|
Click on the picture above, and you will move into an Internet museum, dedicated to the person who has been called the most important popular singer in the first half of last century, Bing Crosby.
The museum is created and maintained by Steven Lewis, a biology teacher from Kansas City. Obviously, you will find all the facts and figures around Crosby’s long and distinguished career.
Things like this by Joe Guzzardi, an instructor in English at the Lodi Adult School, who has been writing a weekly column since 1988. It currently appears in the Lodi News-Sentinel.
Before I started researching this column, I knew the highlights of Crosby’s career. But with the invaluable assistance of the Internet, I was able to review Crosby’s four and a half decades of superstardom in just a few hours.
My conclusion: Crosby’s accomplishments as an entertainer will never be matched.
As Fortune Magazine wrote in 1947,
“Crosby is head man in every branch of American entertainment but sidewalk magic. First in films, first on the air and first on the phonographs of his country men.”
If Fortune had written its article in 1957, by which time Crosby had launched his television career, the magazine could have added the small screen to his successes.
A few highlights from Crosby’s career include having recorded over 1,700 songs—with 23 gold records. Crosby sold so many records on so many labels distributed in so many countries that no one really knows the total.
Bing charted more number one hits than any artist. A total of 42 of his singles and albums went to the top. In comparison, Paul McCartney—with or without the Beatles—had 31 and Elvis, 18.
Even though some of Crosby’s music has been out of print for sixty years, more than 100 of his compact discs are currently available.
Also, Crosby starred in more than 55 full-length movies 23 of which were in the top ten at the box office during the year of their release. Bing was among the leading ten film stars for 15 years and for five straight years from 1944-48, he ranked number one.
In the museum, you can go for the real thing by clicking on ‘What’s new(s)’. The top line there is a link to the current audio offering. Steven Lewis changes that clip about twice a week, and it mostly contains actual radio shows running for 15 to 60 minutes or collections of music from records.
Many of the radio shows have been issued on CD’s, so some quotes from the collection "Swingin' With Bing!: Bing Crosby's Lost Radio Performances" give a flavor of those offerings.
As Mr. Barnes says in the extensive notes to this set: "It wasn't just the public that admired him. He had the respect of the nation's greatest musicians, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, the Dorsey Brothers....He influenced every singer who followed him, including Frank Sinatra."
Jazz performers were eager to be on his radio shows because of the size of the audiences, but also because Bing was one of them. The second and third CDs include all the Crosby radio duets with Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. And for good jazz measure, there are appearances by the luminous trombonist Jack Teagarden, trumpet players Red Nichols and Ziggy Elman, guitarist Les Paul, and the jubilant jazz violinist Joe Venuti. Most of the orchestral accompaniment was conducted by John Scott Trotter, who never got in Bing's way.
The flowing counterpoint between Crosby and Armstrong or Fitzgerald in their duets defines jazz singing; and so do the brief appearances of Bing with the Mills Brothers. In the final number of this bonanza of classic performances -- timeless beyond nostalgia -- Ella, Louis and Bing celebrate themselves and their musical heritage in "Memphis Blues."
At the core of all these performances is Crosby. Reading a May 2, 2004, column in the Washington Times, I unexpectedly came upon a tribute to Crosby titled "Singer of a Century" that got to the heart of the abiding pleasure of his singing. The writer was economist, historian and controversialist Thomas Sowell, not previously known -- by me, anyway -- as a music critic: "Part of the greatness of his art [was] that it looked like it wasn't art. He didn't make a fuss about it, but he made history with it. It was a little like the way Joe DiMaggio played centerfield, making it look easy even when it was superb."
Louis Armstrong is quoted as stating “Bing’s voice has a mellow quality that only Bing’s got. It’s like gold being poured out of a cup.”
Why don’t you step into the museum and check it out!
|
