"When I was a kid in Spokane," he told jazz critic Nat Hentoff, "I played drums in a six-piece band. We couldn't read music, but we just about memorized all the new records by the Mound City Blues Blowers, the Memphis Five and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Those sounds, those wonderful sounds, made me determined to somehow work my way into the company of jazz musicians. Salary didn't mean a thing to me in those years, I just wanted to be in that environment."

Crosby was born on May 2, 1904, in Tacoma, Wash. After he played with local jazz groups, he formed the Rhythm Boys, who worked alongside Paul Whiteman's Orchestra from 1926 to 1930. He went on his own after leaving the Rhythm Boys and sang on CBS radio programs. Brusnwick Records signed him when he was 27. His style and baritone voice became easily recognizable and often idealized; casually intimate, but with astonishing technical range. Using the microphone as an instrument for whispered lines, he had a profound influence on Frank Sinatra. As Crosby became a popular star of musical films, he was given access to compositions by the greatest pop songwriters of the time. For many, his interpretations of Jerome Kern and Cole Porter remain the definitive versions. But he also covered country & western tunes, and hymns, as well as Irish and Hawaiian ballads.

Crosby performed with jazz musicians as his movie co-stars, such as Jack Teagarden (The Birth Of The Blues in 1941) and, most famously, Louis Armstrong (High Society in 1956). His popularity continued as television overtook radio as a principal source of home entertainment and the rock era ascended. He even sang "Little Drummer Boy" as a duet with David Bowie.

After a return to performing in the 1970s, Crosby died in Madrid on Oct. 14, 1977.

Recommended recordings: Bing! His Legendary Years, 1931 to 1957 (MCA), The Best Of Bing Crosby (Decca). -Aaron Cohen