Bing Crosby was, without doubt, the most popular and influential media star of the first half of the 20th century. The undisputed best-selling artist until well into the rock era (with over half a billion records in circulation), the most popular radio star of all time, and the biggest box-office draw of the 1940s, Crosby dominated the entertainment world from the Depression until the mid-'50s, and proved just as influential as he was popular. Unlike the many vocal artists before him, Crosby grew up with radio, and his intimate bedside manner was a style perfectly suited to emphasize the strengths of a medium transmitted directly into the home. He was also helped by the emerging microphone technology: scientists had perfected the electrically amplified recording process scant months before Crosby debuted on record, and in contrast to earlier vocalists, who were forced to strain their voices into upper registers to make an impression onto mechanically recorded tracks, Crosby's warm, manly baritone crooned to its heart's content without a thought of excess.

Not to be forgotten in charting Bing Crosby's influence is the music itself. His song knowledge and sense of laidback swing was learned from early jazz music, far less formal than the European-influenced classical and popular music used for inspiration by the vocalists of the 1910s and '20s. Jazz was by no means his main concentration, though, especially after the 1930s; Crosby instead blended contemporary pop hits with the best songs from a wide range of material (occasionally recording theme-oriented songs written by non-specialists as well, such as Cole Porter's notoriously un-Western "Don't Fence Me In"). His wide repertoire covered showtunes, film music, country & western songs, patriotic standards, religious hymns, holiday favorites, and ethnic ballads (most notably Irish and Hawaiian). The breadth of material wasn't threatening to audiences because Crosby put his own indelible stamp on each song he recorded, appealing to many different audiences while still not endangering his own fanbase. Bing Crosby was among the first to actually read songs, making them his own by interpreting the lyrics and emphasizing words or phrases to emphasize what he thought best.

His influence and importance in terms of vocal ability and knowledge of American popular music is immense, but what made Bing Crosby more than anything else was his persona -- whether it was an artificial creation or something utterly natural to his own personality. Crosby represented the American everyman -- strong and stern to a point yet easygoing and affable, tolerant of other viewpoints but quick to defend God and the American way -- during the hard times of the Depression and World War II, when Americans most needed a symbol of what their country was all about.

Bing Crosby was born Harry Lillis Crosby in Tacoma, Washington on May 3, 1903. (Bingo was a childhood nickname from one of his favorite comic strips.) The fourth of seven children in a poverty-level family that loved to sing, he was briefly sent to vocal lessons early on by his mother, until he grew tired of classical training. An early admirer of Al Jolson, Crosby met his hero after his family moved to Spokane; Jolson appeared there in a touring production named Bombo. Crosby sang in a high-school jazz band, and when he began attending nearby Gonzaga College (to become a lawyer), he ordered a drum set through the mail and practiced on the set. Introduced to a local bandleader named Al Rinker, he was invited to join Rinker's group, the Musicaladers, singing and playing drums with the group throughout college.

Though the Musicaladers broke up soon after his graduation in 1925, Crosby was ready to stick with the music business. He had made quite a bit of money during the band's career, and with the help of Rinker -- who was the brother of Mildred Bailey -- the duo were confident they could make it in California. They packed up their belongings and headed out for Los Angeles, finding good money working in vaudeville until they were hired by Paul Whiteman, leader of the most popular jazz band in the country (and known as the "King of Jazz" in an era when black pioneers like Louis Armstrong were mostly ignored since they were unmarketable). For a few songs during Whiteman's shows, Rinker and Crosby sang as the Rhythm Boys with Harry Barris (a pianist, arranger, vocal effects artist and songwriter later renowned for "I Surrender Dear" and "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams"). With their clever songwriting and stage routines, the trio soon became one of the Orchestra's most popular attractions, and Crosby and Rinker took vocals on two of Whiteman's biggest hits of 1927-28, "My Blue Heaven" and "Ol' Man River." Besides appearing on vinyl with Whiteman's Orchestra, the Rhythm Boys also recorded on their own -- though an opportunity to enlarge their parts in the 1930 film The King of Jazz with a solo song went unrealized, as Crosby sat in the clink for a drunk-driving altercation.

