Bing Crosby, Gary Giddins
Bing Crosby, Gary Giddins
List: $31.95 | Sale: $22.36
Club: $15.97

Bing Crosby
The Early Years

Author: Gary Giddins

Narrator: Edward Lewis

Unabridged: 22 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/22/2005

Synopsis

In this commanding biography, eminent cultural critic Gary Giddins takes us on the remarkable journey that brought a provincial young law student from Spokane, Washington, to the pinnacle of the entertainment world. He follows Crosby from college minstrel shows to vaudeville, from Paul Whitemans orchestra to matchless success in Hollywood, from pro golf tournaments to his courtship of Dixie Lee.

About Gary Giddins

Gary Giddins was a long-time columnist for the Village Voice and is a preeminent jazz critic who received the 1998 National Book Critics Circle Award, the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award, and the Bell Atlantic Award for Visions of Jazz: The First Century. His other books include Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams—The Early Years, 1903–1940, which won the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award and the ARSC Award for Excellence in Historical Sound Research; Weatherbird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century; Faces in the Crowd; Natural Selection; and biographies of Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker. He has won an unparalleled six ASCAP–Deems Taylor Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Peabody Award in Broadcasting.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Larry on December 19, 2014

First off, "Pocketful of Dreams" is a balanced biography. It would be nice if this didn't have to be noted, but especially in the case of Crosby, when his children and step-children have written scathing or adoring memoirs, it is refreshing when a biographer explores all aspects of a person, the str......more

Goodreads review by Charles on December 17, 2009

This review originally ran in the San Jose Mercury News: Strange to say, Bing Crosby needs this biography. Other major white male jazz/pop singers who were eclipsed in the rock revolution of the '60s managed to re-emerge. Frank Sinatra's bad-boy behavior kept him hot. Tony Bennett hung with the Red......more

Goodreads review by Mortisha on July 20, 2020

A very detailed account of Bing Crosby's life from before his birth until 1940. I really enjoyed this book. Bing Crosby is one of my all time favorite performers so I was excited to read about his life. I recommend it to all Bing Fans!......more

Goodreads review by Josh on November 28, 2021

An exhaustive, granular biography of the beloved song and dance man. At times, it’s almost too granular; starting the book in 1831 when Crosby wasn’t actually born until 1903 is a pretty big flex, and Giddens may devote a bit too much space to summarizing Crosby film plots. But the granularity is al......more

Goodreads review by Ira on February 23, 2019

I read this after seeing a recommendation from my friend UG. It's not something I would have sought out on my own. It's no secret that Giddins is erudite and writes well, but he brought me into a whole part of musical history and popular culture about which I knew practically nothing. I enjoyed the......more

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