It’s hard to have any respect for Mitch Miller. Even without the bouncing ball, the guy was a malevolent presence as head of A&R at Columbia Records after 1950. He hated both jazz and rock and roll, referring to the latter as “musical baby food” and a symbol of the “worship of mediocrity.”

Mitch Miller in his hey day. He hated both jazz and rock, passed on Elvis and Buddy Holly.

Miller passed on both Elvis and Buddy Holly. He wouldn’t have been the guy to sign Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen or Janis Joplin to the label. His own taste, despite a background as a classical oboist, was for inane (but frequently bestselling) novelty numbers. He made both Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra record junk, and earned the ever-lasting enmity of both. After their unhappy association had ended, Miller saw Sinatra on the street in Vegas and extended his hand. Sinatra reportedly replied: “Fuck you, just keep walking.”

But here’s an odd thing. In Tony Bennett’s new book Life is a Gift, he recounts some experiences with Miller around the 1951 recording of his hit version of Hank Williams'”Cold, Cold Heart.”

“Mitch really didn’t like jazz,” Bennett writes. “He didn’t care for Duke or Count Basie, and when I came to the label, I was a jazz singer.” The pair had a tense relationship, so Bennett was disinclined when Miller brought in “Cold, Cold Heart.”

“If I have to tie you to a tree, you’re going to do it,” Miller reportedly said, emphasizing that this hick country song had beautiful lyrics. Bennett recorded it, of course, and it reached number one. (Miller had a lot of hits by consistently underestimating the taste of the American people.)

But here’s the kicker: Bennett writes that after “Cold, Cold Heart” hit big “Hank’s songs caught on everywhere.” Williams was even said to play Bennett’s version for friends–why not, he made a mint from it. So are we to believe that the successful career of this sublime pioneer of country music is owed to a New York-based hack with no real interest in the genre? Could well be.