Ray Conniff

Ray Conniff (born Joseph Raymond Conniff on November 6, 1916 in Attleboro, Massachusetts, USA, and died October 12 2002, Escondido, California, USA) was an American musician. He was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and learned to p

Ray Conniff (born Joseph Raymond Conniff on November 6, 1916 in Attleboro, Massachusetts, USA, and died October 12 2002, Escondido, California, USA) was an American musician. He was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and learned to play the trombone from his father. He studied music arranging from a course book.

After serving in the U.S. Army in World War II (where he worked under Walter Schumann), he was hired by Mitch Miller, then head of A & R at Columbia Records as their home arranger, and he worked with several artists, including Rosemary Clooney, Marty Robbins, Frankie Laine, Johnny Mathis, Guy Mitchell and Johnnie Ray. He wrote a top 10 arrangement for Don Cherry's "Band of Gold" in 1955, a single that sold more than a million copies.