Sing Along With Mitch  - During the 1950s record producer Mitch Miller, choosing not to go along with the popular rock and roll movement of the times, introduced a series of  "Sing Along" recordings of old standard favorites and printed their lyrics on the album jackets so that the listener could read and sing along with the music. Mitch's success led him to television, first on a FORD STARTIME special in May 1960 and followed by the musical variety program SING ALONG WITH MITCH/NBC/1961-64. The program featured vocalists Carolyn Conway, Gloria Lambert, Barbara McNair, Louise O'Brien, Sandy Stewart, Diana Trask, and Leslie Uggams, as well as the Sing-Along Gang and the Sing-Along Kids. who performed such popular songs as "You Are My Sunshine," "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home" and "Goodnight Sweetheart" and "The Yellow Rose of Texas." Throughout the program, the goateed Mitch Miller waved his musical baton and encouraged the viewers at home to "follow the bouncing ball" that jumped over the words of the songs superimposed on the bottom of the TV screens at home. A few years earlier the music show SING ALONG/CBS/1958 hosted by Jim Lowe used a similar Sing-Along formula. 

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The Yellow Rose of Texas

(Follow the Bouncing Ball)

There's a yellow rose in Texas, that I am going to see,
Nobody else could miss her, not half as much as me.
She cried so when I left her, it like to broke my heart,
And if I ever find her, we nevermore will part.

She's the sweetest little rosebud that Texas ever knew,
Her eyes are bright as diamonds, they sparkle like the dew;
You may talk about your Clementine, and sing of Rosalee,
But the yellow rose of Texas is the only girl for me.

When the Rio Grande is flowing, the starry skies are bright,
She walks along the river in the quiet summer night:
I know that she remembers, when we parted long ago,
I promise to return again, and not to leave her so.

She's the sweetest little rosebud that Texas ever knew,
Her eyes are bright as diamonds, they sparkle like the dew;
You may talk about your Clementine, and sing of Rosalee,
But the yellow rose of Texas is the only girl for me.

Oh now I'm going to find her, for my heart is full of woe,
And we'll sing the songs together, that we sung so long ago
We'll play the bango gaily, and we'll sing the songs of yore,
And the yellow rose of Texas shall be mine forevermore.

She's the sweetest little rosebud that Texas ever knew,
Her eyes are bright as diamonds, they sparkle like the dew;
You may talk about your Clementine, and sing of Rosalee,
But the yellow rose of Texas is the only girl for me.