Editing Ray Conniff (section)

===The Ray Conniff Singers===
[[File:Ray Conniff (1967).png|thumb|upright=0.8|Conniff in 1967]]
In 1959, Conniff started The Ray Conniff Singers (12 women and 13 men) and released the album ''It's the Talk of the Town.''<ref name="Larkin"/> This group brought him his biggest hit: ''Somewhere My Love'' (1966). The lyrics of the album's title track were sung to the music of "[[Lara's Theme]]" from the film ''[[Doctor Zhivago (1965 film)|Doctor Zhivago]],'' and it became a US top 10 single.<ref name="Larkin"/>

The album reached the US top 20 and went platinum, and Conniff won a Grammy. The single and album also reached high positions in the international charts (a.o. Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Japan), while the first of four Christmas albums by the Singers, ''[[Christmas with Conniff]]'' (1959) was also successful.

Nearly 50 years after its release, in 2004, Conniff was posthumously awarded a platinum album/CD. Other well-known releases by the Singers included ''Ray Conniff's Hawaiian Album'' (1967), featuring the hit song "Pearly Shells," and ''Bridge Over Troubled Water'' (1970), which included Conniff's original composition "Someone", and remakes of such hits as "All I Have to Do is Dream", "I'll Never Fall in Love Again", and "Something".

Musically different highlights in Conniff's career are two albums he produced in cooperation with [[Billy Butterfield]], an old friend from earlier swing days. ''Conniff Meets Butterfield'' (1959) featured Butterfield's solo trumpet and a small rhythm group, and ''Just Kiddin' Around'' (after a Conniff original composition from the 1940s), released in 1963, which featured additional trombone solos by Ray himself. Both albums are pure light jazz and did not feature any vocals.