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A crooner is a singer who performs with a smooth, intimate style that originated in the 1920s. The crooning style was made possible by better microphones that picked up quieter sounds and a wider range of frequencies, allowing the singer to access a greater dynamic range and exploit the proximity effect. This suggestion of intimacy was supposedly wildly attractive to women, especially a youth subculture known at the time as "bobby soxers". The crooning style developed among singers who performed with big bands, and reached its height in the 1940s to late 1960s.
Crooning is epitomized by jazz vocalists of the era such as Bing Crosby, Rudy Vallee and Frank Sinatra, although Sinatra did not consider himself or Crosby to be "crooners". [1] Other performers, such as Russ Columbo, also rejected the term. [2]
This dominant popular vocal style coincided with the advent of radio broadcasting and electrical recording. Before the advent of the microphone, singers had to project to the rear seats of a theater, which made for a very loud vocal style. The microphone made a more personal style possible. [3] Al Bowlly, Bing Crosby, Gene Austin, Art Gillham, and by some accounts Vaughn De Leath [4] [5] are often credited as inventors of the crooning style, but Rudy Vallée brought the style widespread popularity. [3]
In his popular radio program, which began with his floating greeting, "Heigh ho, everybody," beamed in from a New York City night club, he stood like a statue, surrounded by clean-cut collegiate band musicians and cradling a saxophone in his arms.
His first film, The Vagabond Lover , was promoted with the line, "Men Hate Him! Women Love Him!" [3] while his success brought press warnings of the "Vallee Peril": this "punk from Maine" with the "dripping voice" required mounted police to "beat back crowds of screaming and swooning females" at his vaudeville shows. [6]
By the early 1930s, the term "crooner" had taken on a pejorative connotation. [3] Cardinal William O'Connell of Boston and the New York Singing Teachers Association (NYSTA) both publicly denounced the vocal form, O'Connell calling it "base", "degenerate", "defiling" and un-American, with the NYSTA adding "corrupt". [3] Even The New York Times predicted that crooning would be just a passing fad. The newspaper wrote, "They sing like that because they can't help it. Their style is begging to go out of fashion…. Crooners will soon go the way of tandem bicycles, mah jongg and midget golf." [3] Voice range shifted from tenor (Vallée) to baritone (Russ Columbo, Bing Crosby). [3] Still, a 1931 record by Dick Robertson, "Crosby, Columbo, and Vallee", called upon men to fight "these public enemies" brought into homes via radio. [3]
The term crooner has been applied to some female singers around the world, especially those who have low alto voices. Among the first was white American singer Lee Morse who performed in three Vitaphone short films in 1930. A cartoon published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1930 listed four male and seven female singers as the "All-American Crooning Eleven". Blues singer Ruth Etting was in the group, along with Helen Morgan, Libby Holman, Bernadene Hayes, Annette Hanshaw, and others. [7] Several more American women singers were called crooners in 1950 with chart hits by Teresa Brewer and Patti Page. Anita O'Day's version of "Tennessee Waltz" was a crooner-style hit in 1951. The success of women crooners continued through 1956 but was diminished in 1957 after Billboard combined the segregated black and white pop charts, which led to a rise in male hit songs. [8] Black American blues singer Nina Simone has been described as a crooner for her work in the 1960s and 1970s. [9]
Due to the country songs popularized by Bing Crosby, the crooning style of singing became an enduring part of country music. [10] Crosby achieved a million seller with his 1940 rendition of the song "San Antonio Rose", originally recorded by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. In 1942, Perry Como had a smash hit with "Deep in the Heart of Texas"; Crosby, who had an enormous influence on Como, covered this song and took it to the number 3 position in the US chart that same year. Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves and Ray Price are especially well known for their country crooner standards. [11] [12] [13]
Dean Martin is associated with the country music he recorded in the period when he was working for Reprise Records, whilst his fellow Italian-American crooner Como recorded several albums with country producer Chet Atkins in Nashville. Regular, non-country crooners also scored hits with pop versions of country songs: Tony Bennett had a Billboard number 1 hit in 1951 with his rendition of Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold Heart"; Como had a number 1 hit in 1953 with his version of "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes", a chart-topping country hit for its author Slim Willet and a number 4 country hit for Ray Price; Guy Mitchell scored a number 1 in 1959 with "Heartaches by the Number", a country hit for Ray Price; and Britain's Engelbert Humperdinck achieved a 1967 UK number 1 hit with "Release Me", another song already made famous by Price in 1954. In 1970, Price had a number 1 US country hit and a number 11 Hot 100 hit with the song "For the Good Times", written by Kris Kristofferson; subsequently, Como's rendition reached number 7 in 1973 on the UK Singles Chart.
