0:00:02 > 0:00:03# Boy, you hear me calling your name
0:00:03 > 0:00:04# The bridge is your time
0:00:04 > 0:00:06# Your engine rolls hot
0:00:06 > 0:00:09# If the bridges fall down, don't lose your head of steam... #
0:00:11 > 0:00:14The voice. It's the one instrument we're all born with.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16We all love to sing.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18# Oh, young man... #
0:00:18 > 0:00:23Singing is my life. It's what I do and who I am.
0:00:23 > 0:00:25# Boy, I didn't make it too far But baby you are
0:00:25 > 0:00:26# The family star... #
0:00:26 > 0:00:29I'm going to take you on a 100 year celebration of the mystery,
0:00:29 > 0:00:34joy and pain that lies behind the soul's instrument.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40I'm Gregory Porter and these are my Popular Voices.
0:00:40 > 0:00:45# Young man, I'm counting on you
0:00:45 > 0:00:47# And whoa, young man... #
0:00:50 > 0:00:55What does this singer have in common with this one?
0:00:55 > 0:00:58Hello. Are you the new butler?
0:00:59 > 0:01:02And how do they both relate to these?
0:01:02 > 0:01:05PIANO PLAYS
0:01:10 > 0:01:15Crooning is about getting up close and personal with the microphone,
0:01:15 > 0:01:20and whispering softly, as though into a lover's ear.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22Because when I say, "Croon,"
0:01:22 > 0:01:27what I'm really talking about is caressing with the voice.
0:01:27 > 0:01:32Welcome to a century of rich, golden voices.
0:01:32 > 0:01:38# Ma n'atu sole
0:01:38 > 0:01:43# Cchiu bello, oi ne... #
0:01:43 > 0:01:47You know, less than 100 years ago, if you wanted to be heard in the
0:01:47 > 0:01:51back of the theatre or over the band that was playing on the record,
0:01:51 > 0:01:53you had to...
0:01:53 > 0:01:56HE SINGS LOUDLY
0:01:56 > 0:01:59But that's not necessary any more.
0:02:05 > 0:02:06In the 1920s,
0:02:06 > 0:02:11one invention turned our idea of music-making upside down.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13The electric microphone.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16For the first time in performing history,
0:02:16 > 0:02:18singing wasn't solely about power,
0:02:18 > 0:02:21it could concern itself with subtlety.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27HE HUMS SOFTLY
0:02:30 > 0:02:32The electric microphone allowed for
0:02:32 > 0:02:34a new style of soft and intimate singer.
0:02:34 > 0:02:41The crooner was born, and he first appeared on cinema screens
0:02:41 > 0:02:45in 1929's The Vagabond Lover.
0:02:45 > 0:02:52# If you were the only girl in the world
0:02:53 > 0:02:59# And I were the only boy... #
0:03:00 > 0:03:02Gee, honey. This sure is a beauty.
0:03:03 > 0:03:08The birth of radio and cinema ushered in a new age of celebrity.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14Early stars like Rudy Vallee were suddenly real, crooning softly,
0:03:14 > 0:03:17directly into your ear, like never before.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20# In the same old way... #
0:03:21 > 0:03:24I'm going to explore how the subtle art of crooning
0:03:24 > 0:03:26has influenced a century of pop.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32And my first stop is an unlikely one -
0:03:32 > 0:03:36the Lower East Side of New York City, to meet a former punk rocker.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41- Hey, man.- How are you doing, Lenny?
0:03:41 > 0:03:42- How's it going?- Pleasure.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44- Really good.- Pleasure, pleasure.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46Welcome to my hole in the wall.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49- Oh, right. I'm glad to be here. - Shall I let you in?
0:03:50 > 0:03:53- Right.- Let's go talk music.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55- Yeah. Apres vous.- All right.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06Lenny Kaye is still Patti Smith's guitarist,
0:04:06 > 0:04:09and is also a scholar of sweet singers.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12What is crooning to you?
0:04:13 > 0:04:17Well, for me, it's the most intimate form of singing.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21It's, in some ways, one-on-one.
