One of my goals of this Substack is to make it worth subscribing to as a newsletter as well as the place to find every episode of the Let It Roll podcast and keep up with any future musical history projects I undertake.
With that goal in mind, here’s a short essay I wrote about Bing Crosby while I was preparing to interview Crosby biographer Gary Giddins a couple years back.
For 30 years Bing Crosby was the most popular and beloved musician in America. He was the musical everyman for the Prohibition, Depression and World War 2 and immediate post-War eras.
For five years, during World War 2, Crosby was a moral leader in the United States. Performing tirelessly for the troops, starring in the most popular movies of the time and above all living in the ears of up to 55 million Americans a week on the radio, Crosby used his popularity and his power over his audience to boost American morale and to steer the country’s morality.
He was avowedly anti-racist. He got Louis Armstrong the first ever equal billing given a Black performer in Hollywood. He featured Black performers regularly on his radio shows and not in demeaning ways but as his musical peers and equals. When Paul Robeson guested on his show, Bing deliberately defied racists by insisting that Robeson address him by his first name and vice versa.
He tirelessly worked to entertain the troops. He traveled from Hollywood east to nearly the front lines of the European front and performed for troops and civilians doing vital work at every opportunity along the way. After the war soldiers voted him the #1 morale booster of the war.
For the last twenty years of his life, he remained a very popular performer on television but the hits dried up and the movie roles weren’t offered. He was beloved by all who remembered the war era and before.
Unfortunately the younger generations who saw him on TV rejected him along with all other pre-rock & roll performers.
And after his death his son Gary came forward with a lurid tell-all that essentially ruined Crosby’s image with the Boomers and all ensuing generations.
Despite being a popular musician of the first rank, Crosby’s celebrity so outran his music that he is seen more as a fallen idol than a musical titan.
Absolutely the key innovator of vocal microphone technique, Crosby taught everyone how to sing for electrical recordings. He was also one of the creators of the jazz-influenced vocal style that we still regard as modern. He and Louis Armstrong were each other’s favorite musician.
But no one cares much today.
The musical magic that carried Crosby to stardom and deep into the hearts of millions for decades has waned with time and most of the blessings he shared are lost to us. The music sounds quaint. The persona of unassuming Everyman who calmly handles every situation with ease only works if he’s first known as a masterful singer who always makes it look easy.
We have the bottle on the shelf but the intoxicating, invigorating spirit has evaporated. We can watch Crosby, hear Crosby but we can’t share a great love for his music with tens of millions of others the way two generations of Americans did. Nor can we benefit from his humility and morality which gave millions guidance through some very dark days.
After listening to your interview with Giddings, I bought the biography and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you!