Poll: Dean Martin or Bing Crosby?

[StetsonHomburg]

:coffee: Well they may be from different eras I still believe they are comparable.

 

[Widebrim]

Phil Harris is a guy who doesn't get much attention when it comes to these discussions, as well. The songs he did for Disney were the introduction many members of my generation had to the crooner/Jazz style .

That's because Harris is often thought of as simply Jack Benny's bandleader. For my money, his band did the best versions of "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo," and "Mr. Four by Four."

 

[GWD]

I'm a huge Dino fan, I'm a little less huge Bing Fan, but I'm even a huger Sinatra fan!

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's because Harris is often thought of as simply Jack Benny's bandleader. For my money, his band did the best versions of "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo," and "Mr. Four by Four."

Harris was one of the top bandleaders on the West Coast before joining Benny -- but he didn't make very many records until much later in his career, by which time he'd been pegged as purely a novelty singer. But he made quite a few radio transcriptions in the early thirties, before joining Benny, and those reveal that he was a much more versatile performer than he seemed to be in later life.

It just occured to me that if you cross Phil Harris with Tony Bennett, you get Dean Martin.

 

[Widebrim]

It just occured to me that if you cross Phil Harris with Tony Bennett, you get Dean Martin.

Bingo!! (No pun intended.)

 

[Widebrim]

I'm a huge Dino fan, I'm a little less huge Bing Fan, but I'm even a huger Sinatra fan!

That pretty much describes me, too...

 

[Tiller]

That's because Harris is often thought of as simply Jack Benny's bandleader. For my money, his band did the best versions of "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo," and "Mr. Four by Four."

In an ironic way now, Phil Harris could be remembered more then Benny in a few generations. He will always be known as the original voice of Baloo the bear for generation after generation of kids who are raised watching Disney .

 

[LizzieMaine]

Harris and Dean Martin were great golfing buddies -- they had the only golf cart in Palm Springs with a designated driver.

 

[Chas]

Personally, I like Dino. I loathe Sinatra, the egomaniacal blowhard. He was a heel.

 

[Widebrim]

Personally, I like Dino. I loathe Sinatra, the egomaniacal blowhard. He was a heel.

I read once where Brando said that when Sinatra "got to heaven," he was going to bawl God out for letting him go bald...

 

[Tomasso]

I read once where Brando said that when Sinatra "got to heaven," he was going to bawl God out for letting him go bald...

Brando was certifiable.

 

[Chas]

Brando was certifiable.

@times. He was also arguably the greatest actor of his generation.

 

[ratpack66]

No contest. Bing Crosby has always been my favorite He was one of the best crooners of all time. I've always enjoyed his music. On the other hand, while Dean Martin was a good singer with a style all his own, I do not particularly care for his sound. Not my cup of tea. My earliest recollections of Dean Martin were as a comedian, half of the duo of Martin and Lewis. I still think of him that way.

Bing Crosby a role model what a laugh the man abused his sons ,he was not a role model,Personally I have to go with Dino,Frank first though then Dino

 

[Prairie Dog]

These two crooners are like "Night & Day". Crosby was the recording trail blazer. Probably the greatest recording artist of the first half of the 20th century. His catalogue of songs comes close to no one except Sinatra. Dino represents the suave lounge singer of the 50's and early 60's, the polar opposite of Mr. Crosby. I appreciate both of them, just in different ways. I like to look at it this way.....let's just say Crosby was the father of American music, Sinatra the son and Dino the cool stepchild. And while we're looking at this in a familial way, I'll throw in Perry Como as the child every father would be pleased to have as a son.

Note: If you ever want a good night sleep, listen to one of Perry's Greatest Hits discs and you'll too will have "A Dreamer's Holiday".... "Dreaming Along Your Way To A Star").

 

[Tiller]

Bing Crosby a role model what a laugh the man abused his sons ,he was not a role model,Personally I have to go with Dino,Frank first though then Dino

I know it's opening a can of worms but that isn't usually universally accepted in the Crosby family itself. AS Philip Crosby said..

"My dad was not the monster my lying brother said he was; he was strict, but my father never beat us black and blue, and my brother Gary was a vicious, no-good liar for saying so. I have nothing but fond memories of Dad, going to studios with him, family vacations at our cabin in Idaho, boating and fishing with him. To my dying day, I'll hate Gary for dragging Dad's name through the mud. He wrote Going My Own Way out of greed. He wanted to make money and knew that humiliating our father and blackening his name was the only way he could do it. He knew it would generate a lot of publicity. That was the only way he could get his ugly, no-talent face on television and in the newspapers. My dad was my hero. I loved him very much. He loved all of us too, including Gary. He was a great father."

I always have a hard time believing everything the children of the famous say about their parents, especially when books and money are involved.

 

[conrad5157]

From a Bing fan thanks for posting that quote^^^^

Not that I don't like Dean, what's not to like?

 

[skyvue]

I have no idea what the truth was about Bing -- it probably fell somewhere between the sons' two accounts -- but children can have very different experiences with their parents, especially when they have different mothers, as in this case.

I know someone who knows her father only as docile and sad, a mostly functioning drunk who wouldn't -- or perhaps couldn't -- harm a fly.

Her older sister and brother -- eight and eleven years older, respectively -- knew a quite different man. He was an abusive alcoholic who terrorized them and their mother.

If her older sister were to write a book about their father (she won't, and he's not famous), the younger sister could easily argue against it based on her own experience.

But that wouldn't make the stories in the hypothetical book untrue.

 

[Lillemor]

Bing since i was little. Was introduced to Dean rather late and don't really know his music so I can't really compare. Like his daughter Deanna's voice.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Dino!

Much prefer him over Crosby. Who would be more fun at a party? Who was funny and charming? He was also my favorite Rat-Packer.

As for crooning voices, both were good. My favorite singer from that era was and is Tony Bennett.

But Dino would be more fun to hang out with.

karol

 

[skyvue]

Much prefer him over Crosby. Who would be more fun at a party?

Bing was plenty fun at a party, actually. In the early years of his career, at least, he was known to be every bit the carouser Dean was. And Bing had a great way with witty repartee and dialogue.

I get the sense, and I don't mean this as a knock on anyone, that a number of posters in this thread know only the older, sweater-wearing, pipe-smoking Bing of the Sixties. Or perhaps the priestly Bing as seen in certain of his movies.

He was the Elvis of his day, in a very real sense. Not at all stodgy or boring.