0:04:23 > 0:04:29In my mind I think of it as a man singing to a woman in her language.
0:04:31 > 0:04:37# Some day when I'm awfully low
0:04:37 > 0:04:39# And the world is cold
0:04:39 > 0:04:42# I will feel a glow
0:04:42 > 0:04:45# Just thinking of you
0:04:45 > 0:04:51# And the way you look tonight... #
0:04:51 > 0:04:53It sounds like what it is.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58You know, we croon. We woo.
0:04:58 > 0:04:59We swoon.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03We rhyme with the moon.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08# There is nothing for me but to love you... #
0:05:08 > 0:05:12That type of singing, that type of smooth, quiet delivery,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15it's almost like pigeons cooing.
0:05:15 > 0:05:16For me, it's crooning.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19I always think of like a frog mating.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21HE COOS
0:05:21 > 0:05:22A sort of...
0:05:22 > 0:05:25- HE COOS - ..or something!
0:05:25 > 0:05:30# Just the way you look tonight. #
0:05:33 > 0:05:36Not since the arrival of the railway
0:05:36 > 0:05:39had America been made to feel so connected.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Cinema and radio brought new intimacy.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47It was as though new singers could see through the radio waves,
0:05:47 > 0:05:49right into your living room.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51MUSIC PLAYS
0:05:53 > 0:05:56Where is my alcoholic beverage?
0:05:56 > 0:06:02# Oh, give me land, lots of land under the starry skies above
0:06:02 > 0:06:06# Don't fence me in... #
0:06:06 > 0:06:08Of all early pop stars,
0:06:08 > 0:06:11there was one whose ease and conviviality suggested
0:06:11 > 0:06:12a new way of being.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17Bing Crosby, the first modern singer.
0:06:17 > 0:06:23# Let me be by myself in the evening breeze
0:06:23 > 0:06:28# And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees
0:06:28 > 0:06:33# Send me off forever But I ask you please
0:06:33 > 0:06:37# Don't fence me in... #
0:06:37 > 0:06:42Mary Crosby famously shot JR in the TV hit, Dallas.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46She is also the keeper of her father's musical legacy.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52- Hello, Mary.- Hi.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54- Wonderful to meet you.- My pleasure.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57Your father made a revolutionary change
0:06:57 > 0:07:00to the way that people were singing.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03Can you talk about that a little bit?
0:07:03 > 0:07:09I think that dad was completely honest in the way he sang.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13There was, no pun intended, no false note.
0:07:15 > 0:07:16And so that touched people.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20And that reached people in a way that you couldn't with a megaphone,
0:07:20 > 0:07:24or you couldn't if you were, you know, flash.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26He could be romantic.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30He could be sexy, he could be all of these things that before Dad,
0:07:30 > 0:07:33and before the microphone, and before intimacy,
0:07:33 > 0:07:34they just weren't available.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37Maybe I'd better pick up the thread of the story.
0:07:37 > 0:07:42Bing Crosby rose to prominence in the 1920s with The Rhythm Boys,
0:07:42 > 0:07:46a vocal trio attached to Paul Whiteman's jazz band.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52Every man wanted to be Bing.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55And every woman just wanted him.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00You see a picture of Bing Crosby from 1928, 1929,
0:08:00 > 0:08:06those beautiful blue eyes, that very soulful sense of performance,
0:08:06 > 0:08:09you know, he was of his moment.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11He was a heart-throb.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13Through the night, have you got that, there?
0:08:13 > 0:08:16- Yeah.- And if you're Bing Crosby, put in those whistles.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18Bing, Bing, sing!
0:08:18 > 0:08:22Crosby's voice suggested freedom and leisure,
0:08:22 > 0:08:25and when I hear him sing, I hear American pop opening up.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31# Where the blue of the night
0:08:31 > 0:08:37# Meets the gold of the day
0:08:37 > 0:08:41# Someone waits for me... #
0:08:46 > 0:08:50Bing Crosby is so foundational and so important in the music,
0:08:50 > 0:08:55you don't even realise how he's influenced you
0:08:55 > 0:08:58because he is the very thing that you're trying to do.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02So this personal style of musical expression
0:09:02 > 0:09:05is all that I'm trying to do.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08I mean, where does that come from?
