As promised, though slow in coming, a little more Bing for ya! Bing Crosby is the premier male vocalist of ever, and don't let anyone try to tell you otherwise. Unfortunately, his fame nowadays is mostly around Christmas time, but Bing Crosby is definitely an all-year-round kinda guy. Every music collection should have a little of Der Bingle. Face it: having the Rat Pack on the jukebox makes you classy. Can't really argue with that. Having Bing on there? Makes you a classy motherfucker with good taste. A little bit on how awesome Mr Crosby was-
One of the first multimedia stars, from 1934 to 1954 Bing Crosby held a nearly unrivaled command of record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses. He is cited among the most popular musical acts in history and is currently the most electronically recorded human voice in history.
Crosby is also credited as being the major inspiration for most of the male singers of the era that followed him, including Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Dean Martin. Yank magazine recognized Crosby as the person who had done the most for American G.I. morale during World War II and, during his peak years, around 1948, polls declared him the "most admired man alive," ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII.
Also during 1948, the Music Digest estimated that Crosby recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music. Clarinetist Artie Shaw described Crosby as "the first hip white person born in the United States" [source].
This tracklist has a lot of famous standards that are essential listening, including "Birth of the Blues," "Along the Santa Fe Trail," and "Yes, Indeed!" one of my favorites. The disc is off a wonderful collection that C got for Christmas a few years ago, and at $25 for three discs of great music it's not a bad purchase at all. I've never seen it in stores; I believe it's a UK product, but it is available through amazon.com.
2 comments:
tis actually a 4 disker, rather than 3. This is one of my favorite cds of all time ever ever ever ever. Those songs you mentioned are prolly my favorites; I also like "Mister Meadowlark" considerably. And "Sunday, Monday, or Always." Cos Bing is da man. Der Bingle. da bomb. I'm gonna stop now.
cept this from wiki: "I used to tell (Sinatra) over and over," said Tommy Dorsey, "there's only one singer you ought to listen to and his name is Crosby. All that matters to him is the words, and that's the only thing that ought to for you, too."
b--
You're absolutely right that Bing should be a year-round feature on everybody's playlist...my current all-time favorite is "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You" - it's been on my seven out of my last nine mixtapes! ...and thanks for the share!!
...love the Walter Brennan photos, that Life resource is so much fun...and thanks for the valantine nudge, I was letting it creep up on me and I have a few themed posts I want to finish - the first one went up today.
--ken
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