The versatile Bing Crosby. For most ears he embodies a well-behaved, relaxed style of singing and has become the living embodiment of the Christmas song. Yet there was also a very different Bing Crosby.
In his early days, besides being a gambler and a heavy drinker, he was an innovative singer who, through inventive use of the microphone, paved the way for the crooners of the Roaring Twenties — and for later idols such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Perry Como, and ultimately for every sensible singer who followed him.
After years of increasing respectability, he returned in 1956 to his adventurous vocal roots with the album Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings.
In this Palace we zigzag through Crosby’s career (also heard with The Mills Brothers, Connee Boswell, Louis Armstrong, The Andrews Sisters, his son Gary, Rosemary Clooney, Al Jolson, Bix Beiderbecke, Judy Garland, Bob Hope and Sinatra).
This hour: the vocal revolution of ‘Bingo from Bingville’.