0:09:08 > 0:09:13The first person to do it and put it on recording was Bing Crosby.
0:09:13 > 0:09:21# Someone waits for me. #
0:09:21 > 0:09:25Dad was the only one of four that has sold over a billion units.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29There's Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Dad.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31So he really was the king of media back then.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34- Wow.- Yeah.- Thank you so much, Mary.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36It was really a pleasure to meet you and talk with you.
0:09:36 > 0:09:37- Such a treat.- Thank you.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44Louis Armstrong once said about the voice of Bing Crosby,
0:09:44 > 0:09:48it sounded like gold being poured from a cup.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50And I agree with him.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54Bing Crosby's incredible baritone voice set the standard.
0:09:54 > 0:10:01There would be no tenor in American pop music until Elvis.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04Everybody wanted to sing like Bing.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07- # Where the blue - Where the blue
0:10:07 > 0:10:09- # Of the night - Of the night
0:10:09 > 0:10:12- # Meets the gold - Meets the gold
0:10:12 > 0:10:16- # Of the day - Of the day
0:10:18 > 0:10:22- # Someone - Someone
0:10:22 > 0:10:26- # Waits for me - Waits for me. #
0:10:29 > 0:10:31HE HUMS
0:10:34 > 0:10:37- Yeah!- That's cool, man.
0:10:37 > 0:10:38Beautiful. Bing Crosby.
0:10:40 > 0:10:46Led by megastars Rudy Vallee, Russ Colombo and Bing Crosby,
0:10:46 > 0:10:51the age of the crooner had arrived and they provoked moral outrage.
0:10:57 > 0:11:02They've made a million Indian women push that neighbour free.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04Crosby, Colombo and Vallee.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08There was a famous Dick Robinson song called like,
0:11:08 > 0:11:10Vallee, Colombo and Crosby.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12And that was literally the song title.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14There were lyrics in it, like,
0:11:14 > 0:11:18Made millions of married maids wish they were free.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21And stealing our blondes.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24And when you kiss your wife, who is she thinking of?
0:11:24 > 0:11:28# Those crooning vagabonds are stealing all our blondes
0:11:28 > 0:11:31# Now I know what has become of Sally
0:11:31 > 0:11:35# And every time you kiss your girl who is she thinking of?
0:11:35 > 0:11:37# Crosby, Colombo and Vallee. #
0:11:37 > 0:11:43It just cracks me up because people would say in written publications,
0:11:43 > 0:11:47"This is a terrible art form, this kind of thing", you know.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53It was also the era of the American depression.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57Life was hard. Men were supposed to be men.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00And these pretty boys aroused suspicion.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02# I built a railroad
0:12:02 > 0:12:06# Now it's done, brother
0:12:06 > 0:12:09# Can you spare a dime? #
0:12:09 > 0:12:16There was a lot of decrying of this from the church.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20It was thought to provoke homosexuality, pansies,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23as they were known in those days.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28There's a certain element of drag in these performers,
0:12:28 > 0:12:35in the sense that they're taking on the persona of women at a time when
0:12:35 > 0:12:40this was not only frowned upon, but actually against the law.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48Bing put the art of crooning on the world map and my personal initiation
0:12:48 > 0:12:51to this kind of sweet singing came when I made my first recording
0:12:51 > 0:12:53at the tender age of five.
0:12:54 > 0:13:02# Smile though your heart is aching
0:13:02 > 0:13:07# Smile even though it's breaking
0:13:07 > 0:13:12# When there are clouds in the sky
0:13:13 > 0:13:16# You get by
0:13:16 > 0:13:18# If you smile... #
0:13:18 > 0:13:25I recorded a song on a little plastic tape recorder,
0:13:25 > 0:13:27and played it for my mother when she came from work.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30And she said, "Boy, you sound like Nat King Cole."
