skip's blog

vid: let's bing

I agree with what Merle Haggard told the great interviewer Kristine McKenna -- Crosby was the greatest and that Sinatra was the only guy whose style was sufficiently original to actually eclipse Crosby.

There's a school of thought among a few that Russ Colombo was the greatest singer of the crooning generation, but that's science fiction. Crosby was in that rarified timeless league with Armstrong, Sinatra, Teagarden, Ray Charles, and those far too few others who remake the American songbook in their own image. Tony Bennett isn't in this league.

"Now You Has Jazz" was born as a sort of throwaway hootenany for the film High Society, and it's reprised here for the same edsel show from which the Sinatra clip was drawn. Notice how Crosby -- backed by one of Louis Armstrong's best All-Star's -- does not get lost in the shuffle. Pianist Billy Kyle, criminally unheralded, is of particular note, but (reasons to be cheerful) we also get great footage of Trummy Young and Edmund Hall. And Bing and Louis taking this piece of fluff and making it into an excuse to sneak the real deal into a lot of living rooms.

posted by skip heller @ 12:57 AM