Crooner Standard
tagStarted c. 1931Peak 1940–1963Last big hit c. 1966
Located in 1 route
Crooner Standard marries classic standards repertoire with the relaxed masculine intimacy of crooning: soft attack, legato phrasing, and the illusion of one-on-one address. Arrangements often sit between orchestra and gentle swing, but the real signature is the voice sounding close enough to confide.
History
Once microphones made quieter singing commercially viable, male pop stars could deliver standards with a new kind of emotional ease, different from theater projection or bandstand brassiness; Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Andy Williams all helped make standards feel domestic, romantic, and effortlessly modern, and their phrasing remains the default template for later male standards singers.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Great American Songbook Foundation, “What is the Songbook?”
- Encyclopaedia Britannica on Bing Crosby
- Wikipedia, “Crooner.”