0:13:30 > 0:13:35And I thought the name was strange, so,
0:13:35 > 0:13:40I need to figure out who this Nat King Cole is.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45I went into her records I was forbidden to touch.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48I put the record on.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54And out came this song.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57Pick yourself up, dust yourself off.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03Pretend you're happy when you're blue.
0:14:05 > 0:14:10It was this amazing voice in a way speaking to me,
0:14:10 > 0:14:15like fatherly advice, something I was missing at the time.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18And so it's a very powerful emotional connection
0:14:18 > 0:14:23that I have with the music, sitting next to the stereo
0:14:23 > 0:14:26at five or six-years-old.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30# You just smile. #
0:14:30 > 0:14:34Born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1919, Nat King Cole
0:14:34 > 0:14:38first came to prominence as a jazz instrumentalist.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43Nat King Cole is an interesting case,
0:14:43 > 0:14:47because he was also a fine pianist.
0:14:47 > 0:14:53So he was a complete lounge protean, if you will.
0:15:02 > 0:15:09I think he pushed the diction a little beyond the natural,
0:15:09 > 0:15:12just because it sounded so good coming out!
0:15:12 > 0:15:16I think he was the kind of singer who is just a little bit
0:15:16 > 0:15:21intoxicated with his own beauty, and why not?
0:15:21 > 0:15:22What a voice.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25# Let there be you
0:15:25 > 0:15:28# Let there be me
0:15:28 > 0:15:35# Let there be oysters under the sea
0:15:35 > 0:15:39# Let there be wind... #
0:15:39 > 0:15:44Singing songs that seem to go outside of the box for that time
0:15:44 > 0:15:47period, for African-Americans.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51# Sparkling champagne
0:15:51 > 0:15:53# Let there be... #
0:15:53 > 0:15:55Although we had a lot of great singers back then,
0:15:55 > 0:16:00Nat Cole's voice had a little more romanticism in it.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03And it wasn't loaded down with sorrow.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06There was a bright side to his stuff.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10# Let there be cuckoos
0:16:10 > 0:16:14# A lark and a dove
0:16:14 > 0:16:20# But most of all Please let there be love... #
0:16:20 > 0:16:24Now, white Americans could understand an African-American,
0:16:24 > 0:16:26which was very difficult at the time.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30Because, you know, we have a different way of approaching our language.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33Transcended from Africa, we still had the African vernacular.
0:16:34 > 0:16:39Mainly because of the size of our embouchure, our mouth.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42But Nat had to go beyond that and he did.
0:16:42 > 0:16:43His mouth was very different.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47It was very wide and let the edge of the words come out.
0:16:51 > 0:16:56# Let there be love. #
0:16:59 > 0:17:01Josh, my man, how are you doing?
0:17:01 > 0:17:04- How you doing? Good to see you. - Pleasure.- Yeah.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06Tell me about Nat King Cole?
0:17:06 > 0:17:09There's no question there's the God-given talent
0:17:09 > 0:17:10that is so singular,
0:17:10 > 0:17:17and that velvety bottom end that just has this beautiful edge to it.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21And also, normally I'm not a fan of enunciation.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25But his enunciation is so gentle.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29- Yeah.- And that's very giving, somehow.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33- And intimate.- Yeah. - You know it's real.- Yeah.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37I think he, in particular, is so peerless.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39There's nobody sounds anything like that.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44In 1948, having made his name with global smashes
0:17:44 > 0:17:49like The Christmas Song, Cole moved to the upscale all-white
0:17:49 > 0:17:51Hancock Park in Los Angeles.
0:17:51 > 0:17:56# Chestnuts roasting on an open fire... #
0:17:56 > 0:18:01The Ku Klux Klan responded by placing a burning cross on his lawn.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09Obviously, he was an extraordinary performer in a time that was
0:18:09 > 0:18:11difficult in the United States.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16Sometimes he was unable to stay in some of the hotels
0:18:16 > 0:18:18that he would perform in.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23But the diction came from somewhere, because of the environment.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27"This is what do you think I am, let me show you.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30"Let me show you this undeniable class and elegance."
