Art Follows Technology

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Art Follows Technology
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The Metropolitan Opera House
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To fill the house, you needed a BIG Voice

• Enrico Caruso Luciano Pavarotti

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To Play at Home You Needed
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Enter This Man
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Lee De Forest

• invented

The Audion
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Upon refinement

• An early Valve Modern vacuum Tube

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Early Amplifier
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Improvements
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Electro-Voice microphones
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Loudspeakers
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• This allowed a singer to sing softly and be heard
  throughout the concert hall

Enter
THE CROONER
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The First Crooner
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Rudy Vallee
1901 - 1986
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• Enlisted in Army during WWI at age 16
• Discharged 41 days later
• Graduated from Yale with a degree in philosophy
• Began his band
• Radio The Fleischmanns Yeast Hour
• WWII Led US Coast Guard Band

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Recording Career

• Many records in 1920s and early 1930s
• Arguably he peaked before the technology really
  developed
• Talkies
• 1929 film Vagabond Lover

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Broadway Career

• How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
  in 1961 ran for 1,417 performances also
  appeared in movie
• Play won Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award

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Film and TV

• Appeared in over 2 dozen films
• Appeared in over a dozen TV episodes

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The next big crooner
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Bing Crosby

• 1906 - 1977

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Recording Career Highlights

• 1931 Ten of top 50 songs were Bings
• 1942 White Christmas - 1 for 11 weeks
• This song ultimately sold 100 million records
• Lifetime 338 Chart singles 41 1 songs
• In his career, Bing sold 500 million records

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Film Career

• Started 1931 The King of Jazz
• 1944 - Going My Way Oscar
• Many other films
• Sold 1 billion movie tickets
• 3 all time movie star behind only Clark Gable
  and John Wayne

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• Born 1916

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Recording Career

• Early Career in 1930s with Harry James and Tommy
  Dorsey
• Later career success due in part to arrangers
  Nelson Riddle, Billy May, and Gordon Jenkins
• Sold 150 million albums

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Film Career

• Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in From
  Here to Eternity
• Nomination for Best Actor in The Man with the
  Golden Arm
• Emmy for A Man and His Music
• 11 Grammys

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• 1951 Desert Inn
• 1960s resurrected his career and made Las Vegas
  ground zero for adult entertainment
• Rat Pack
• 1994 MGM Grand Final Concert

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In the years we knew him
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Andy Williams
Born 1927
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Moon River Theatre in Branson

• Started singing in 1953
• Opened Theatre 1992 Won Architectural Digest
  award
• Seats gt 2,000 people, as big as the Renee and
  Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall
• Still going strong in 2011

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Billy Eckstine
1914 to 1993
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Billy Eckstine

• The first Black star crooner
• Had his own band but performed with virtually
  every notable band
• Appeared on every big TV program and sang with
  every other notable singer
• Gave start to Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Art
  Blakey, Charlie Parker and many others

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Vic Damone
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• Recorded 37 albums form 1950 to 1995
• own TV program in 1956
• Appeared on virtually all variety programs
• Sang title songs in films from An Affair to
  Remember to War and Peace (what WAS THAT song?)

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• Spokesinger for Ford Motor Companys
  introduction of the 1963 models with The
  Lively Ones
• (only Bob Tarlton and Jim Graham will remember
  that)

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1925-1999
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The Velvet Fog

• 1930s radio serials as in
• Jack Armstrong, The All-American Boy
• Singing and movies in the 40s
• Own TV show 1951-52
• Resurgence of career as jazz became popular again
  in the 1970s

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Songwriter

• Wrote 250 songs
• Most popular The Christmas Song
• aka Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

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Nat King Cole
1919-1965
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• 1956 1st Black man to have own TV show
• Amazing accomplishments for a short career

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Perry Como
1912-2001
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• The man who invented casual - Bing Crosby
• The first crooner to figure out TV
• His TV show was NBCs biggest
• Out ranked Jackie Gleason
• Among the first color TV shows
• 50 year career

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Ray Charles (Robinson)
1930-2004
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He could do EVERYTHING

• 2 on Rolling Stones 2008 list of "100
  Greatest Singers of All Time
• Billy Joel noted "This may sound like sacrilege,
  but I think Ray Charles was more important than
  Elvis Presley.
• 12 Grammys

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Records

• 1954 I Got a Woman
• 1959 Whatd I Say
• 1960 Georgia on my Mind
• 1960 Ruby
• 1961 Hit the Road, Jack

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Off-Stage

• Charles was married twice and fathered 12
  children with nine different women, a record not
  likely to be broken, EVER
• 2004 Bio-Pic Ray won Oscar for Jamie Foxx

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Tony Bennett
1926
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Tribute from Frank Sinatra

• "For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer
  in the business. He excites me when I watch him.
  He moves me. He's the singer who gets across what
  the composer has in mind, and probably a little
  more

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Female Singers not usually called Crooners
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Vera Lynn

• Not the first crooner as there were some singing
  with the Big Bands in the 30s but she was one of
  the best
• Remember Bob Tarltons speech
• You could do another speech on Female Crooners

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Current Crooners

• The art form is alive and well
• Hrry Connick Jr sold 25 million records
• Michael Bublé won 2011 Grammy
• The beat goes on

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J.D. Hays List of Crooners

• Al Martino Andy Williams Barry Manilow
  Billy Eckstine
• Bing Crosby Bobby Bare Bobbie Curtola
  Bobby Vee
• Bobby VintonBrook Benton Buddy Clark Burl
  Ives
• Charley Pride Charlie Rich Dave Dudley
  Dean Martin
• Dick Haymes Dion Eddy Arnold
  EddyFisher
• Englebert Humperdinck Frankie Lane
  Frank Sinatra
• Gene Pitney Glenn Yarbrough Gordon
  Lightfoot
• Jack Jones Jerry Vale Jerry Wallace
  Jim Nabors
• Jim Reeves Jimmy Rodgers John Gary
  Johnny Mathis
• Marty Robbins Matt Munro Mel Tillis
  Mel Torme
• Nat King Cole Neil Diamond Neil Sedaka
  Pat Boone
• Perry Como Ray Charles Ray Price
  Ricky Nelson
• Rod McKuen Rodger Whittaker
  Roger Miller
• Ronnie Milsap Roy Orbison Roy Rogers Sam
  Cooke
• Slim Whitman Sonny James Steve Lawrence Tom
  Jones
• Tony Bennett Valdy Vic Damone
  Webb Pierce 

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Rudys Car
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• Home at 7430 Pyramid Place in the Hollywood Hills
• City Council never approved but he installed it
  anyway, close to his driveway.
• Allegedly it is still there today

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Map
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Rudy Vallee July 28, 1901 to July 3, 1986
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As Time Goes By

• Recorded in 1931
• Became a hit with the 1942 movie Casablanca
• Dooley Wilson was singer but actually NOT the
  pianist

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• Because of the recording ban during WWII, Dooley
  Wilson could not record the song
• Victor records re-issued the 1931 version done
  by Rudy and it became a 1 hit that year.
• The only time a record became a hit 12 years
  after being recorded
• This was Rudys last hit, recorded 80 years ago

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My Ruby