Como and Dino were direct imitators of Bing, not Sinatra. I just resent that Friedwald seems to see Bing as merely someone who inspired/created Sinatra and that his greatest achivement was being a precursor to Frank.įor me Sinatra never sounded like Bing and was unique in that he sounded like no one else and developed as no had before. Bing was a hugely more important, talented and greater singer singer than Jolson.įriedwald goes on to correctly say that Bing was a major influence on Frank and that Frank was a greater interpreter of lyrics than Bing. Now undoubtedly this is all true, but to dismiss Bing as merely building on what Jolson did is nonsense. Then along comes Sinatra who brings what they did together and builds on it.' First, there was Jolson, who was great at what he did, and then Bing Crosby built on what Jolson had done. 'The whole of popular music before Sinatra can be described as a gradual building towards Sinatra. The other day I was leafing through one of my Bing scrapbooks and got my nose out of joint over this Friedwald quote from about 6 years ago: But to dispute Crosby's tremendous impact on popular music is noth disingenuous and inaccurate. Of course he prefers Sinatra and is a noted Sinatraphile, which is great. I've never much cared for Will Friedwald's opinions on Bing's influence upon popular music. Posted 02/05/06 06:10 PM Central Time (US) contact the author directly

Will Friedwald on Bing - Bing Crosby Internet Museum - Will Friedwald on Bing

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