This acclaimed biography reinstated Bing Crosby as a towering figure in 20th century pop music, an innovative performer who influenced singers as diverse as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett and Elvis Presley, not to mention his famous duetting with David Bowie in "The Little Drummer Boy". Bing made more studio recordings than any other singer in history, with 38 number one hits compared with the Beatles' 24 and Elvis's 18. Apart from that, he won an Academy Award for Going My Way and created the first celebrity pro-am golf championship, playing host for 35 years. And of course "White Christmas" is still the most popular record ever, making the American pop charts 20 times. Yet by the time of his death in 1977, that was mainly what Bing was remembered for. This massive biography acknowledges Crosby's influential work of the 1920s, "transforming popular song from a maudlin farrago steeped in minstrelsy and vaudeville into a swinging, racially nuanced and internationally accepted phenomenon that dominated the age". Crosby was the first white vocalist to appreciate and assimilate the genius of Louis Armstrong, perfecting the use of the microphone and giving the lyrics of a ballad a sense of purpose and an erotic undercurrent. Born into an Anglo-Irish Catholic family, in his early years he considered entering the priesthood before leaving Spokane to pursue a role in showbusiness. By the 1930s Bing's confidence was such that when arrested for drunk driving during the filming of King of Jazz he got a tougher sentence than expected by being aggressive in court. About this time he was dating his first wife Dixie Lee. By 1940 he had an impressive discography and filmography, with the adulation of the war years still ahead. In a national poll in the 1940s Crosby was voted the most admired man alive. 728pp, paperback, discography, filmography, photos.
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