0:18:30 > 0:18:32But that's it.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35"You may put me in this hotel, you may do that,
0:18:35 > 0:18:37"but here's one thing..."
0:18:37 > 0:18:40- "..You can't touch." - It is for everybody.
0:18:40 > 0:18:41It don't matter who you are.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44- You can't knock this one away.- Yeah.
0:18:44 > 0:18:49# So I'm offering this simple phrase... #
0:18:49 > 0:18:53Nat's success not only transcended race barriers, it bankrolled
0:18:53 > 0:18:58Capitol Records and funded one of Hollywood's most iconic structures.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02This is the house that Nat built.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04# Many times, many ways
0:19:04 > 0:19:13# Merry Christmas to you. #
0:19:20 > 0:19:24Cole was a pioneer amongst African-American entertainers.
0:19:24 > 0:19:29Among the first to host his own television show in 1957,
0:19:29 > 0:19:31and a BBC special in 1963.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35# Mona Lisa
0:19:35 > 0:19:40# Mona Lisa men have named you
0:19:40 > 0:19:48# You're so like the lady with the mystic smile
0:19:50 > 0:19:52# Is it only... #
0:19:52 > 0:19:55There had been no black male singer
0:19:55 > 0:19:57who was part of the romantic life of America.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01So for a black man to be able to do that in the '50s
0:20:01 > 0:20:02was really radical.
0:20:02 > 0:20:07# Strangeness in your smile...
0:20:07 > 0:20:09Like Mona Lisa, when you hear that song...
0:20:09 > 0:20:13# Do you smile to tempt a lover Mona Lisa... #
0:20:13 > 0:20:18You see this woman. You see the desire for her, the loss,
0:20:18 > 0:20:21the ability to have her, and all that yearning.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26There's a great deal of yearning within his beautiful smooth crooning.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29# Many dreams
0:20:29 > 0:20:34# Have been brought to your doorstep
0:20:35 > 0:20:38# They just lie there... #
0:20:38 > 0:20:43It's a testament to the quality of his voice that he overcame racism
0:20:43 > 0:20:45just because it was such a unique instrument.
0:20:45 > 0:20:51# Are you warm, are you real
0:20:51 > 0:20:55# Mona Lisa? #
0:20:55 > 0:20:58Gregory couldn't have picked a better father,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01because the man was nothing but love.
0:21:01 > 0:21:03That's what Nat King Cole was about.
0:21:05 > 0:21:11The best way to describe Nat King Cole's voice is velvet, smooth.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13Jazz and classical.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19Unreachable perfection.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45# And now the end is near
0:21:45 > 0:21:48# And so I face... #
0:21:48 > 0:21:53This is East-West Studios, part of the United Western Recorders'
0:21:53 > 0:21:55complex on Sunset Boulevard.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59It was set up with the financial backing of Bing Crosby
0:21:59 > 0:22:01and Frank Sinatra in the late '50s.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03Frank loved it so much here,
0:22:03 > 0:22:05he started his own record label on the first floor.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09The legendary Reprise Records.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15East-West would become famous as a place for a new generation of
0:22:15 > 0:22:19artists like The Beach Boys, who created Pet Sounds here.
0:22:20 > 0:22:26But it was also special to me because on December 30th, 1968,
0:22:26 > 0:22:31Frank Sinatra recorded his signature croon, My Way, right here.
0:22:31 > 0:22:37# Regrets, I've had a few
0:22:37 > 0:22:38# But then again... #
0:22:38 > 0:22:43In fact, My Way wasn't so much a croon as a valedictory
0:22:43 > 0:22:47looking back on a career that saw Frank emerge as a heart-throb
0:22:47 > 0:22:51during the Second World War.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55# And saw it through without exemption... #
0:22:55 > 0:22:59Tell me how Frank Sinatra, his voice, his style,
0:22:59 > 0:23:04maybe added to the story of crooning after Bing Crosby?
0:23:04 > 0:23:09In terms of evolution, he took what he learned from Bing,
0:23:09 > 0:23:13a sense of how to utilise the voice.
