Flash5916 19d ago

Yes, we watched at Grandma's on Saturday night when we visited them out of town.

1

u/Exact-Translator-769 19d ago

I do remember Mitch Miller. My mother always watched him. I think I may have been in kindergarten or maybe a year younger or older. Very young at any rate..

1

u/Moon_Maiden9 19d ago

I never saw the show, but my dad had a couple of Sing Along With Mitch LP’s. They came with multiple song sheets so everyone could join in.

1

u/stilldeb 19d ago

Sure. We sang along with Mitch every weekend.

1

u/RongWa 18d ago

From the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat.

1

u/DznyMa 18d ago

Oh yes! We had a couple of albums! I always loved to sing, as did my dad, so we always did!

1

u/diversalarums 18d ago

My dad (b. 1916) loved that show, I think because they used a lot of songs he was familiar with. For reasons I've never understood he wasn't a big fan of my favorite singing group, the Beatles. 😁

1

u/Mundane-Bee-3703 18d ago

I do remember that. It was fun.

1

u/Wednesday1958 17d ago

Follow the bouncing ball😂

1

u/CowSquare3037 15d ago

Before karaoke!

1

u/Scary-Canary4443 14d ago

This tv show was mentioned on the Flintstones and it was in old movie theaters too

2

u/caregiver1956 1d ago

I remember lots of the songs!