The Great Great Bing Crosby, forever the best of them all, even in a generation which gave us titans like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Martin, Frankie Laine, but Bing is the best of them all. Thanks be to God that He gave him to us in our lifetime.
I saw Dean Martin on the Tonight Show, i believekit was. Dino was asked "Who influenced you?"....Dino answered right back: "I copied Bing Crosby. I don't deny it. You can ask Frank....he'll tell you that HE copied Bing, too !"
Bing Crosby was the King of Ragtime and Jazz. The song had been sung by so mangy other artists like Frank Sinatra or Doris Day. Great lyrics and a good song. Bing, you are truly the best.
He knew when to slide his voice when to go high and when to go low low low. never over did it never left a note sounding flat and bored.. artist today just dont have the talkent style tact nor ability that this man had.. there are people claiming better range etc etc. but its all in knowing and feeling a song well enough to communicate his rendition to the audience.. A master craftsman at it really.
Absolutely right. My dad always said that Bing Crosby had the greatest voice of any male singer ever. Hearing this and other songs I am also in no doubt.
I love to hear Bing in his prime. I was never a fan because I only remembered the tag-end of his voice before he died, when he went on singing long after he should have stopped. Then you hear this, and - ! WOW. He had such resonance and depth, and such a natural unstudied quality, just pure talent. It is VERY hard to get a DVD of this movie, Mississippi, and I had to get a bootleg to hear those songs again. It's never on TV due to racist elements.
This is great! I've been listening to Bing singing this great Rodgers and Hart song for years, but I've never seen this movie - I posted the commercial recording on youtube and the arrangement is exactly the same.
Yeah, I think a lot of people feel that way about Hart vs. Hammerstein, not a big fan of R&H myself. That's a talent I really admire -- making something rehearsed seem spontaneous. Bing himself was great at taking scripted material and making it seem like he was making it up as he went along.
@Jamesmac30 Hi! I'm very glad you've now had the opportunity to see this then. I'll mention that if you really wanted to see the whole movie (with W.C. Fields!), Mississippi was recently released on DVD by Universal as part of a nice set of Bing Crosby musicals.
From the only film Crosby and W. C. Fields ever made together, "Mississippi." Bing is in mid-change here: You still hear traces of his Paul Whiteman-era jazz-singing, but he is about midway over the Crooner's Fence, and will be landing on the other side, very shortly. (Matchless music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart.)
@ferociousgumby I don't think Bing kept singing long after he should have stopped. I agree he was in his prime in the 30s in a lot of ways, certainly his voice was. The 60s as a decade is pretty spotty. But have you ever heard some of his 70s recordings, or seen some of his for instance Hollywood Palace TV appearances in the late 60s? He was still in excellent form. He also did live concerts in the 70s, no problem. Unfortunately I'm too young to have seen any of those.
:) Somehow the same movie ends up being a great vehicle for both Bing Crosby and W.C. Fields. Supposedly Bing loved Fields and didn't mind letting him walk away with scenes and perhaps the whole picture. But the excellent Rodgers & Hart score provides some competition...
@ferociousgumby (continued) Anyway, there are singers I wish would’ve called it quits sooner, but Bing isn’t one of them. Stay away from the high notes and he’s still great. He died when he was in his mid-70s, and had he lived longer he probably would’ve reached a time when he should’ve stopped, but the way it worked out, he didn’t.
Probably the best all time singer, excluding none. I recall reading that when they made this picture, Mississippi, they taped his ears back and put that toupee on him. The ears kept popping loose until he said no more glue. He also wore a girdle in this one.
Quality severely lacking in today's music, including most Broadway productions. The score by Rodgers & Hart is excellent and Bing did a wonderful job with it. Oh, and Joan Bennett never looked lovelier.