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. was an American singer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. Crosby was a leader in record sales, network radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1926 to 1977. He was one of the first global cultural icons. Crosby made over 70 feature films and recorded more than 1,600 songs.
Traditional pop is Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known as pop standards or American standards. The works of these songwriters and composers are usually considered part of the canon known as the "Great American Songbook". More generally, the term "standard" can be applied to any popular song that has become very widely known within mainstream culture and recorded by many artists.
Hubert Prior Vallée, known professionally as Rudy Vallée, was an American singer, saxophonist, bandleader, actor, and entertainer. He was the first male singer to rise from local radio broadcasts in New York City to national popularity as a "crooner".
Lemeul Eugene Lucas, better known by his stage name Gene Austin, was an American singer and songwriter, one of the early "crooners". His recording of "My Blue Heaven" sold over 5 million copies and was for a while the largest selling record of all time. His 1920s compositions "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street" and "The Lonesome Road" became pop and jazz standards.
Ruggiero Eugenio di Rodolfo Colombo, known as Russ Columbo, was an American baritone, songwriter, violinist, and actor. He is famous for romantic ballads such as his signature tune "You Call It Madness, But I Call It Love" and his own compositions "Prisoner of Love" and "Too Beautiful for Words".
"Young at Heart" is a pop standard ballad with music by Johnny Richards and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh.
"White Christmas" is a song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. Written by Irving Berlin for the 1942 musical film Holiday Inn, the song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 15th Academy Awards. Originally sung by Bing Crosby, it topped the Billboard chart for 11 weeks and returned to the number one position again in December 1943 and 1944. His version would return to the top 40 a dozen times in subsequent years.
"Prisoner of Love" is a 1931 popular song, with music by Russ Columbo and Clarence Gaskill and lyrics by Leo Robin.
"Without a Song" is a popular song composed by Vincent Youmans with lyrics later added by Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu, published in 1929. It was included in the musical play, Great Day. The play only ran for 36 performances, and also included the songs "More Than You Know" and "Great Day".
"Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)" was the theme Bing Crosby selected for his radio show. It was recorded in November 1931 with Bennie Krueger and his Orchestra. The song was featured in a Mack Sennett movie short starring Bing Crosby. Crosby recorded the song on several occasions starting with the November 23, 1931 version with Bennie Kruger and his Orchestra. He next recorded it on July 20, 1940 with The Paradise Island Trio. On July 17, 1945 he recorded it with John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra and his final recording was on April 21, 1954 with Buddy Cole and his Trio for his Musical Autobiography set.
"It's Been a Long, Long Time" is a big band-era song that was a hit at the end of World War II, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Sammy Cahn.
"I've Got the World on a String" is a 1932 popular jazz song composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics written by Ted Koehler. It was written for the twenty-first edition of the Cotton Club series which opened on October 23, 1932, the first of the Cotton Club Parades.
Dominic Antonio Nicholas Lucanese, better known by his stage name Nick Lucas, was an American jazz singer and guitarist. He was the first jazz guitarist to record as a soloist. His popularity during his lifetime came from his reputation as a singer. His signature song was "Tiptoe Through the Tulips".
Frank Sinatra's musical career began in the swing era in 1935, and ended in 1995, although he did briefly retire in 1971, before returning to music in 1973. Sinatra is one of the most influential music artists of the 20th century, and has sold 150 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all-time. Rock critic Robert Christgau called Sinatra "the greatest singer of the 20th century". In addition to his music career, Sinatra was also a successful film actor, having won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Private Angelo Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953).
For music from an individual year in the 1940s, go to 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49
"I'll Be Home for Christmas" is a Christmas song written by the lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent and recorded in 1943 by Bing Crosby, who scored a top ten hit with the song. Originally written to honor soldiers overseas who longed to be home at Christmas time, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" has since gone on to become a Christmas standard.
"Deep Night" is a song and jazz standard with a melody composed in 1929 by Charles E. Henderson and lyrics written by Rudy Vallee. The tune is written in a minor key.
Crosby, Columbo, and Vallee is a 1932 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon short directed by Rudolf Ising. The short was released on March 19, 1932. It lampoons the popularity of crooners among young women, with popular crooners Bing Crosby, Russ Columbo, and Rudy Vallée being the namesake of the film.
Will Osborne was a Canadian-born American bandleader, trombonist, and crooner.
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Further reading