Poll: Dean Martin or Bing Crosby?

[byronic]

For me it's the early Bing, because I love jazzy big band swing and don't love 50s crooner big band pop.

I don't even like Frank Sinatra which seems to be a rare view among the vintage fans.

Like you, I'm not a Sinatra fan (and I don't even know why I'm not), but I'm giving Dino my vote.

 

[cookie]

For me it's the early Bing, because I love jazzy big band swing and don't love 50s crooner big band pop.

I don't even like Frank Sinatra which seems to be a rare view among the vintage fans.

I am with you. You can only listen to so much Frank Sinatra. Bing and Dino had much better voices.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Actually, I sort of liked the "Father O'Malley" part of Crosby, and liked his pipe and the way he wore a fedora.

Perhaps I am prejudiced by the later Crosby, with his second family, and his screwed-up sons from the earlier marriage.

Even Dean went into a tailspin towards the end of his life, I have read, after his son, Dino, was killed in that jet crash.

Still, I favor Dean Martin over Crosby. Maybe because he was cuter.

karol

 

[Tiller]

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.

Anytime a child of someone who was successful fails following in their parents footsteps, and instead start publishing story about the "horrors" of their childhood the cynic in me just rolls my eyes. Follow the money as they say, I just don't believe it.

As the old saying goes about gossip, "Believe none of what you read (hear) and half of what you see."

And when a child is making money off of bashing "parent A" I believe it even less. But that's me.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

I am currently listening to the new Mosaic Records box set of "The Bing Crosby CBS Radio Recordings (1954-56)" and it is fantastic!

Bing never again sound so cool and jazz-oriented. The 7 disc set covers so many songs he never recorded for general release. These are all done for his radio show with a trio or quartet. He recorded them in a studio and the sounds quality is top notch and better than most anything he commercially released during that time and definitely after. It is so worth the price!

"Like buried treasure reclaimed from the past, this remarkable set is like no other Bing Crosby collection ever released. Here is the great crooner and a quartet led by his longtime accompanist Buddy Cole, occasionally augmented by a few wind instruments, in a thesaurus of 160 songs recorded in the most informal of circumstances at 16 sessions, during a period (1954-56) when Bing was in exceptionally good voice." - Gary Giddins, liner notes

See more here: http://www.mosaicrecords.com/prodinfo.asp?number=245-MD-CD

 

[David V]

I've as never a big Martin fan. His choice of music to record and the arraignments were not my "cup-o-tea".

 

[StetsonHomburg]

I am realy fanatical when it comes to Martin, I like Bing too but not as much... I kind of wonder what the rat pack would be like if Bing was in it aswell, because you would have Dean, Frank, Bing... Some of the most famous and great singers!

 

[Tiller]

[YOUTUBE]JtH98umfi2U&[/YOUTUBE]

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I'm a big Dino fan, not only is he a talented singer, he exudes cool! And he was a part of the Rat Pack, and just lived the way I wish I could!

I like Bing too, but It's hard for me to get over the things I know about how he treated his kids.

 

[Heather]

That's was wonderful Tiller! Thank you for posting that! Good way to start my morning!

 

[Brian Sheridan]

I like Bing too, but It's hard for me to get over the things I know about how he treated his kids.

The "treatment" of his kids was a myth created by his alcoholic son trying to cash in on his father. It has been rebutted by his other children and friends.

If anything, he was strict and distant, but not the monster that his son wrote about in his book. He helped his sons get into show business.

From what I read, Dean wasn't model parent either.

Whereas Dean's absenteeism may be seen as "cool", Bing's is seen differently because he is mostly remembered as being "fatherly." He played a priest twice after all. Dean did too but only as a disguise in "Cannonball Run."

Not fair to either man I think. Stick to the fantastic music both of them created during their amazing careers.

 

[Happy Jack]

Dean is #1. I always enjoyed watching him. He could do it all.

 

[Wire9Vintage]

First of all, Tiller, that clip is AMAZING! Wow!

Second, my vote goes with Dean. I've loved him since I was a little girl... a very long time! Probably partly because I remember his show, and he was so charming on it, partly because his voice is like butter, and partly because my father resembled him so much... a hard-smoking dark Italian.

Bing is lovely, too, though. I just don't get the warm-fuzzies over him that I do over Dean.

 

[StetsonHomburg]

:eusa_clap

[YOUTUBE]JtH98umfi2U&[/YOUTUBE]

Great one, I actually watched that a couple months ago

 

[Brian Sheridan]

[YOUTUBE]<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Hw0o7gQnERI&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Hw0o7gQnERI&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Bustercat]

Do I prefer apples or oranges?
Tough call. They're so different, both connect to my youth in different ways.

 

[Jennifer Lynn]

I don't think I could choose between the two. I like both for a variety of their work. I'm a softy for Bing's narration and singing for Disney's Sleepy Hollow cartoon (and I have that on vinyl), as well as White Christmas and his version of Jingle Bells with the Andrews Sisters. I love Dean for quite a few of his songs, including Memories (are made of this) as well as Mambo Italiano.

 

[HadleyH]

BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(but, ONLY early Bing! late 20s early 30s ... that is not negotiable! )

-------------------------------------------------------------
These words from Dean...

"Years later, basking in the glow of his success in movies, television and recordings, Dean Martin also gave credit to Bing Crosby publicly, and with great frequency, for the influence on his own career. In a 1967 interview with Oriana Fallaci Dean confessed, “When a Bing Crosby movie came to Steubenville, I would stay there all day and watch – that’s how I learned to sing because it’s true I don’t read a note.***” Dean mentioned Sinatra and Como in the same interview as he continued, “I learned from Crosby and so did Sinatra and Perry Como. We all started imitatin’ him [Crosby]; he was the teacher for all of us.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------

and here is Dino worshipping Bing, his idol!

 

[Undertow]

For me it's the early Bing, because I love jazzy big band swing and don't love 50s crooner big band pop.

I don't even like Frank Sinatra which seems to be a rare view among the vintage fans.

I have to agree with you here; I've never been much of a Sinatra/Martin/Ratpack, etc. fan unfortunately. I respect their careers, I think they are talented singers, but nothing special to me.

I've been a Bing fan all my life.

 

[Undertow]

The "treatment" of his kids was a myth created by his alcoholic son trying to cash in on his father. It has been rebutted by his other children and friends.

If anything, he was strict and distant, but not the monster that his son wrote about in his book. He helped his sons get into show business.

From what I read, Dean wasn't model parent either.

Whereas Dean's absenteeism may be seen as "cool", Bing's is seen differently because he is mostly remembered as being "fatherly." He played a priest twice after all. Dean did too but only as a disguise in "Cannonball Run."

Not fair to either man I think. Stick to the fantastic music both of them created during their amazing careers.

I was going to chime in until I got to your post. Well put!