Bing Crosby talks about Elvis Presley

[jhowej3]

Bing Crosby still hold the record for the biggest selling single ever, 85 million copies.... White Christmas

[TheMagneto187]

Elvis Presley was nominated for 41 Grammys, Elvis sold over 2.5 Billion Records He also received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award when he was 36. He has been inducted into four different music halls of fame.

Elvis Presley the King was the most versatile and dynamic with hes music. Rock n Roll, Rythem n Blues, Gospel, Country, Spanish music, Flamenco, Pop, Jazz, Swing e.t.c. Bing Crosby, The Beatles and Frank Sinatra's music all sounded the same after a while though they were great.

[donn409]

One of the reasons ELVIS became the legend he became is because he is the bridge that connected two eras of music.

[77hulkhogan]

bing was good ,elvis the best but to put sinatra with them i thought sinatras voice was rough i dont see it with him as one of the greats sorry

[VeryHugeAss]

Most younger people do not realize how big Bing Crosby was. He was the biggest act in show business for years. He does not sound the least bit jealous of Elvis in my opinion. He is just staing facts.

[mieleD]

Bing Crosby was a very bitter man. Had a streak of mean too.

[donn409]

Say what you will about ELVIS and Bing they were the top entertainers of their eras. The best of the best. The Beatles did the same for groups. You could throw Michael Jackson in that rare group as well.

[Prozacwierd]

Best Voices are in Male side without counting Opera singers.

Elvis, Tom Jones , Robert Plant , Julio and does are Tops.

A Fact not an opinion.:)

Out of all of them only Elvis will live forever.

When i travel around you see that already how most stars that were very big years ago. The young People do not know them but they know of Elvis.

so yea i see it happen that in 1000 years the only Name they will know as a God in his time with fans like no other will be ELVIS.

[kitchenqueen67]

Yea Mauricio I totally agree with your comment.As Elvis grown older his voice get better and better.And fact is that nobody could transport feelings through voice better than Elvis did.He wasn´t bounded by style he just was unique.His looks,his charisma,his behaviours, especially with his musicians he performed with on Stage.No other singer gave them(Background Singers,Guitarists,Drum Player,Bass Guitar Player ect.) the possibility to show their talents more than EP did.Remember that.

[jimmbo13]

I would give my arm to hear interviews with Bing.

[Coolrockndad]

It's not always the voice that makes a popular singer. A perfect example would be Springsteen but man does his songs tell a story and his shows are so damn alive. I love them all Bruce, Bing, Elvis, Frank, Perry, Pat, Dean. Thanks guys for all the great tunes and shows.

[mozfonky]

Incredible how well Bing knew what he was talking about. Elvis hated his ballad singing when he first started. As we know he got better and better as a pure singer. Also, great that he's objective and not hateful like Sinatra and so many others were.

[natemini]

I think when Elvis was young his voice was astounding in ballad type songs....just listen to him sing Fame and fortune on Frank Sinatra show....I want you I need you I want you on Steve Allen Show....or Love me Tender....and so many others...his voice was absolutely superb...and incredibly beautiful...he "held notes" beautifully...I argue that it needed to develop in that area. His voice did change over the years...but it's hard to say which voice was better....young....middle....o­r older Elvis

[websurfer1001]

Interesting audio document. The great Bing Crosby was surelly an influence on Elvis, and he clearly understood Presley and his talent, way better than the idiot who was interviewing him. In fact, Presley had great rithm, he could sing, and with time he developed his voice and became an acomplished vocalist. No wonder Elvis received the Bing Crosby award in 1970.

[CSTANCHIK]

bing crosby died on 77 after getting ill at the golf course. his son gary crosby starred with the king and went onto actbefore he die early. cstanchik

[airdr]

I am a huge fan of both Bing and Elvis, but for those arguing who's better, etc., listen to Bing's song called "Sunshine Cake". A minute and half into the song, he sure sounds a lot like Elvis.

But here's the thing, Sunshine Cake was released in 1950- Elvis didn't record until 1953.

Elvis had to be inspired by Bing. And obviously Bing appreciated Elvis's talent. So nobody's better than anybody. Everybody inspires everybody. The End.

[justicejayant]

I don't think anybody argued here :) .

[Geepsterr]

Hah I'll check out Sunshine Cake. This IMO is the 2nd most important male pop singer of the 20th century commenting on the 3rd from a historical breakthrough perspective .

[TheLisa03]

AMEN to that.

[melkiemelkie]

I want to hear a interview from the sixties or the seventies about Elvis, A time when Elvis had the biggest voice of them all.

[BigBingFan]

1 more comment. People waited awhile for an imminent Bing single, they'd buy it, put it on the Victrola. Him selling "White Christmas" so many millions was remarkable. Now there are Ipods, music videos, MP3's, radio, satellite radio, movies, CD's, DVD's, online downloads, plus I believe 2 1/2 times the population of the US--now, with all the venues available, Bing's "White Christmas", and others from that era, are truly amazing if put into perspective that there was just a breakable 78 record.

[BigBingFan]

Just to follow-up: Listen to today's "young country." It is not country, but loud rock, with yelled vocalizations, partially because the instrumentation is so goshawfully loud. In Bing's time, listen to say the 1939 Stardust version, you have to listen very hard to hear the very light instrumentation, due to the immense richness and range of Bing's voice. Listen to "Hound Dog"-the vocal was "yelled"-Music was changing-not to a better style.Now country is just awful-it's noisy-not authentic.

