Bing Crosby - Artist of the Century?

I'm sitting here listening to a Bing Crosby box set and I was wondering something:

I've heard it mentioned many times, "The most influential performers/superstars/celebrities/icons of the 20th century were Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Frank Sinatra & Bing Crosby" (others as well, depending on the list, but i'm just using those for argument's sake.)

Nothing against him or his music, which I enjoy immensely, but was he really that influential to 20th century popular entertainment? The Beatles & Elvis I can understand as their influence is still felt today. I know Sinatra was like the Beatles in the 40s, but Bing? Did he have the little girls screaming back in the 30s? Just wondering if someone can explain to me the cultural impact of Mr. Crosby and why he's mentioned in the same breath as the other three in terms of influence.

Thanks.

 

I guess it depends on when you were born. Beatles, Elvis, etc. may have continuing influence, but Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby invented the whole damn thing (modern popular music combined with technology designed for a mass international marketplace).

Gary Giddins' book "A Pocketful Of Dreams" certainly makes a strong case for Crosby as "the most influential and successful popular performer in the first half of the 20th century."

In a book review:
Here are some points on which you could get a solid consensus among historians: He was the most popular recording artist of all time, selling more records and earning more radio listeners than anyone else, and for longer than anyone else, nearly a quarter of a century. No one else was even close, and in terms of a share of the recording market, no one is close today. And the records represented only a part of Crosby's popularity. For nearly two decades he was a leading box office attraction, placing No. 1 for five straight years. He was the most popular radio singer of all time and probably created the idea of the "popular" singer as we know it.

* * *
Giddins is on firmer ground when evaluating Crosby's musical influence. He was "the first white vocalist to appreciate and assimilate the genius of Louis Armstrong: his rhythm, his emotions, his comedy, his spontaneity ... Bing was the first (pop singer) to render the lyrics of a modern ballad with purpose, the first to suggest an erotic undercurrent." And: "With the microphone elaborating the subtleties of his delivery, Bing was reinventing popular music as a personal and consequently erotic medium."

 

Bingo! (no pun intended!)

 

I first got into Crosby listening to that collection of his CBS sides years ago and it immediately hit me "WHY DO I NOT HAVE MORE CROSBY in my collection?"
I love his 30's stuff(Riding around in the Rain is a fave) but he has great stuff scattered throughout his career.
The box set is a good place to start but search for the old 3 cd CBS set, too.

 

He's up there but I'd go with Satchmo.

 

What Steve said, with the caveat that Louis Armstrong was equally revolutionary in changing the way that singers sang: you can make the same "before and after" argument about him.

For the 20th century, I think one can make rational arguments for Crosby, Armstrong, Sinatra, Presley, and the Beatles as the artist of the century. I'm tempted to throw Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker in there, as well, but they didn't really transcend the jazz genre the way that Armstrong did.

 

Well stated, Steve Hoffman & MLutthans .

 

Crosby was not the only one, but he was Beatles-like in his influence, his popularity, his identification as a regular buy who sang like a regular guy, not to the balcony. Not to take away from Satchmo or others, but they played different parts. In popular music Crosby led his time period.

 

exactly right. your first paragraph took the words right out of my mouth (or fingers or whatever).

bing basically taught people what a microphone was for, and how to use it. he invented pop singing. he may be the most single influential pop artist of all time (though a good case could be made for louis armstrong too, since his influence transcended pop music and was felt everywhere, even in classical brass playing).

 

Sometimes statistics can help put things in perspective:

http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/elvisbing.html


...........................................ELVIS PRESLEY................BING CROSBY

Number of Top 30 Hits.................... .85................................383

Number of Top 10 Hits......................38.................. ............ 203

Number of Number 1 Hits........... ..... .18................................ 41

Longest Consecutive Run
at the #1 Position --.......................-16 weeks (1956) --------- 23 (1944)

Total Weeks at #1..................... ..... 80.............................. 173

Most Top 30 songs in 1 Year........ ..... 10 (1956)............. .........27 (1939)

Total Number of Recordings............. .665....................... ......1700

 

Exactly right. Bing is the entertainer of the century for this reason.

 

Though Bing is probably rolling over in his grave at the thought of it. He had no idea what he hath wrought.

 

Everytime this elusive subject of influence comes up, a sense of "historic empathy" is necessary - you have to transport yourself back in time to understand the impact of that artist in their own time, and the state of music at that time. It wasn't a given that everybody did whatever that influential artist did at that time.

As I understand it, Bing was an important influence on Sinatra. Elvis was a fan of a lot of "old school" pop singers, and sang their songs, including Bing's. Steve has put it best above, but if you listen to recordings of vocalists before Bing, a lot of them sound cartoonish...even on his early records, Bing was modern and real - smooth.

 

I can't name them, but I recall some of them really over enunciating stuff. Very nasally and stiff.

 

Yes. And Crosby as Crosby was after Armstrong. The only slight nuance I'd add is that Armstrong's innovations as a singer primarily had to do with rhythm, timber, to some extent improvisation, and to some extent attitude or affect. It was rhythm that Crosby got from him, and it was decisive. He also picked up a little of the attitude--at least the idea that a singer could put a very personal, and conversational or *vernacular* stamp on a song. The peculiar brand of intimate warmth and, paradoxically cool nonchalance (along with all the related micophone stuff, of course) was entirely his own, I think, as has been said.

You're also right that Parker and Ellington matter in different ways than the others. You can also say that neither of them would have been possible without Armstrong--because Armstrong was even more important as an instrumentalist--the inventor of the mode of improvisation that not only makes Jazz Jazz, but that has affected the way solo instrumental passages of all kinds in popular--and not just in popular--music are structured.

L.

 

Bing was a huge influence on Dino

although, I enjoy Dino more...

 

Wow. Old school Professional with a capital "P"

 

Someone please recommend a good intro to Bing Crosby purchase for this Bing-newbie. Thanks.

 

Bing! His Legendary Years (1931 - 1957) on Decca/MCA CDs (4 CD box).

His career is just too huge even for a box set like that to wrap around. But that's the best single-stop title IMH. It starts early enough to give you a sense of the old "recital" manner changing to a more modern kind of "intimate," which to my ears was the most crucial (and deceptively pervasive) thing Bing and Armstrong did. It spans far enough to give a suggestion of his later career. The set hits many of the most popular highlights through the banner years and works in a hint variety wise. On top of that it's hard if not impossible to find better sounding alternatives for some of it, and while not remastered to my taste IMH it still works fine and is appreciably better than most remasters of music from that vintage. It's not a PD thing, original discs & tapes used. It's also one of those box sets that even if you loved the stuff and collected further, you'd still keep it.

Also for a later but still choice option there's Bing Crosby & Rosemary Clooney - Fancy Meeting You Here on CD (if you can find it). That was a 1958 duet album, vibrant stereo sound (decent remaster), breezy & brassy Billy May arrangements... just a plain nifty classic pop record.

Anyway you know Nat's my thing, and love Louis Armstrong as well, but I also admire Bing and like a fair bit of the records of his I've heard. Bing was a phenomina we can all be glad came along, the man can't get enough respect.

To the OP: Oh yes, Bing did have the ladies swooning in his earlier career. He was kind of notorious, actually. I mean... here's probably his best moment from his early film musical career:

Bing Crosby - Temptation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-AY5wVE_Sc&fmt=18

From the film, Going Hollywood (1933). (Sound level on that video seemed rather low at least on my PC here so you might want to turn it up).