Tuesday, November 13, 2012

How Do You Describe Bing Crosby?

Bing Crosby. What can you say to describe him? Try it. It's pretty much impossible to do with words alone. You can't describe his singing. A person just has to hear it to believe it. If you were to describe him by his appearance --- well, it wouldn't help anybody to understand what's so unique about Bing. He looked like a normal guy. But it wasn't just his singing that sets him apart from everybody else. (Of course, he didn't need anything but his singing to be fabulous!) His whole persona in front of a camera or behind a microphone contributes to his international appeal. In short, there never has been a performer like Bing --- and there certainly won't be again.

I'm in a bit of a Bing Crosby kick the last two days. He's been my all-time favorite singer as long as I can remember. In fact, I can't remember a time of not listening to Bing. Mom and Dad played his records for us from  . . . well, forever. I've collected sheet music of his songs (with his picture on it) for years and years, and Mom has found several lots of Bing sheet music on eBay lately. That's helped to add to the collection. Well, she and I were looking through Bing videos on YouTube yesterday, and that kind of sent me into this kick. Not to mention that I've spent the last couple hours sorting through my sheet music. Here's a picture of it, in fact. All counted up --- I've got 102 pieces of Bing's music!



Again, I'll break my rule and embed a couple of videos (these are what kind of started this kick). The first is Bing singing Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho with three of his sons. He's fifty-seven years old here, but his voice doesn't sound the least bit aged. Wow! The second clip shows Bing (at age 65) with his son, Gary, and Frank Sinatra, Jr. Listen to them sing. Amazing!


Bing's must have been the perfect voice, and it seems like that must be a peek at what men were created to sound like in a state of perfection before sin. I mean, no training but never a bad note. Velvet notes in fifty years of styles and songs. To quote Frank Sinatra: You know, you can wait around and hope, but I'm telling you --- you'll never see the likes of this again.

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