Bing Crosby’s influence on popular culture and popular music is considerable, as from 1934 to 1954 he held a nearly unrivaled command of record sales, radio ratings and motion picture grosses. He is usually considered to be a member of popular music’s “holy trinity” of ultra-icons, alongside Elvis Presley and The Beatles.
Bing Crosby popularized singing with conversational ease, or ‘crooning’. His musical interpretations amalgamated rhythm and romance with scat singing, whistling, rhythmic improvisation and melodic paraphrasing as elements of a hotter, sexier sound than had been conceived before.
Crosby is also credited as being the major inspiration for most of the male singers that followed him, including the likes of Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Dean Martin. Tony Bennett summed up Crosby’s impact, stating, “Bing created a culture. He contributed more to popular music than any other person - he moulded popular music. Every singer in the business has taken something from Crosby. Every male singer has a Bing Crosby idiosyncracy.”
Crosby’s recording of PlayWhite Christmas is recognized as the best-selling single in any music category with over 40 million copies sold.
In 1962, Crosby was the first person to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) was a trumpet player, singer, bandleader, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists in the history of jazz.
Armstrong was born and raised in New Orleans, a culturally diverse town with a unique musical mix of creole, ragtime, marching bands and blues. Although from an early age he was able to play music professionally, he never traveled far from New Orleans until 1922, when he went to Chicago to join his mentor, King Oliver. Oliver’s band played primitive jazz, a hotter style of ragtime, with looser rhythm and more improvisation, and Armstrong’s role was mostly backup. Slow to promote himself, he was eventually persuaded by his wife to leave Oliver, and In 1924 he went to New York to join the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. At the time, there were a few other artists using the rhythmic innovations of the New Orleans style, but none did it with the energy and brilliance of Armstrong, and he quickly became a sensation among New York musicians. Back in Chicago in 1925, he made his first recordings with his own group, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, and these became not only popular hits but also models for the first generation of jazz musicians, trumpeter or otherwise.
Other hits followed through the twenties and thirties, as well as troubles: crooked managers, lip injuries, mob entanglements, failed big-band ventures. As jazz styles changed though, musical purists never lost any respect for him —although they were sometimes irritated by his hammy onstage persona. Around the late forties, with the help of a good manager, Armstrong’s business affairs finally stablilized and he began to be seen as an elder statesman of American popular entertainment, appearing in Hollywood movies, touring Asia and Europe, and dislodging The Beatles from the #1 position with “Hello, Dolly”. Today more people may know him as a singer (a good one), but as Miles Davis said: “You can’t play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn’t come from him.”
Brother Bill
Bing Crosby & Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The reason why we went up there we thought we'd catch some gain
And as we were a huntin' away in the middle of the night
We shot somethin' that looked like a grizzly bear the doggone thing turned white
Well I dropped that gun and away I run
My brother Bill says boy what's the matter with you
And he'd known like me he'd've ran some too
Away I'd run cross that field they couldn't catch me with an automobile
My brother Bill got so excited he commited shootin' at me
I heard those bullets sizzlin' all among those trees
I was runnin' so fast that night my feet wasn't touchin' the ground
I heard a little tailbird in the tree singing he's Alabamy bound
Well I'm goin' home I'm all alone
My brother Bill says boy what's the matter with you
And he'd known like me he'd've cut out too
Well I run so fast to say and they couldn't catch me all day
Away I run cross that field they couldn't catch me with an automobile
No they couldn't catch me with an automobile
The lyrics of Brother Bill by Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong tells the story of two brothers who go hunting in the hills of Maine with the intention of making a profit. As they are hunting, they shoot something that looks like a grizzly bear, but as it turns out, the bear was white. Frightened by the unexpected turn of events, one brother drops his gun and runs away as fast as he can, leaving his brother behind. The other brother, now alone, becomes so excited that he starts shooting at the fleeing brother, who runs so fast that he cannot be caught even with an automobile.
The lyrics tell a humorous story of a hunting trip gone bad, with one brother running away in fear and the other getting too excited and shooting at his own brother. The story highlights the bond of brotherhood and the humor in unexpected situations. The lyrics also reveal a fascination with hunting and nature, showcasing the thrill of the hunt and the unexpected discoveries that can be made in the wilderness.
Line by Line Meaning
Well me and brother Bill went a huntin' away up in the hills of Maine
My brother Bill and I decided to go hunting in the hills of Maine
The reason why we went up there we thought we'd catch some gain
We expected to catch some game while hunting
And as we were a huntin' away in the middle of the night
While we were hunting in the middle of the night
We shot somethin' that looked like a grizzly bear the doggone thing turned white
We shot at something that appeared to be a grizzly bear, but it turned out to be white
Well I dropped that gun and away I run
I got scared and dropped my gun before running away
My brother Bill says boy what's the matter with you
My brother asked me why I was running away
And he'd known like me he'd've ran some too
My brother would have also run away if he was in my shoes
Well I'd ran so fast to say and they couldn't catch me all day
I ran so fast that no one was able to catch me for the rest of the day
Away I'd run cross that field they couldn't catch me with an automobile
I ran across the field so fast that no one was able to catch me even with a car
My brother Bill got so excited he commited shootin' at me
My brother got so excited that he started shooting at me
I heard those bullets sizzlin' all among those trees
I heard the bullets whistling through the trees
I was runnin' so fast that night my feet wasn't touchin' the ground
I was running so fast that my feet were not touching the ground as I ran
I heard a little tailbird in the tree singing he's Alabamy bound
I heard a bird singing that I was heading back to Alabama
Well I'm goin' home I'm all alone
I decided to head back home alone after the incident
My brother Bill says boy what's the matter with you
My brother asked me again why I was running away
And he'd known like me he'd've cut out too
My brother would have also left the place if he was in my position
Well I run so fast to say and they couldn't catch me all day
I ran so fast that no one was able to catch me for the entire day
Away I run cross that field they couldn't catch me with an automobile
I ran across the field so fast that no one could catch me even with a car
No they couldn't catch me with an automobile
Even an automobile was not able to catch me due to my fast running
Contributed by Hailey L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.