What's the deal with Bing Crosby anyway?

Well, it's been my experience that most people under the age of 70 have never heard any of Bing's mid-to-late 1930s recordings... and that's where he was at his artistic peak. Aside from his vocal innovations, which include being perhaps the first white singer to ever "scat," in my opinion he simply had a finer instrument than Sinatra or Bennett.

Most agree that we have Bing's longtime producer Jack Kapp to thank for both his ascent to superstardom and his descent into, well, averageness. The two were inextricably linked -- Kapp little by little convinced Bing to tame his vocal idiosyncracies into the somewhat bland "everyman" voice that was in part responsible for his stratospheric success. Sinatra once said that part of Bing's secret was that, "he made you think you could do it, too. Every time [he] sang, it was a duet, and you were the other singer."

During the 1930s and into the very early 1940s, Bing had this odd, throaty, resonant timbre to his voice, different from any singer I've ever heard. Really... can you think of any other singer that sounds anything like Bing? I've heard singers that sound very similar to Sinatra -- Steve Lawrence comes to mind -- but I can't think of one other singer whose voice sounds even similar to Bing's.

And his RANGE during those peak years -- my God, you should hear his recording of "Lift Up Your Hearts/Adeste Fideles/Stabat Mater" from one of the Jonzo CDs. Simply one of the most beautiful male vocal performances I've ever heard. It's from one of the few existing 78rpm copies (it was a charity single), and is almost drowning in background noise, but there's no disguising that voice. I wish I could describe the tone, because if all you've heard is his 1940s recordings, then you've never heard it -- he'd lost it by the early 1940s. It was this nasal, throaty, resonant, whiny... I don't know how to describe it, but it was gorgeous. It's also in evidence on his original 1930s recording of "Home on the Range," which he performed not as the campy, uptempo number we're all used to, but as a mournful, operatic ballad. Many Crosby aficionados regard it as the single finest recording of his career.

I'm a member of the International Crosby Circle, and have roughly 80-100 Bing Crosby CDs. Let's see, what would I recommend as a starter? Probably the UK 2-disc import from the Jasmine label, "The Top Fifty of His Many Greatest Hits." It's comprised of every one of his singles to make the top two on the charts (except one) from 1931 to 1948, until he started recording on tape, all mastered from generally excellent quality 78s. The sound is very good, for the most part, though there are a couple alternate takes on there. It's very reasonably priced as well. That plus MCA's "Bing's Gold Records" would actually make a very nice Bing Crosby collection.

 

he couldnt play the zither!

 

Check out "High Society", the recent DVD. A great musical that includes music from Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, and a great number with a lot of Jazz greats of the time called "Now You Has Jazz". This is not "Classic Bing", but it's a nice peek at the man.

There was supposed to be a DVD-A of this soundtrack.......the 5.1 mix of the music on the DVD is pretty nice!

 

Brian,
I might disagree, subjectively, on a few points--like Sinatra/Bing--and my liking the earlier, pre-1935 Crosby stuff best--
But as a big fan of Crosby I'd still have to say he misses the scat innovation by a few years.
First scat seems to be Cliff Edwards with in an Original Memphis Five disguise (as Ladd's Black Aces) in 1922 (recording 'Virginia Blues' on 25 Feb)--and emerging full bore with it in recordings during autumn 1922 with Memphis Five/Bailey's Lucky Seven (esp. 'Homesick').
I think there is one even earlier scat-like recording from someone else in 1917--but Edwards seems to be the first to do it consistently, as a 'style'.
Mark

 

Bing rocks! A terrific vocalist and, as someone who used to sing, a terrific "coach." I don't think anyone before or since has had the ability he had to add a personal, often playful, style to anything he sang. It always sounds like Bing is having a good time, which sometimes masks how good his singing really is.

"And singing with David Bowie was almost unreal-Bowie has said that they also taped a duet of "Scary Monsters" together but it went unaired. So Bing always tried to reach out to the youth, whether by marketing concerns or genuine feeling, I don't know, but it turned out better than many old hipsters who try it."

I would pay big bucks to see/hear that--- to hear Der Bingle do "Now she's stupid on the streets and she cannot socialize"-- too much!

 

I'm sure you're right. Cliff rocks, too. My brother copied me a CD with some Cliff Edwards tracks on it, and I thought he was awesome.

But as far as subjective things go, I have never liked Sinatra's voice. Now, I'm not talking about what he can do with it, or how he delivered a song, I just mean the voice itself I've never particularly cared for. I'm know I'm in the minority on that, but...

 

Brian,
That scat question is probably like lots of others: lots of right answers depending on exactly how the question is framed: definition of scat, recording vs performing, etc....

Well, I am a fan of both guys--and would hate to be asked to choose!

Thanks for the '30's "Home on the Range" mention--don't think I've ever even heard that one.

Re the question that started the thread, a few more numbers (thanks to Giddins book):
1) Crosby made more studio recordings than any singer (c. 400 more than Sinatra)
2) Had the most #1 hits: 38 (Beatles next at 24).
3) Between 1927 and 1962 charted 368 records--plus 28 as band vocalist--for 396 (compare Sinatra at 209, Elvis at 149).

