From Publishers Weekly
Jazz critic Giddins's latest subject will probably surprise those who think of Bing Crosby (1903-1977) as "a square old man who made orange-juice commercials" and sang "White Christmas" every year on TV. Giddins reminds us that, in the 1920s and '30s, Crosby was a very jazzy singer indeed: "the first white performer to appreciate and assimilate the genius of Louis Armstrong." This sober, comprehensive biography lacks the thematic breadth and action-packed sentences that made Giddins's Visions of Jazz so memorable, but it's a perceptive portrait of Crosby as a man, a singer, a radio personality and a budding movie star in the loose, creative years before he hardened into a monument. Giddins's account of Crosby's middle-class, Irish-American youth in Washington State astutely stresses this singer's years of Jesuit schooling, which made him unusually well educated for a performer and grounded him in values that contributed to the modesty, reserve and self-confidence American audiences found so appealing. Tracing Crosby's rise through vaudeville, Paul Whiteman's band, short films and radio shows, Giddins also offers a mini-history of technology's impact on popular music, most notably Crosby's famous ability to use a microphone to create a more intimate singing style. There's a bit too much background on minor characters and on forgettable films before readers arrive at The Road to Singapore, which launched Crosby's epochal partnership with Bob Hope. But Giddins amply makes his case that Crosby "came along when American entertainment was at a crossroads [and] showed it which road to take." Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.) Forecast: Giddins has long been popular among serious jazz fans, and his name recognition jumped after Visions of Jazz won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1998. The first volume of a multipart biography, this book will be further boosted by advertising and an eight-city author tour, including an appearance on Ken Burns's PBS documentary, Jazz, airing in January. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


New York Times Book Review, 2/11/01
"...those of us who have been waiting all these years to learn everything there is to know about Crosby can only be grateful..."


Wall Street Journal, 1/26/01
"Gary Giddens mack be the best thing to happen to Bing Crosby since Bob Hope...the rarest of all show-business bios..."


Los Angeles Times, 1/28/01
"Giddens has done his work diligently...proves himself an alert...commentator..."


Washington Post Book World, 1/27/01
"...Giddens has a clear understanding of who Bing Crosby was, how he got that way, and why he was so widely, gratefully loved."


From Booklist
Those who remember Bing Crosby only for "White Christmas" may be surprised to find jazz-critic Giddins, the author of books on Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker, singing Der Bingle's praises as "one of the handful of artists who remade American music in the 1920s." Through a combination of careful research and precise, remarkably insightful analysis of vocal technique, Giddins shows how Crosby, the first white singer to recognize the genius of Louis Armstrong, remade our notion of pop singer (the term didn't even exist before Crosby), developing a vocal style that was based on intimacy and naturalness--the very opposite of the artificial, effeminate tenors who were fronting orchestras before Bing. Following Crosby's development from childhood in Spokane, Washington, through a revolutionary period with Paul Whiteman's band (where Bing quickly associated himself with other top jazzmen including Bix Beiderbecke, Frank Trumbauer, and Joe Venuti), and on to his phenomenal solo career, on record, on radio, and in the movies, Giddins reveals how Crosby transformed mass entertainment, whether it was teaching a generation of American singers how to use a microphone or redefining what it means for an actor to "play himself." Above all, though, there was the Crosby persona: "Bing was quintessentially American, cool and upbeat, never pompous, belligerent, or saccharine, never smug or superior. He looked down on no one and up to no one." Or, as Artie Shaw put it: "Bing Crosby was the first hip white person born in the United States." In the course of reestablishing Bing as a hipster, Giddins has contributed a landmark study of popular singing in the first half of the twentieth century. But, like Bing, he does it without pomposity, and he swings. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


New York Newsday, 1/28/01
"...he represses his style to a degree, as if to clear the decks for Crosby's own remarkable story..."


Denver Post, 2/18/01
"...lavish...focuses on the music, putting Crosby's development as an artist into impressive perspective...offers ripe social insights..."


Rocky Mountain News, 2/28/01
"Such a key figure deserves a serious, comprehensive biographer, and Crosby has one in Gary Giddens..."


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2/28/01
"...an amazing job of rehabilitating Crosby's record..."


BookPage, 3/01
"A well written and entertaining work..."


San Diego Union Tribune, 2/4/01
"...an unusually detailed look at a life that was thought to be highly public..."


US, 2/12/01
"...captures and illuminates the gifted artist that earlier gossipy bios missed.."


People, 1/22/01
"...the author's boundless but utterly clear-eyed enthusiasm for his subject is contagious..."


Book Description
From 1934 to 1954, Bing Crosby utterly dominated American entertainment. Nobody has ever had as many hit records, and Crosby was the number one movie star five years in a row. The rise of Bing Crosby was the rise of American popular culture itself. In A Pocketful of Dreams, the first volume of the definitive Crosby biography, award-winning music critic Gary Giddins chronicles the ascension of Bing's career. From Crosby's early recordings, to his triumph on America's most popular radio show, to his first success in Hollywood, Giddins provides the most detailed study yet of the rise of an American star.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Bing Crosby is remembered by many today as a laid-back, pipe-smoking, cardigan-clad crooner whose music was strictly squaresville, but his was a lengthy, groundbreaking career that is long overdue for reexamination. Perhaps no one is better suited to trace his wide-reaching influence on American popular culture than the esteemed music journalist Gary Giddins. Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams -- the Early Years, 1903-1940 takes us back to a time when Bing was as big as all five Backstreet Boys put together.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

From 1934 to 1954, Bing Crosby utterly dominated American entertainment. Nobody has ever had as many hit records, and Crosby was the number one movie star five years in a row. The rise of Bing Crosby was the rise of American popular culture itself.

FROM THE CRITICS

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

...an amazing job of rehabilitating Crosby's record...

Wall Street Journal

Gary Giddens mack be the best thing to happen to Bing Crosby since Bob Hope...the rarest of all show-business bios...

LA Times

Giddens has done his work diligently...proves himself an alert...commentator...

People

...the author's boundless but utterly clear-eyed enthusiasm for his subject is contagious...

US