[BigBingFan]

As a Bing loyalist, I can't speak for some of Bing's earliest Elvis comments, but I do know that Bing had the quality of voice, the baritone, without modern technology..basically a time when VOICE alone was the compelling factor in success-Not gimmickry, gyrations, high-tech amplification, or "playing to the audience." Bing stayed true to the song, the melody, etc. Not saying Elvis didn't, but saying that Bing's voice will likely never be matched for the forseeable future-public wants glitz now

[colujomes]

"Bing stayed true to the song, the melody" Actually, he did exactly the opposite. That's what made him special. Together with Louis Armstrong, Bing re-invented singing in the late 1920s, changing the familiar melodies of Tin Pan Alley standards with bluesy notes and syncopated jazz phrasing. It was the 'glitz' of its day.

[elvisworldwide]

Generous sentiments from a man who sold one hundred million copies of a single record. Later, Elvis received Grammy's Bing Crosby award. Thanks for this fascinating post.

[shemseven]

I tihnk this goes to show how mature a person Bing Crosby was. In '56 he said Elvis wouldn't contribute, but a year later he clearly has warm feelings for him. And to admit that hes glad Elvis came along and that music has to progress. That's really cool. A true musician.

[AIK180]

Good lookin kid hehehhe

=)

[MAGICO240]

Elvis could sing anything, Sinatra and Cosby mmmm

[binghlcrosby]

@MAGICO240 Actually, Bing Crosby could sing anything from his own era, being dixieland, jazz-inspired pop, swing, ballads, country, Hawaiian, Irish, Christmas music, traditional hymns (in Latin too), sing in French, Italian, Spanish, German etc. Just like Elvis could sing any type of song from his era.

[binghlcrosby]

(3rd part) Ive always wished that Bing had done more with his voice for loss of some popularity. As to the better singer among Jolson, Crosby, Sinatra, Elvis, it is to personal taste, but they all possessed a talent that we would search for in vein these days. But people said this about Jolson and Crosby when they started out. Also, some of Crosbys 40s songs have hints of early rock and roll in them, even if he is singing about jazz.

[justicejayant]

Agreed with each of your word. Take care.

[binghlcrosby]

(2nd part) Following Bing's comment about the bad boy image, a lot of Elvis and Sinatra's longer popular endurance may be attributed to this, as well as recording technology during their vocal primes, and song choice.

[binghlcrosby]

(1st part) I am a massive fan of Crosby, also Sinatra and Jolson. Upon listening to a bit of Elvis on Youtube, apart from obvious sociological differences and personalities, he was not that different a singer to Crosby. They traded songs (and films) with Blue Hawaii, sang ballads, sang Hawaiian, country and western. Elvis probably sang more blues and Crosby had more of the 1920's syncopated dixieland jazz voice.

[everydream7]

Well as the old Elvis album title once said "50,000,000 cant be wrong" - though according to edr1882, they obviously were !

And with the latest sales figures for Elvis being well over a billion, so edr1882........it must be nice to be right when everyone else is wrong, eh.............?

[maxwelld1961]

Yknow i saw a thing in a magazine.Where supposedly Bing said he,Elvis never did a damn thing for music.And then you hear an interview like this and you get a whole new respect for Mr. Crosby.He was pretty cool.

[B1a2k3e4r]

yeah , it was the same sort of things with Frank Sinatra and a few others....i guess they must have been a bit peeved at the time because popular music changed from what they were doing.

[justicejayant]

Bing Crosby had said in 1956 that:-

"Elvis will never contribute a damn thing to music."

Bing Crosby had said in 1972:-

"He helped to kill off the influence of me and my contemporaries, but I respect him for that. Because music always has to progress, and no-one could have opened the door to the future like he did."

[mozfonky]

@maxwelld1961

that's a great quote, Elvis ironically did plenty of crooning in his career, i'm sure he'd disagree that he didn't carry on crosby's style. Hell, that's where I got it from, I never listened much to crosby.

[Mullahgrrl]

One girl threw her..erhm.. glove.

[Bolgi]

Bing Crosby seemed like a very cool dude!

We all now know that Elvis Presley did develop his voice to the point where he became one of the greatest vocalists of the 20th Century.

[edr1882]

Elvis is one of the most overrated artists ever!! He was good, but one of the greatest vocalists? NO!

[justicejayant]

He's underrated though.. How he isn't in greatest vocalists? Bing Crosby liked him.

[passionfleur]

in what respect was he overrated? he recorded more styles than almost any other. FACT. Had awesome range vocally. FACT.

if u are not a fan, or dont know much about his other stuff then thats cool, but dont knock him without adding some facts.

his vocal skills are there for history too see, his range cant be doubted, if u like it is your call. but the facts are undeniable.

[melkiemelkie]

hahahaha......almost everybody say elvis is one of the greatest singers ever, but edr1882 says NO.

That's says enough.

[justicejayant]

Correct, Still edr1882 says that "he was good".. I don't think any body can really say that Elvis wasn't good singer.

[MauricioCasteglione]

I desagree. Elvis´ voice was superb, if you pay attention to songs like How Great Thou Art and My Way. I love Sinatra´s voice of course, but I honestly prefer Elvis´ My Way version. Elvis, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Mario Lanza and Sinatra are, to me, the greatest singers ever.

[B1a2k3e4r]

it seems more relevant to him aswell as his voice being brilliant