Trivia

Won a Grammy Award for his recording of theDoctor Zhivago (1965)theme, "Somewhere My Love".

He released more than 100 recordings and produced twenty-five Top-40 albums for Columbia Records, and his recordings included renderings of New York, New York, 'S Wonderful, and Besame Mucho.

Composer, trombone player and bandleader, who had many hit records with his easy listening style of music.

In one of his last appearances, he performed "Somewhere My Love" at the wedding ofDavid GestandLiza Minnelliin March 2002.

Father ofTamara Conniff.

His musical background was gained from the gift of having musically-trained parents. His father, a trombone player, led a local band while his mother played the piano, and the young Ray followed in his parents' footsteps, eventually becoming more successful than the family could have ever dreamed. Conniff led a band while in high school. He moved to Boston and began playing with Dan Murphy's Musical Skippers. He then moved to New York during the swing era in the mid-1930s, where he found a job playing and arranging for Berigan in 1937. By 1939, he moved to Hollywood to joinBob Crosby's Bobcats.

The Ray Conniff Orchestra and Singers epitomized the lounge-singing style of the 1950s and 1960s with a mix of wordless vocal choruses and light orchestral accompaniment.

He is also credited with being at the forefront, if not the outright inventor of, a pop genre either critically lauded or loathed as "Easy Listening." As a result, his popularity waned with the rise of rock 'n' roll, but stars such asPaul SimonandArt Garfunkel,The CarpentersandBurt Bacharach benefited from his arrangements.

The album, 'S Wonderful, stayed on the Top 20 charts for nine months.

Had two top-40 singles, both on Columbia Records, in 1965: "Invisible Tears" and "Lara's Theme" (Somewhere, My Love) fromDoctor Zhivago (1965).

April 23, 1956, he leads his orchestra for the American version of the French song "Donnez-moi tout ça" which was written in 1955 byHenri Betti(music) andAndré Hornez(lyrics). The English lyrics were written byWilliam Engvickand the title song became "Give Me More". The recording took place in New York and the song was sung byDon Cherry.