Of all the popular entertainers who dominated the airwaves, record grooves and screens of the middle decades of the 20th century, few can match the achievements and longevity of the Old Groaner himself. Bing Crosby effortlessly, it would seem, scaled the pinnaclaes of artistic achievement and commercial success in every strand of the entertainment business and he remains one of the few artsist to have 3 stars on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. Born in Tacoma, Washington, in May 1903, moving soon after to Spokane, Crosby was heading for law school when he decided that the high school group in which he was performing was making so much money that he would pursue a career in entertainment. Performing in Los Angeles in 1926, he was spotted by bandleader Paul Whiteman, who hired him as one of his Rhythm Boys vocal group, and it was just a year later that Crosby had his first hit with his version of "Ol' Man River" from the then current show "Showboat". From that point, his career was on cruise control, and his achievements are too numerous to chronicle here. Suffice to say that singers like Sinatra, Dean Martin and Tony Bennett were very much following in his wake, and Crosby exploited the crossover potential of radio, movies and TV through the 30s, 40s and 50s. He was even instrumental in the development of modern recording, investing in the first tape recorders, and using them to prepare his radio shows (as well as supplying Les Paul with his first tape machine). He gave his last performance just two days before he died of a heart attack after a round of golf in Spain in 1977. Acrobat has a 2-CD collection of his recordings on catalogue - for details click here.