graph
recordings, film, and television. From the Jazz Age to the Age of Aquarius, in
a career that spanned half a century, Bing Crosby shaped 20th
century electronic entertainment and the entire American pop culture. When he
made his first recording (I've Got the
Girl in 1926), what might have been termed "popular music" was
either opera (Enrico Caruso), stage and minstrel (Al Jolson), blues (Bessie
Smith), jazz (Louis Armstrong), country (Vernon Dalhart), burlesque (Sophie
Tucker), or effeminate tenor (John McCormack). In other words, there was no
such thing as "popular music" as we know it today. In fact, the term
didn't even exist. It was later coined to describe the music he created.
A quarter century before Elvis
became the first white man to sing like he was black, Crosby was the first
white man who sang like he was black. A savvy, inscrutable, and enormously
talented musician, he was the first of his race to understand and assimilate
the timing, rhythms, comedy and spontaneity of Louis Armstrong, and he emerged
as a major jazz figure. Yet, it was popular music that he created, both as it
was then and still is today. He took popular singing to the 18th century bel canto school, but with a bluesy and
jazzy style the 17th century Italians never heard of, because they did not have
the black musical traditions to draw from. Thus, it was Crosby, more than any
other, drawing on the influences of Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Billie
Holiday, and other jazz vocalists in
what was still primarily a musician's world who spread far and wide the
Afro-American idiom which would become the foundation and flavor of American
popular music.
There
is a line of demarcation in the 20th century that marks the dawn of our memories.
As those of Le Bing's vintage leave
us, memories of him go with them. We remember Sinatra because Sinatra thrived
in the 1940's and 50's, and was recently active. Bing has been dead for 26
years, his music was outdated a quarter century before that, his reputation has been ruthlessly trashed, and he was
artistically creative and revolutionized the industry in the 1930's, an era
mostly long forgotten. The films of that era, the filming and recording
techniques, even the often stilted acting, seem quaint and prehistoric compared
to what developed with and after the war. True, he became an American
institution with the war, especially because of White Christmas still the biggest-selling single disc of all
time; but we've forgotten what a truly innovative and creative artist he was,
what a universal impact on the 20th century he wielded, or what a
marvelous voice he had.
As a singer he set records that have never been broken: He made more studio recordings than any other American singer 1,700 between 1926 and 1977.
He placed 394 single records on the
Top 30 Pop Charts: 368 under his own name and 28 more as a band vocalist.
(Bandleader Paul Whiteman had 220 top 30 hits, Frank Sinatra had 209, Elvis
Presley 149, Glenn Miller 129, Nat King Cole 118, Louis Armstrong 85, the
Beatles 68.)
He recorded 42 singles and one album that reached No. 1, giving him a total of 43 No. 1 hits. (Paul McCartne with and without the Beatles had 31 No. 1 hits, the Beatles as a group had 24, and Elvis had 18.)
He
had 23 certified Gold Records (signifying sales of one million or more),
beginning with Oscar-winner Sweet Leilani
in 1937 and concluding with his final album, Seasons, recorded just before his death 40 years later;. Perry Como
had 22.
He
introduced 14 songs that were nominated for Academy Awards. Sinatra and Fred
Astaire each introduced eight.
He
starred on radio longer than any other performer: 1931 to 1954 on network, and
1954 to 1962 in syndication.
In addition, no film star had the
Box Office run he had: No. 1 for five years in a row (1944-48) and in the top
10 for 15 out of 21 years, not to mention being nominated for three Academy
Awards and receiving one. Frank Capra rated Bing one of the 10 greatest actors
he ever worked with. At the same time, his weekly radio program was No. 1, and
he made 40 recordings a year, producing more hit records than Elvis and the
Beatles combined. During the war, his voice was heard somewhere in the world
every moment of the day, and would eventually be heard by more people around
the globe than the voice of any other person who ever lived. He was so
incalculably enormous that there has simply never been anyone like him, before
or since.
However, it wasn't his impact that
drew us to Spokane. As Beth Kaiman of the Seattle Times put it: "People gathered here are moved by the
music...and a voice, unmistakable and unparalleled, that almost 26 years after
his death still offers joy, tenderness and hope. That's what the fans talk
about most and share with each other: Crosby's
music bettered their lives."
Along the way, he made it look so
deceptively easy that every man on the street believed he could sing like Bing,
particularly in the shower. I do! Don't you? Bing was always flattered by that.
Which leads me to the best of the many Crosby stories I heard that weekend.
According to Kathryn Crosby who swore to me that it was true! Bing once
entered a Bing Crosby Sing-Alike Contest
..and finished third.
As for the confusion over his birth,
Kathryn for one intends to keep right on binging: "I've always believed
that he was born in 1904, and that's the way his grave marker reads. But the
reference books say 1903. That's all right. We'll celebrate his 100th
(birthday) all year and into 2004."