0:23:13 > 0:23:19You know, to make its point and to style a song.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22I think of Frank as really a stylist.
0:23:22 > 0:23:28# I hear music when I look at you
0:23:30 > 0:23:37# A beautiful theme of every dream I ever knew
0:23:39 > 0:23:46# Down deep in my heart I'd hear it play
0:23:46 > 0:23:50# I feel it start
0:23:50 > 0:23:52# Then melt away... #
0:23:52 > 0:23:57Frank Sinatra was labelled a lot of things.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00And at one point was labelled as a crooner.
0:24:00 > 0:24:05But he always spoke more than he sung.
0:24:05 > 0:24:11Even as he hit the note, he always spoke to you.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15# Down deep in my heart
0:24:15 > 0:24:24# I hear it say, is this the day? #
0:24:26 > 0:24:29He's a little masculine for the croon.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31He's a little too presumptuous.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33# Like baba au rhum!
0:24:33 > 0:24:35# Bababababum
0:24:35 > 0:24:39# Don't dig that kind of crooning, chum... #
0:24:39 > 0:24:41You must be one of the newer fellas.
0:24:41 > 0:24:48He's not so much concerned with, er, persuading and seducing as he is,
0:24:48 > 0:24:51like, yeah, you know, come on to me.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54If I could use the word, he's a little cocky.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56# You make me feel so young
0:24:58 > 0:25:01# You make me feel as though spring has spring
0:25:01 > 0:25:05# And every time I see you grin
0:25:05 > 0:25:09# I'm such a happy individual... #
0:25:09 > 0:25:14If Bing was the king of ease, Frank was the edgy pretender.
0:25:14 > 0:25:20He was such a tough guy that when he did, er,
0:25:20 > 0:25:26do a song that, er, portrayed some, some sorrow
0:25:26 > 0:25:31because of a broken heart or a period of
0:25:31 > 0:25:34loneliness, it had more weight.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41Frank made singing existential.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43He was a dramatist.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46In his hands, crooning was no longer about seduction.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49It was about his place in the world.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53# When I was 17
0:25:55 > 0:25:59# It was a very good year
0:26:01 > 0:26:07# It was a very good year for small town girls
0:26:07 > 0:26:12# And soft summer nights
0:26:13 > 0:26:18# We'd hide from the lights
0:26:20 > 0:26:22# On the village green
0:26:27 > 0:26:29# When I was 17... #
0:26:29 > 0:26:33My parents purchased the Frank Sinatra September of My Years.
0:26:33 > 0:26:39It was the first time that his career matured to the point
0:26:39 > 0:26:46where he had writers trying to write for him as a character fully.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53He'd hate this, but he had become Elvis, in a way.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56More than Elvis, because there was this...
0:26:56 > 0:26:59Elvis was a mystery.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03With Sinatra, they painted a picture of all the things you kind of knew
0:27:03 > 0:27:04Frank was doing.
0:27:04 > 0:27:09Like, er, rolling dice and splurging on diamonds.
0:27:09 > 0:27:14And chasing actresses and, er, hanging with the bad guys.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16And that whole ring-a-ding ding!
0:27:16 > 0:27:18You knew this about him.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22# And it came undone
0:27:25 > 0:27:29# When I was 21... #
0:27:29 > 0:27:34As a vocalist, he was nonpareil in expressing pathos.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36He was just such a cool guy.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38I think that's kind of why a lot of people are attracted to him.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42Like, forget the music, forget the voice. He was just the cool guy.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45He did what he wanted, when he wanted,
0:27:45 > 0:27:50and it sort of makes him as wonderful as it does gross!
0:27:50 > 0:27:52He wouldn't get away with that now.
0:27:58 > 0:28:00I thought I knew what a crooner was
0:28:00 > 0:28:03until we started to talk to everybody.
0:28:03 > 0:28:09Um... A crooner, for me, is a singer with, you know,
0:28:09 > 0:28:14personal expression, generally about love.