Mark

 

With all due respect to Mr. Crosby's popularity, artistry and achievements, Gary Giddins' source for Bing's chart hits was Whitburn's vile, completely fabricated chart book Pop Memories. Record popularity charts didn't begin until World War II, and only then as a guide to help coin-ops buy the shellac that juke box patrons wanted to hear.

Whitburn's book is the kudzu of popular music research. Its erroneous "chart" information keeps surfacing in credible music histories and has done more irreparable damage than all of Jerry Osborne's books combined.

 

Look at where Bing is on this list:100 Greatest Traditional Pop Vocalists Kind of a questionable list (as most of these lists are) For instance, I don't know what the heck Barbra Streisand is doing at #3 or what Judy Garland is doing at #6.

 

Popularity?

 

Not with me!

 

I agree to a point... I don't know if I'd call it "vile" and "COMPLETELY fabricated." But, yes, most of the pre-June 1940 info is Whitburn's estimation of what the charts MIGHT have looked like, if they had existed prior to then.

But you're not exactly correct about record popularity charts not existing until World War II. It's true that a merged, rank-order, individual-record chart did not exist till July of 1940... but monthly record bestseller charts, divided by record label, had existed since at least 1929.

I don't think there's anything wrong with Whitburn compiling his own estimated chart for the pre-1940 era -- he's fairly up-front about his methodology in the forward to the book -- but I agree that it is maddening sometimes that most people think it's some official "top 40 chart."

His biggest mistake in both "Pop Memories" and "Pop Hits: 1940-1954" was continuing to list songs that hit the top of the Billboard's Record Buying Guide as #1 hits, when the Guide was no longer in rank order after September of 1939. After that, the top position on the Record Buying Guide simply meant that was the OLDEST song remaining on the chart, not the current most popular tune. So in "Pop Memories," he lists songs like Sammy Kaye's "Dream Valley" as #1 hits, when in fact it never got anywhere near #1.

Also, I personally own photocopies of the original Variety singles charts of the 1930s, and I'm puzzled in a couple of instances as to why Whitburn listed a particular recording of a song as the biggest hit version. (For example, the biggest-selling version of "These Foolish Things Remind Me Of You" was clearly by Carroll Gibbons, not Benny Goodman, whose version Whitburn lists as being a #1 hit... but he only ranks Gibbons' at #8!)

So back to Bing... We don't know for sure how many hits he had prior to June of 1940, but aside from Whitburn's book, just from my looking at those original Variety record label bestseller charts, he had a LOT.

 

Pop Memories

I probably should have said Billboard chart -- I wasn't aware of the Variety tabulations.

As you can tell, I get extremely angry when I see a writer draw upon Whitburn's bogus data in Pop Memories as a source. Some methodology -- Whitburn listed Bix Beiderbecke's OKeh piano solo of "In a Mist" as a big hit. Yeah, right. But this is a topic for another thread and may not even be suitable for the Hoffman messageboard.

But I encourage anyone with even a casual interest in Bing's music to read Gary Giddins' Pocketful of Dreams. Like Will Friedwald's perceptive analysis of Sinatra's artisty, Giddins' bio opens doors on understanding on who Bing was, what he did and how he did it.

(And the first scat singing on record was probably Gene Green's "King of the Bungaloos" -- more ragtime than Cliff Edwards' hotter 1922 disc.)

 

The Whitburn data is--much of it--still very useful. Lets not demonize the guy.
It is a much fought over issue that has little real bearing on the Crosby status--
Anything related to old jazz gets argued over endlessly.

Re the scat stuff. Best place to go if you are curious is the Red Hot Jazz Archives page on Cliff Edwards--there you can click on sound files and listen to the recordings--including the Gene Green 1911 contender.
http://www.redhotjazz.com/cliffedwards.html

Mark

 

I forgot about that Red Hot Jazz archive site:
Try http://www.redhotjazz.com/fto.html
scroll down to "Some of These Days" (which I mentioned a page or so back), and hear my favorite example of Bing's scatting (in a very Bix-like manner), as well as a nice Eddie Lang solo!!

 

Louis,

I just checked out "His Legendary Years" from my local library. Unfortunately, they don't have disc 3 anymore.

I've listened to a little bit of disc 1 so far and I'm enjoying it. Thanks for the tip!

 

Sorry, I was being flip. Trying to delete my idiotic non sequitur.

 

Wow, this has been dormant for 13 years.
Never saw the thread before, but I have to say that I disagree with the OP on just about every level.
I think Bing has a great voice. I love his work. I like a lot of his films (many which include song and dance routines).
They don't make them like this anymore.

 

I guess we need an update from the OP. Even I, so settled in my ways, have changed my opinion on music albums and artists in the intervening years. The Bing album I recommended to the people who asked me about him, all 2 of them, is the late 50s album he did with Rosemary Clooney - Fancy Meeting You Here. Yes Bing's voice had aged, but the sonics are excellent and the singing and banter are entertaining.

NB: I have given up recommending early historical recordings to younger people unless they specifically ask about them.

 

Well. Everything that has been said thus far plus his name was Bing!

BING!

 

I was listening to this this afternoon while driving home from a Christmas celebration ... my jaw dropped (not for the first time) at how full and rich Bing's voice was. Rosemary was great too, but Bing stole the show.

 

I like his voice. That's about it, really.

 

His Christmas music is the best! Nothing else puts me in the holiday mood like it!

 

Interesting coincidence.