December 1, 2024

Website about Jazz and Blues

New biography chronicles Bing Crosby’s most beloved years: Video

Crosby recorded between 50 and 70 singles per year in the 1940’s. During World War II, he hosted golf tournaments and gave benefit concerts to sell war bonds and recorded special programs for the Armed Forces Radio Network. Just months after the D-Day invasion, Crosby traveled to France to entertain the troops wherever they were. Giddins says the singer’s devotion to those fighting was tireless, and the public loved him for it. In a 1948 poll, Americans declared Bing Crosby the “most admired man alive.”

“Nothing moved me more than when I was sitting in the Crosby house, going through his letters, and seeing how many parents, wives, siblings of dead soldiers felt they had to write to Crosby,” Giddens says. “‘How much my son or brother or husband loved you. How happy you made him when you went over there. I just want to say God Bless you.’ Crosby was beloved.”

<em>Swinging on a Star</em>, written by jazz and film critic Gary Giddins, is out now.