00:00Bing Crosby was among the most important singers in the history of American popular music.
00:07His bass baritone was immediately recognizable on even his earliest pop-chazz recordings.
00:16His relaxed, crooning style influenced just about every white pop singer who came after
00:22him, including Elvis Presley, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin.
00:30Fortunately, Crosby's early career coincided with the development of the microphone and
00:36electronic recordings.
00:38The jazz singers who preceded him were required to shout and project their vocal performances,
00:45whereas Crosby's softer crooning delivery could be amplified with microphones and heard
00:52amid the din of a band.
00:55Crosby was born Harry Crosby in Tacoma, Washington in 1903.
01:01His brother Bob Crosby would also become a notable jazz figure.
01:06In the summer of 1917, while witnessing a performance by Al Jolson in Spokane, Washington, Crosby was
01:14bitten by the music bug and decided that a career in music was for him.
01:21In 1923, Crosby formed a band with some high school chums called the Music Allelers, featuring
01:29himself on vocal and drums.
01:32The band played shows in clubs and at high school dances.
01:36After two years, the band broke up, and in 1925, Crosby's musical connections led him
01:43to Paul Whiteman, the leader of the most successful jazz orchestra in America.
01:49By 1926, Whiteman had hired Crosby.
01:53Crosby would eventually be featured in Whiteman's touring band, with two other singers as the Rhythm
02:00Boys.
02:01As one of the Whiteman fold, Crosby would work with some of the best white jazz musicians
02:06in the country, including Big Spiderbeck, Jack Teagarden, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, and
02:14Eddie Lang.
02:16Crosby's magnetic voice quickly made him the star of the Rhythm Boys, and he would record
02:22a number one pop single with the Whiteman Orchestra with Old Man River in 1928.
02:30Eventually, Crosby's love of alcohol, in good times, put him at odds with Whiteman, and
02:36he left Whiteman with the Rhythm Boys to join the Gus Arnheim Orchestra.
02:41While, with Arnheim, the two singers in the Rhythm Boys were increasingly pushed out of
02:47the spotlight, leading to inevitable bitterness and the eventual dissolution of the trio.
02:54Crosby was now on his own, but by 1931, he had signed a recording deal with Brunswick
03:01Records and a performance deal with CBS Radio.
03:05Crosby performed for 15 minutes every week on CBS, giving him a national audience for
03:11the material he had recorded for Brunswick.
03:15The songs Out of Nowhere, At Your Command, and Just One More Chance all became huge hits
03:22for Crosby in 1931.
03:26As the 30s progressed, Crosby would become the leading singer in America, placing more hits
03:32on the charts than any other singer.
03:35He also made the transition to movie star, appearing in a number of short musical films by director
03:43Max Sennett.
03:45He signed a new recording deal with Decca Records and appeared in his first full-length film,
03:51The Big Broadcast, in 1932.
03:56Crosby would ultimately appear in 79 films.
04:00During World War II, Crosby was one of the most dedicated of the performers who traveled
04:06into the European theater of war to entertain American troops.
04:12Crosby's dedication to the fighting men did not go unnoticed and only served to increase
04:18his popularity.
04:20On Christmas Day 1941, Crosby introduced what would become his most famous song, White Christmas,
04:27in a radio broadcast.
04:29By the following year, Crosby had recorded the song, and that recording of White Christmas
04:34went on to become the biggest-selling single in recording history, with worldwide sales
04:40of over 100 million copies.
04:44After a career that lasted for more than 50 years, Crosby collapsed and died of a heart
04:49attack while playing golf in Spain in 1977.
04:54Of the myriad of Bing Crosby collections available, the multi-volume The Chronological Bing Crosby
05:01from 1999 is the most comprehensive, being his legendary years 1931-1957 from 1993 and Gold from 2008,
05:15are also worthy collections of Crosby songs.
05:20of the
Comments