Bing Crosby - the father of the modern stage

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Bing Crosby is one of the most famous singers of the 20th century. In the period from 1931 to 1934, he was the leader in the number of sales of pop music records. In 1923, Bing Crosby received an invitation to take part in a new musical group that was organized at his school. In this ensemble, the hero of this article played percussion instruments. The team successfully performed both for high school students and for the club public.

Career

Soon the guys became so popular that they were invited to the radio, where they performed works from their repertoire. After the group broke up, two of its members, Bing Crosby and Al Rinker, were invited to work in a movie theater, which later became named after the hero of the article. Young people were supposed to entertain the audience in between sessions.

Searching for Glory

In October 1925, Crosby and his stage colleague Al Rinker went to California to continuehis musical career. In Los Angeles, luck smiled at them. They were invited to play in the musical "The Syncopated Idea", which was a success on the stage of the local musical theater.

Introducing Jazz

Soon two talented young artists were spotted by the famous composer and leader of one of the leading jazz orchestras, Paul Wittman. The musical figure at that time was looking for new vocalists with an original manner of singing in order to diversify the sound of his orchestra.

The song I've Got the Girl was recorded with this group. Studio workers allowed marriage in their work. The write speed was slower than required. Therefore, when played on a standard gramophone, the voice of the singers was higher than in reality, and the song sounded unnatural.

New group

An ensemble called The Rhythm Boys was formed when pianist, singer and composer Harry Barris joined the two friends. The vocal trio recorded several works with Paul Whitman's orchestra, as well as a number of songs with piano accompaniment played by Barris. A little later, the musicians starred in the film "King of Jazz", which was released in 1930. The Bing Crosby song Mississippi Mud was first recorded for this film. Working in the ensemble, the artist constantly honed his vocal skills. After a while, more and more often they began to offer him to perform solo.

Bing Crosby became the main star of the Rhythm Boys. In 1928, his single with Ol' Man Riverclimbed to the first line of the national charts.

Due to frequent solo performances, Bing Crosby had a conflict with Paul Witman. The singer left the group and began to record and perform independently. In September 1931 he made his first radio appearance as a solo artist. In the same year, he signed a contract with two channels, on which his author's programs began to appear weekly. Crosby's Out of Nowhere and Just One More Chance were among the best-selling records of the time.

Bing Crosby Films

Crosby has played several lead roles in a series of short musical comedies filmed at Paramount Studios. In 1932, he starred in his first standard length film, The Big Broadcast. In total, during his creative career, he played 55 main roles in films.

The success of the first film was so great that Paramount signed him to a contract to shoot three films a year. In Hollywood Troop Shop, Bing Crosby and the Andrews sisters performed several songs together. With this duet, the hero of the article also recorded the famous song Jingle Bells.

Great Depression

During the greatest financial crisis in the history of the United States of America in the 1930s, the recording industry almost ceased to exist. Ordinary citizens did not have money to buy records with songs of their favorite artists. Bing Crosby is one of the few whose work was still in demand. His songs becamehit even during the Great Depression.

Sound engineer Steve Hoffman says: "Bing Crosby saved sound recording in 1934 when he agreed to cut record prices from one dollar to 35 cents a single."

Now he received not a fixed fee for the recording of each song, but a percentage of sales. For 10 years, starting in 1934, he hosted a weekly radio broadcast. The Bing Crosby song Where the Blue of the Night was used as the call sign for this program. This work was remembered by many listeners thanks to the melodic whistle and became the artist's hallmark.

Meeting of two great singers

Bing Crosby has always called Louis Armstrong his greatest idol. It was he who had a significant influence on the vocal style of the artist. So when Columbia Pictures invited him to star in the film Pennies from heaven, he insisted that Louis Armstrong starred in one of the main roles.

Manner

Bing Crosby was one of the first singers to use a microphone. This innovation allowed the artist to perform songs in a more lyrical, softer manner. Idols of those years, such as Al Jolson, who performed without a microphone, were forced to sing very loudly in order to be heard by the audience in the back rows. Often their vocals were more like screaming. It was only with the advent of microphones that artists got rid of the need to strain their vocal cords excessively.

Later, Bing Crosby's vocal style had a strong influence on Frank Sinatra. Jazz bandleader Tommy Dorsey recalls: "I kept telling Frank the same thing over and over: 'There's only one singer you should listen to. This vocalist's name is Bing Crosby. The only thing that matters to him is the lyrics of the song. This is how you should treat your repertoire as well."

Bing Crosby's song "White Christmas" is in the Guinness Book of World Records with over 50 million copies sold worldwide.