An icon of American music, Frank Sinatra defined sophisticated pop singing of the post-war era and spent more than 50 years in the limelight. After formative stints with Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, and others, Sinatra shot to worldwide fame through hi…

Through unparalleled ability and judicious choice of repertoire, Ella Fitzgerald became the foremost female interpreter of the 20th-century Great American Popular Song Book. With producer Norman Granz she worked on the "songbook" series, placing on r…

One of the seminal performers in 20th-century American music, Nat "King" Cole was a major figure in the development of jazz piano, the stylistic link between early jazz and pop of the sophisticated urban variety that emerged in the '30s, and finally …

With her pre-bop piano style, cool but sensual singing, and fortuitously photogenic looks, Diana Krall took the jazz world by storm in the late-'90s. By the turn of the century she was firmly established as one of the biggest sellers in jazz. Her 199…

Dean Martin was a towering pop-culture icon of the 20th century. He first became known as part of a wildly successful music-and-comedy team with Jerry Lewis in the 1940s and '50s, subsequently becoming a solo singing star. His mellow, Bing Crosby-ins…

Trumpeter/vocalist Louis Armstrong is perhaps the single most influential artist in the history of jazz. He started out in the "hot" bands of 1920s New Orleans, and was one of the first to introduce solo improvisation into the jazz idiom. Over the ne…

One of the finest voices of 20th century American pop, Tony Bennett began his career in the '50s, under the watchful eye of producer Mitch Miller, recording huge hits such as "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," and "Because of You." In 1958, his album BASI…

When young singer/pianist Norah Jones arrived in New York City from Texas, few expected that within a couple of years she'd be a chart-topping, MTV-friendly, press-besieged sensation. Yet she charmed listeners by the truckload with her 2002 Blue Not…

It can be safely said that Bing Crosby taught America how to sing. Before his arrival in the 1930s, the airwaves were filled with off-pitch, rakish crooners and semi-operatic belters. It was Crosby who brought nuance to popular singing, popularizing …

Like Harry Connick in the 1980s and '90s, Canada's Michael Buble stood apart from most of his generation in forsaking contemporary rock and pop for the swing sounds of the '40s and '50s. A Sinatra-style crooner, Buble already had plenty of performing…

b. John Royce Mathis, 30 September 1935, San Francisco, California, USA. In 1956, the 19-year-old Mathis was signed to Columbia Records where he began his career with a jazz-tinged album. A US Top 20 hit with "Wonderful! Wonderful!" saw him move adro…

"Before Elvis, there was nothing," John Lennon once said. An overstatement, of course, but Elvis Presley's ascendance to superstardom in the mid-1950s kicked off a musical and social revolution whose impact has yet to abate. After the charming young …

Though Californian belter Etta James is widely known as one of the greatest blues singers, famed for her '60s Chess recordings and '70s Muscle Shoals work, her story is bigger than that. She started out with the Johnny Otis band in the '50s as a hard…

b. Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives, 14 June 1909, Hunt Township, Jasper County, Illinois, USA, d. 14 April 1995, Anacortes, Washington, USA. One of the world's most celebrated singers of folk ballads, with a gentle, intimate style, Ives was also an actor on t…

Bronx-born singer and songwriter Bobby Darin was always a man who bucked convention. Though he started out writing and singing rock & roll hits such as "Splish Splash" in the 1950s, he stood out from the crowd in the '60s as a post-Sinatra crooner. B…

Pop crooner Andy Williams came to be known as "the Emperor of Easy" for his smooth, silky tone and understated vocal style. Williams was a virtual hit machine throughout the '60s, from the stop-time melancholy of "Can't Get Used to Losing You" (later…

To some, the Englishman born under the name Gordon Sumner will always be known as the bassist, songwriter, and frontman of the Police. But Sting's mega-successful solo career from the 1980s into the 21st century may even overshadow his former band's …

b. Pierino Como, 18 May 1912, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 12 May 2001, Jupiter Inlet Beach Colony, Florida, USA. Como was an accomplished popular singer with a warm baritone voice, whose repertoire included ballads, novelty numbers and singalon…

James Taylor was the archetype for the gentle, inward-looking singer/songwriter movement of the early '70s. The easy lilt and timbre of Taylor's voice belies the complex emotional content of his songs, which aren't merely carefree folk-based odes, bu…