Download Free Bing Crosby * Songs

Bing Crosby music biography continued...

Crosby took the nickname "Bing" as a child because it was short for "Bingo," a character in the comic strip "The Bingville Bugle" which he loved to read. Crosby learned to play the drums and sing while attending college and changed his mind about becoming a lawyer, dropping out to pursue a career in show business. His first professional gig was singing with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra beginning in 1927. He was soon cast in an early sound film, King of Jazz (1931), which made Crosby a star and led to the launch of his own radio program on CBS in New York City. He also began appearing in more films, and by the late 1930s his records were selling millions of copies. His songwriting activities included part-authorship of "A Ghost of a Chance" and "Where the Blue of the Night" (his radio theme song). His recording of "White Christmas" became one of the most popular songs of the century, exceeded in record sales only by his "Silent Night." In1948, polls declared him the "most admired man alive," ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII. Also during 1948, the Music Digest estimated that Crosby recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music. Along the way, Crosby became the first performer to pre-record his radio shows and master his commercial recordings on magnetic tape. He gave one of the first Ampex Model 200 recorders to his friend, musician Les Paul, which led directly to Paul's invention of multi-track recording, and the promise that Crosby would leave a mark on all aspects of the music industry.



In 1962, Crosby was the first person to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Father Chuck O'Malley in the 1944 motion picture Going My Way. Crosby is one of the few people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Each generation that hears "White Christmas" for the first time is as enthralled with Crosby's smooth, silky voice and easy delivery as their parents and grandparents before them.