| NAME | MESSAGE |
| DEAN |
posted 12/18/02 12:17 PM Central Time (US)  no email address given
Isn't it strange that not one of Bing's six boys could sing; or at least, sound anything like Bing. Gary was supposed to carry the crooning torch into the sixties and beyond but his tight, husky little voice with its quick quiver never sounded remotely like his dad. Of the little I've heard of the others I can say that I thought lindsay had inherited his father's timing if not his tone. This is hardly a unique situation though. I can't think of any famous singer who's children inherited his tone, range and overall sound. Jack Jones sounded nothing like his father though he had qualities of his own. Did Perry Como have boys? If so, I've heard nothing of them. Sinatra's boy had little of Frank's talent and I've heard nothing of any offspring of Dick Haymes. Is there any famous singer in the States of whom I've not heard who has inherited his father's talents complete and pure? I'd be interested to know. Of course, various people outside the families have made livings out of having a similar sound to one of the greats. A Canadian who's name escapes me at the moment probably got closest to Bing's sound at his peak, but his was a cartoonists impression of Bing arrived at by exaggerating the key elements in Bing's style. Michael holiday was able to produce a fair facsimile of Bing's restricted fifties and sixties sound but his own limited range in the high register was a severe obstacle to any attempt at Bing's freer thirties style. His attempt at,"Down By The River," was frankly weak. It's interesting to muse on the fact that many, many thousands of Presley fans can sound uncannily like Elvis and many of them can actually look and behave like him? How unique was he compared to Bing who's like I have still not yet seen in many decades of watching and waiting? Some things are special and unique and are not for mass production. Bing was one of these. DEAN |
| Jim Crowley |
posted 12/18/02 01:33 PM Central Time (US)  contact the author directly
Dean, Given the examples of famous people who’s off spring haven’t mounted to much at least gives the rest of us some hope of possibly being one of those great singers. Perhaps its not genetics at all that makes a person have a unique voice but the influences each person has on their own life from other people. I believe that to be very true, given the examples you mentioned. And you know maybe there is Crosby’s and Sinatra’s out there already but who’s going to find them besides they-themselves might not know they exist given the era of rotten music we live in today? I can’t imagine an MCA giving somebody who sounded like Crosby a chance to record anything -- the pop music culture of today doesn’t demand it. Besides if a person doesn’t have the sex appeal to be put on a CD cover, who’s going to buy it in the world that exists today? I think most people would agree that Elvis has more sex appeal than Crosby or a Sinatra- that’s why more people try to imitate Elvis. |
| Bob |
posted 12/18/02 01:53 PM Central Time (US) contact the author directly
Dean, I fully agree with you as to the uniqueness of Bing's voice. I don't think any other male singer could hold a candle to him, especially when it comes to sheer melodic quality. However, there are other singers whose voices have such a distinctive sound as to be, in my opinion, virtually inimitable (which isn't necessarily a compliment). Three immediately come to mind: Roger Whitaker, who, I think, is a truly gifted singer, Andy Williams, also a very fine singer, and Johnny Mathis, whose voice I never could abide (I find his recording of "When a Child is Born" appealing, but only because of the song, not the singer). Bob |
| Wayne Martin, Club Crosby |
posted 12/18/02 08:15 PM Central Time (US) contact the author directly
Hi, Dean, Jim and Bob: My grandmother used to say, When God made him/her, he broke the mold." I guess that could apply to Bing, too. |
| rich |
posted 12/18/02 09:03 PM Central Time (US) contact the author directly
Dean, Perry Como had one son, and two adopted children. No report on their singing ability. Dick Haymes was married several times, had several children, again no report. He did have a brother Bob, who had a brief career in movies, and as a disc jockey. My theory is that singing, like a lot of other talents, is among siblings, and usually skips a generation. We have an an example, right here. Hello, Howard.... Merry Christmas! |
| David Robbins |
posted 12/19/02 11:49 AM Central Time (US) contact the author directly
I think there were lots of Crosby imitators in Bing's day ... probably good ones. I recently saw the Silly Symphony, "Who Killed Cock Robin?" and whoever did the voice of Robin did an impression of Bing in the 30's ... a really good one too. It sounds so much like Bing Crosby it could have been Bing. Bing Crosby outlived his unprecedented reign as the true "King" of show biz. Elvis died young and attracted a different kind of emulation. If Bing had been caught by a German shell during the war and died young, I'm sure he would have acheived a similar eternal cult like status. We would probably remember him as the James Dean of pop music. Fortunately, he lived a full life and left an enormous body of work. (Lucky us) Returning to Dean's original question, I think Judy Garland managed to pass the family talent along pretty successfully. Part of Bing's talent was sheer intelligence. He had a beautiful instrument, yes, but he also had genius. It's really not fair to expect anyone's offspring to create a whole new art form just because the old man did. |
| Carmela |
posted 12/19/02 09:10 PM Central Time (US) no email address given
Jim, the women in my family have always found Bing more appealing than Elvis. Bing's voice [speaking or singing] we think is more manly and more appealing than Elvis's. Even the way Bing acted in movies,on radio and in interveiws he seemed more appealing. Maybe it was his charm, coolness ect...Elvis never turned us on.{I know you meant his looks}. I'm a Big Rock Fan but Elvis was never my cup of tea. I like a few of his songs but to me Bing was the "Whole Package". As far as family. I think Howard Crosby is a Great singer. Bing's sons weren't bad.Singing runs in their family and maybe none of them sounded like Bing but they did inheret the talent. I find "The Greats" have many imitators but even they don't come close to the real thing.Al,Louis,Bing,Beatles,Elton ect... |
| Jim Kukura |
posted 12/20/02 11:18 AM Central Time (US) contact the author directly
How about reversing the process and trying to understand how great singing talents like Bing come from parents who have no, or only moderate, talent at best? |
| Howard Crosby |
posted 12/24/02 10:45 AM Central Time (US) contact the author directly
Jim, In response to your last posting, the story was that Grandma Kate had a beautiful singing voice as a young girl, often doing solos for the church choir. And there's no doubt that Grandpa Harry was VERY musical....played the banjo, guitar and led the boys in sing along sessions four or five nights a week after dinner. No doubt that a love of music was probably the very thing that attracted Kate and Harry, two very different people, to each other in the first place. And Bing used to say that his uncle, George Harrigan (Kate's brother) had one of the most beautiful singing voices he ever heard. I think his exact words were, "well, if you think I can sing, you should have heard my uncle George", or something like that. So maybe the apple didn't fall that far from the tree. |
| Judy Schmid |
posted 12/30/02 08:13 AM Central Time (US) contact the author directly
I finally heard Michael Holiday's voice - my sister got me a 'silly' gift (from her son, actually, but we all know who does the buying!) for Christmas - it's a CD of the music from 1956. Now, you would think it would include that guy from Tupelo, but it's a British import, so the 'hits' are mainly foreign to my ears - a few American artists and the last song is Bing _amp; Grace Kelly... But one of the hits in England in 1956 was a Perry Como song, done by Michael Holiday...Hot Digity...I could hear a Bing-like quality...but maybe a slower tempo song would display more similarities than this little novelty song, sung even faster than Perry does it... |