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 …

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 …

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

An iconic American vocalist, Rosemary Clooney often blurred the line between pop and jazz, occasionally even venturing into country and international styles. She started out as a singer with the Tony Pastor band in the 1940s, and her solo career star…

Along with Roy Rogers, Gene Autry defined a screen archetype of the 1930s and '40s: the singing cowboy. A gifted singer and songwriter, Autry began his career as a Jimmie Rodgers imitator before developing his own distinctive style. Among his many, m…

With over 100,000,000 records sold, Brenda Lee resides in the pantheon of most successful recording artists of all time, right up there with Elvis Presley, who was an early supporter. Her precocious talent, grown-up voice, and passionate stage perfor…

b. 17 January 1927, Columbia, South Carolina, USA. The daughter of a white dirt farmer and a black Cherokee mother, Kitt was born in the cotton fields of South Carolina. After being given away by her mother she was raised in Harlem, where after a per…

"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 …

The quintessential jazz singer, Billie Holiday seemed to stamp her heart onto everything she sang. With a thin, reedy voice and almost laconic style, she could give even a throwaway pop song a gut-wrenching twist. Her most memorable music is loaded w…

When she emerged in a 1960s pop scene dominated by rock & roll, Barbra Streisand was a breath of fresh air to those nostalgic for the great Broadway-oriented pop vocalists of the past. Her stratospheric range and (initially) anachronistic taste in ma…

Peggy Lee started out as the vocalist for the Benny Goodman Orchestra in the early 1940s, and shortly thereafter became a star in her own right. Though she had numerous pop hits, she constantly crossed back and forth across the line between pop and j…

Sarah Vaughan's name was synonymous with jazz singing for two generations. She probably ranks as a close second only to Ella Fitzgerald in terms of influence, vocal range, and sheer, consistent brilliance. Her knowledge of bebop, gained during her '4…