0:28:14 > 0:28:19# Hey, Laura, it's me... #
0:28:19 > 0:28:24Because people say, "Ooh, you were up there crooning! Ooh, crooning!"
0:28:24 > 0:28:27Just any time you're singing for the ladies, you know.
0:28:27 > 0:28:28You may be hanging off the stage.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32"Hey, what's up, baby? Yeah! "Ha-ha! I'm here for you!"
0:28:32 > 0:28:36You know? That's crooning. You know, that's what people say crooning is,
0:28:36 > 0:28:38you know. But...
0:28:38 > 0:28:39HE LAUGHS
0:28:39 > 0:28:41Who knows?!
0:28:45 > 0:28:46By the mid '50s,
0:28:46 > 0:28:49crooning was getting as old as the singers themselves.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55# Magic moments... #
0:28:55 > 0:29:00It had become a byword for a grown-up sensibility in pop.
0:29:00 > 0:29:05# Magic moments
0:29:05 > 0:29:07# Memories we've been sharing... #
0:29:07 > 0:29:12It was no longer the preserve of the amorous young man.
0:29:18 > 0:29:24# I was dancing with my darling
0:29:24 > 0:29:29# To the Tennessee waltz
0:29:29 > 0:29:37# When an old friend I happened to see... #
0:29:38 > 0:29:42I don't think women were initially associated with the crooning style
0:29:42 > 0:29:47because of the content of the songs that the male crooners were singing.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50Again, it goes back to that whole thing about seducing women.
0:29:51 > 0:29:57But yet, there are, very clearly, female crooners through history.
0:29:57 > 0:30:03It's that space in-between Broadway/cabaret singing and jazz singing.
0:30:03 > 0:30:05Where it's interpretation of a lyric and a melody,
0:30:05 > 0:30:11without it being technical or improvised in a way, you know.
0:30:11 > 0:30:16These were singers like Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day
0:30:16 > 0:30:17and Patti Page.
0:30:19 > 0:30:23She just sang with this tone that was totally captivating
0:30:23 > 0:30:26and interesting and smoky and dark.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29Yet she didn't really go all jazz on it.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32She just sang the song, delivered it beautifully.
0:30:32 > 0:30:39# The beautiful Tennessee waltz. #
0:30:39 > 0:30:43And maybe that's what female crooning is.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47The suggestive intimacy of the original crooners
0:30:47 > 0:30:52had caused moral outrage, but now it had become tame.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55Something was about to burst that bubble.
0:30:55 > 0:30:57# Ready, set, go man go
0:30:57 > 0:30:59# I got a gal that I love so
0:30:59 > 0:31:04# I'm ready, ready, ready teddy I'm ready, ready, ready teddy
0:31:04 > 0:31:06# I'm ready, ready, ready teddy
0:31:06 > 0:31:09# I'm ready, ready, ready to rock and roll... #
0:31:10 > 0:31:11By the 1960s,
0:31:11 > 0:31:16it was thought that the mid-century crooners were out of style,
0:31:16 > 0:31:21but I'm here to show you that the communication skills
0:31:21 > 0:31:26and the sexiness of the crooner never went away.
0:31:27 > 0:31:29Take the King of Rock and Roll himself.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32# Love me tender
0:31:32 > 0:31:36# Love me sweet
0:31:36 > 0:31:40# Never let me go... #
0:31:40 > 0:31:44I always think that there's as much of Bing Crosby
0:31:44 > 0:31:48in Elvis Presley's delivery, especially when he first started out
0:31:48 > 0:31:52and thought of himself as a ballad singer.
0:31:52 > 0:31:57Elvis could croon like a son of a gun.
0:31:57 > 0:31:58Whoa!
0:31:59 > 0:32:02# All my dreams fulfilled... #
0:32:02 > 0:32:07I understand the vitality and the urgency,
0:32:07 > 0:32:09the appeal of rock and roll.
0:32:12 > 0:32:17When I see Elvis in these settings, singing a tender ballad,
0:32:17 > 0:32:20it's really beautiful. His tone is gorgeous.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26You know. Almost like he's singing a gospel song,
0:32:26 > 0:32:28even though he's singing about love.
