What defines a “crooner”?
According to some, crooners are only male. Others believe in female crooners. Here’s how Wikipedia defines crooner:
Crooner is an epithet given to a male singer of a certain style of popular songs, dubbed pop standards. A crooner is a singer of popular ballads thus a “balladeer”. The singer is normally backed by a full orchestra or big band. Generally, crooners sang and popularized the songs from the Great American Songbook. Crooner was originally bestowed as a negative term, and many people given the term, such as Russ Colombo, did not consider themselves to be crooners. In an interview, Frank Sinatra said that he did not consider himself or Bing Crosby to be crooners.
I wholeheartedly disagree that Frank and Bing were not crooners. Maybe that interview was done in the time where “crooner” had a negative connotation or something - but those two are CLASSIC crooners!
Crooning actually has roots in “bel canto” (meaning beautiful voice or beautiful singing) opera, but holds a strong point with vocal stylings based in Jazz. “Scat” style of singing (”be-bop-shabop-skiddledeedat-cat-shabat-ba-bom-ba”) is very popular with crooners, one of the most famous “scatters” was Ella Fitzgerald. Michael Buble scats quite a bit for a “new age crooner” of his kind. However not all crooners were scatters and likewise, not all scatters were crooners.
Now, no one says that a crooner has to ONLY sing certain songs in a certain way either. But in my opinion it really is more about the style, the flair, the way they carry themselves on stage and off that makes someone a crooner or not. Tom Jones might be best classified as a “lounge singer”, however it depends on who you ask. Same with Bobby Darin and even our beloved Miss Ella. They didn’t limit themselves (no one did - it’d have been the end of their careers) to ONLY slow, romantic, sexy songs. Think about “Save The Last Dance” and “Volare” for examples. They’re a little faster tempo - one of those bounce on the balls of your feet and snap your fingers kind of songs. I hear certain songs and can actually envision a “Dancing With The Stars” kind of routine to them. They’re still sung by crooners - are they considered “crooning songs”?
I think the bottom line here is that the music of crooners is that which takes us through a range of emotions, but primarily through passion and being in love. Swooning and crooning definitely go hand-in-hand.
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Crooner Culture
1 opinion for What defines a “crooner”?
Sand Valentine Croon
May 4, 2008 at 10:51 am
Crooning is Natural For those who are Chosen.
Atta Zahriah
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: