Bing Crosby, songwriter: Reference Sources

Overview and Commentary Bing Crosby (as songwirter)

Obviously Bing Crosby is best known as a singer not as a songwriter. Nevertheless his name appears as having received credit for two songs in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook, and so he, like Sinatra, has a songwriter page devoted to him.

Wikipedia cites Crosby as lyricist for 15 songs, but Gary Giddins, Bing's biographer, says that Crosby shares the copyright on twenty-three [songs] including seven he never recorded. Giddins also states although Bing was "in a position to demand a credit [bycutting in] on dozens of songs (as Jolson did before him and Presley after), . . . he appears to have been scrupulous about taking credit only on those to which he made a contribution." Giddins also notes that most of his co-writers were also his friends, "chiefly" Harry Barris, Victor Young and Johnny Burke.

The most specific information Giddins gives relative to Crosby and cutting in is in regard to "Where the Blue of the Night," which became Bing's theme song. Apparently the singer was accused of cutting a deal with Ahlert and Turk, the other songwriters who are given credit and who were established writers having collaborated on many songs. The announced reason for the cut-in was that Bing helped Turk write the verse. The team denied it was anything beyond this and Giddins asserts that given Crosby's reputation among songwriters, "this was not the usual case of quid pro quo authorship" (p. 260).

That Bing collaborated with Harry Barris on several songs during the early part of his career is no doubt due to the fact that he and Barris were both members of The Rhythm Boys, the group with which Bing first gained significant success as a performer, especially when they sang with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.

• "That's Grandma" (1927), with Harry Barris and James Cavanaugh
• "From Monday On" (1928), with Harry Barris and recorded with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke on cornet, no. 14 on US pop singles charts
• "What Price Lyrics?" (1928), with Harry Barris and Matty Malneck
• "At Your Command" (1931), with Harry Barris and Harry Tobias, US, no. 1 (3 weeks)
• "Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)" (1931), with Roy Turk and Fred Ahlert, US, no. 4; US, 1940 re-recording, no. 27
• "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You" (1932), with Victor Young and Ned Washington, US, no. 5
• "My Woman" (1932), with Irving Wallman and Max Wartell
• "Love Me Tonight" (1932), with Victor Young and Ned Washington, US, no. 4.
• "Waltzing in a Dream" (1932), with Victor Young and Ned Washington, US, no.6
• "I Would If I Could But I Can't" (1933), with Mitchell Parish and Alan Grey
• "Where the Turf Meets the Surf" (1941) with Johnny Burke and James V. Monaco.
• "Tenderfoot" (1953) with Bob Bowen and Perry Botkin, originally issued using the pseudonym of "Bill Brill" for Bing Crosby.
• "Domenica" (1961)
• "That's What Life Is All About" (1975), with Ken Barnes, Peter Dacre, and Les Reed, US, AC chart, no. 35; UK, no. 41
• "Sail Away to Norway" (1977).

• Ghost of a Chance (with you)
• Where the Blue of the Night

Research Resources: Bing Crosby

• DBOPM (Database Of Popular Music: song list; awards; hit songs; co-writers -- list of eight songwriting credits for Crosby)
• Discogs.com (Crosby writing and arranging credits on recordings)
• Wikipedia (Crosby article/songwriting credits)
• ASCAP Biographical Dictionary of Composers, Authors and Publishers, New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (dates, career, shows/movies, songs; 3rd edition, 1966, entry p. 145)Gary Marmorstein, Hollywood Rhapsody: Movie Music and Its Makers, 1900-1975,
  New York: Schirmer Books, 1997 (many references to Crosby).
• Gary Giddins, Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams--The Early Years 1903-1940
  Boston: Little Brown, 2001.
• Ken Bloom. The American Songbook, The Singers, The Songwriters and the Songs. New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 2005 (entry--pp. ).
• Thomas S. Hischak. The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008 (entry--p.).

• Bing Crosby Photo portrait: Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

Notes

• Here is Wikipedia's list:

Cite this page: Bing Crosby, songwriter: Reference Sources, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/c_sws/crosby_bing.html