Crooner Culture

This week’s crooner is Lena Horne! Here’s some info on the legendary “woo-woo-woo-woo” female jazz crooner:

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was born June 30, 1917 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City, New York. She grew up in an upper middle class black bourgeois community.
Horne became the first African American performer to sign a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio, namely Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She made her debut with MGM in 1942’s Panama Hattie and became famous in 1943 for her rendition of Stormy Weather in the movie of the same name (which she made while on loan to 20th Century Fox from …read more

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Bobby Darin Crooner Week is over, gang. I’m leaving you with an mp3 and lyrics to one of my all time favorite Bobby Darin song and the lyrics. I even snagged a YouTube vid of him singing this one. Can you guess what it is before you click to get through the jump?
I’ll give you a hint, my future husband, Michael Bublé does a cover of this one. And I can honestly say that while it’s great, I love Bobby’s original version just a teeny bit more.
Are you ready?

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Sorry for the delays in posting, gang… but here are some great sites around the web for info on Bobby Darin!
All links open in a new window.
Official Bobby Darin Website – Fantastic site with loads of info, lyrics, and news. There was a “Darin Lifetime Event 2007” that was a four day celebration of Darin’s achievements, with music, food, and fun.
DarinLand.com – A place for Bobby and his friends. Features a blog, forums, videos, and news related to Bobby Darin tribute events and happenings.
Darin’ to Dream is holding a rally to get a Bobby Darin commemorative US Postal stamp made! …read more

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Okay, so Bing Crosby week went okay, but I know there’s got to be a lot more out there on Bobby Darin, given his tormented life, his courting and later marriage to Sandra Dee, and all that jazz.
Anyone have any favorite Bobby Darin songs, or clips you’d like to see on the site this week? As I did with Der Bingle, I plan on showing a few YouTube clips and getting some mp3s up for you all, but is there anything you think we might not all be aware of yet that you’d like to see me talk about …read more

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Okay, so my first crooner week experiment probably shouldn’t have been on Bing Crosby. I mean, sure, I found that restaurant link, and some old videos on YouTube, but for the most part, he was a great performer on screen and stage, and had an amazing vocal talent. But when it comes to recordings, or finding mp3s to put up here, it’s pretty much either “White Christmas” or “Little Drummer Boy” with David Bowie.
Why are there not more albums around to post samples/music clips?
Why are there not more clips from movies? He was in at least 30 or 40 films…
Why …read more

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I figured I’d post a collection of links and information around the web about Bing Crosby today as part of the very first Crooner Culture Crooner Week featuring Bing Crosby.

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Okay, so I find myself getting sucked into the worlds of these crooners and then it’s time to write about another one. But I’m not finished writing about the first one, so I’ve done some thinking and decided that maybe I should just focus on one crooner per week and then go down my list, and rotate from there.

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