Songwriter

Bing’s first recording was on October 18, 1926, titled “I’ve Got the Girl” with his friend Al Rinker and Don Clark Orchestra, and is last recording was on October 11, 1977. Throughout his career, Crosby racked up over 2,000 Recordings.

Bing’s records have held a number 1 spot 44 times, for a total of 179 weeks. Crosby’s first 3 number 1’s were with Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra.

In 1934, Bing joined Decca Records. With Decca, Bing topped the charts for 23 weeks in a row in 1944 with his version of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, this version is known as the best selling record of all time, with over 100 million sales.

Starting with Jazz and pop during the 1920s, he expanded to just about every other genre. Ballads, light opera, Irish, Religious, Country, Patriotic, French, Italian, and even spoken word recordings were some of Bing’s diverse work. Most of Bing’s records were discovered through his musical films. A total of 14 songs from his films were nominated for Academy Awards. 4 songs won the Oscar, these were; “White Christmas”, “Sweet Leiloni”, “Swinging on a Star”, and “In the Cool, Cool of the Evening”.

1959 was when Crosby started Project Records, or Roxbury Records. In 1963, the company dissolved and bing continued to work alone for the remainder of his career.

The Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences awarded Bing the first Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1962, which was later known as the Bing Crosby Lifetime Achievement Award. He also won the first American Music Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1973.

Together, Bing Crosby has sold close to 1 billion records, tapes, digital downloads, or compact discs around the world.