At that point, however, the Rhythm Boys -- Crosby least of all -- hardly needed Whiteman; the group was gaining valuable airtime with a Los Angeles radio show under the leadership of Gus Arnheim's Orchestra, and Crosby himself had already recorded several obscure sides for Columbia on his own, even before the end of the 1920s. When Paul Whiteman's Orchestra again hit the road in 1930, the Rhythm Boys stayed behind on the West Coast. Just as the trio had outpaced Whiteman to the point of leaving him behind, though, Crosby began sprinting ahead of Rinker and Barris by 1931, the year of his big breakout into mainstream success. After hiring big brother Everett as his manager, he began recording with Brunswick Records in early 1931, and by year's end had chalked up some of the year's biggest hits, including "Out of Nowhere," "Just One More Chance," "I Found a Million-Dollar Baby" and "At Your Command." He appeared in three films that year, and in September began a popular CBS radio series. Its success was similarly unprecedented; in less than a year, the show was among the nation's most popular and earned Crosby a starring role in 1932's The Big Broadcast, which brought radio stars like Burns & Allen to the screen. By the midpoint of the decade, Crosby was among the top ten most popular film stars. His musical success had, if anything, gained momentum during the same time, producing some of the biggest hits of 1932-34: "Please," "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?," "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me," "Little Dutch Mill," "Love in Bloom" and "June in January."

"June in January," itself the biggest hit at that point in Crosby's young career, signalled a turn in his career. Brunswick executive Jack Kapp had just struck out on his own with an American subsidiary of the British Decca Records, and Crosby was lured over with the promise of higher royalty rates. Though his initial releases on Decca were recordings from his films of the year -- "June in January" was taken from Here Is My Heart -- Crosby began stretching out with religious material (such as "Silent Night, Holy Night," which became one of his biggest sellers, estimated at up to ten million). Late in 1935, he signed a contract for a radio show with NBC called Kraft Music Hall, an association which lasted into the mid-'40s. Because Kraft encouraged more classical music on the program, Crosby was later forced to fire musical director Jimmy Dorsey. Songwriter friend Johnny Burke recommended John Scott Trotter (previously with the Hal Kemp Orchestra) as a replacement, and Trotter quickly cinched the job when his arrangements for the 1936 film Pennies from Heaven produced the biggest hit of the year in its title song. Trotter would continue as Bing's orchestra arranger and bandleader into the mid-'50s.

After the biggest hit of 1936, Bing Crosby followed up with -- what else? -- the biggest of 1937, just months later. "Sweet Leilani," from the similarly Hawaiian film Waikiki Wedding, showed Bing the direction his career could take over the course of the 1940s and '50s. Though he had recorded several cowboy songs earlier in the 1930s as well as the occasional song of inspiration, Crosby began covering everything under the sun, the popular hits of every genre of contemporary music. These weren't cast-offs either; many of his 1940s country & western covers were hits, such as "New San Antonio Rose," "Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy," "You Are My Sunshine," "Deep in the Heart of Texas," "Pistol-Packin' Mama" and "San Fernando Valley."

With the advent of American involvement in World War II, Bing Crosby entered the peak of his career. Three of the biggest hits of 1940 ("Sierra Sue," "Trade Winds," "Only Forever, ") were followed later in the year by the first of his popular Road movies with old friend Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. Crosby and Hope had first met in 1932, when the two both performed at the Capitol Theater in New York. They reunited later in the '30s to open a racetrack, and after reprising some old vaudeville routines, a Paramount Pictures producer decided to find a vehicle for the pair and came up with The Road to Singapore.

More popular success followed in 1941 with the introduction of the biggest hit of Papa Bing's career, "White Christmas." Written by Irving Berlin for 1942's Holiday Inn (a film which featured a Berlin song for each major holiday of the year), the single was debuted on Bing's radio show on Christmas Day, 1941. Recorded the following May and released in October, "White Christmas" stayed at number one for the rest of 1942. Reissued near Christmas for each of the next 20 years, it became the best-selling single of all time, with totals of over 30 million copies. It was a favorite for soldiers on the various USO tours Crosby attended during the war years, as was another holiday song "I'll Be Home for Christmas." Crosby's popular success continued after the end of the war, and he remained the top box-office draw until 1948 (his fifth consecutive year at number one).