(May 2, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was
an American pop baritone and actor whose career lasted from 1926
until his death in 1977.
One
of the first multi-media stars, from 1934 to 1954 Bing Crosby held a
nearly unrivaled command of record sales, radio ratings and motion
picture grosses. He is usually considered to be among the most
popular musical acts in history and is currently the most
electronically recorded human voice in history. Crosby is also
credited as being the major inspiration for most of the male singers
that followed him, including Bobby Darin, Elvis Presley, Frank
Sinatra, Perry Como, and Dean Martin. Yank magazine recognized
Crosby as the person who had done the most for American GI morale
during World War II and, during his peak years, around 1948, polls
declared him the "most admired man alive" ahead of Jackie Robinson
and the Pope. 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.
Crosby also exerted an important influence on the development of the
postwar recording industry. In 1947 he invested US$50,000 in the
Ampex company, which developed the world's first commercial
reel-to-reel tape recorder, and Crosby became the first performer in
the world to prerecord 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 multitrack recording. Along with Frank
Sinatra, he was one of the principal backers behind the famous
United Western Recorders studio complex in Los Angeles.
In 1962, Crosby was the first person to receive the Grammy Lifetime
Achievement Award.
One
of the first multi-media stars, from 1934 to 1954 Bing Crosby held a
nearly unrivaled command of record sales, radio ratings and motion
picture grosses. He is usually considered to be among the most
popular musical acts in history and is currently the most
electronically recorded human voice in history. Crosby is also
credited as being the major inspiration for most of the male singers
that followed him, including Bobby Darin, Elvis Presley, Frank
Sinatra, Perry Como, and Dean Martin. Yank magazine recognized
Crosby as the person who had done the most for American GI morale
during World War II and, during his peak years, around 1948, polls
declared him the "most admired man alive" ahead of Jackie Robinson
and the Pope. 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.