0:32:30 > 0:32:36# For it's there that I belong
0:32:36 > 0:32:40# And we'll never part... #
0:32:41 > 0:32:49When the R&B and rock shouters came in, crooning took a back-seat.
0:32:49 > 0:32:51It was not annihilated.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54It was maybe not...
0:32:54 > 0:33:00Eclipsed is a funny word, but it took a back-seat and bubbled under.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04# Yeah, runnin' scared
0:33:04 > 0:33:07# What would I do... #
0:33:07 > 0:33:11In the rock-and-roll era, crooning would become an echo,
0:33:11 > 0:33:14leaving behind ideas of ease and romance,
0:33:14 > 0:33:18in favour of exploring a world of teenage loneliness
0:33:18 > 0:33:20and dark, existential angst.
0:33:20 > 0:33:26# Just runnin' scared
0:33:26 > 0:33:28# Feelin' low... #
0:33:28 > 0:33:33The Big O epitomised the dark croon.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36# Runnin' scared... #
0:33:37 > 0:33:40Yeah, rock and roll started about,
0:33:40 > 0:33:44you know, tearing it up and being a rebellious thing,
0:33:44 > 0:33:47which, there's always the sadness of the morning after,
0:33:47 > 0:33:49no matter who you are!
0:33:49 > 0:33:53And, um... For me, Roy Orbison,
0:33:53 > 0:33:56who was another voice that really cannot be duplicated.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59- Yeah.- There's a song, Running Scared.
0:33:59 > 0:34:01- I call it the inverted triangle. - Mm-hmm.- And it's...
0:34:01 > 0:34:04# Just runnin' scared... #
0:34:04 > 0:34:06Just acoustic.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09And every bar, something else comes in.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11The crescendo at the end...
0:34:11 > 0:34:14And at the end, you know, she walks away with me.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17And you go, "Oh, my God, he got her!"
0:34:18 > 0:34:21# My heart was breaking
0:34:21 > 0:34:24# Which one would it be?
0:34:24 > 0:34:27# You turned around
0:34:27 > 0:34:33# And walked away with me. #
0:34:34 > 0:34:38Singers like Roy Orbison said you could play rock and roll,
0:34:38 > 0:34:42but still have this angelic beauty too.
0:34:42 > 0:34:43- Mm-hmm.- They all were...
0:34:43 > 0:34:45It's not peanut butter, jelly and horseradish.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48- It's all... It all works too.- Yeah.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54But the romantic ballad didn't live on solely in the shadows.
0:34:54 > 0:34:59# I wonder should I go or should I stay? #
0:35:01 > 0:35:05Stylised singers like Tom Jones, Tony Bennett
0:35:05 > 0:35:10and Engelbert Humperdinck proved that the romantic ballad
0:35:10 > 0:35:12could still compete in the '60s.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17- Engelbert Humperdinck. - Hi.- How are you?
0:35:17 > 0:35:18- Pleasure to meet you. - Gregory Porter.
0:35:18 > 0:35:20I'm glad to be here with you.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24How would you typify yourself as a singer?
0:35:24 > 0:35:26I have to tell you that Nat King Cole...
0:35:26 > 0:35:28- Mm-hmm.- ..started my life.- Mmm.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31When I was very young, I tried to find somebody
0:35:31 > 0:35:34that I could steal from, you know?
0:35:34 > 0:35:36- Yeah.- Because when you're a youngster, you're just beginning,
0:35:36 > 0:35:39you have no real style of your own.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42- Mm-hmm.- And so if I was going to steal from somebody,
0:35:42 > 0:35:44you have to steal from the best.
0:35:44 > 0:35:49# When I fall in love
0:35:49 > 0:35:52# It will be forever... #
0:35:52 > 0:35:55- What a great lyric, eh? - Yes. Amazing.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58# Or I'll never fall in love
0:35:58 > 0:36:02# In a restless world like this is
0:36:02 > 0:36:05# Love is ended before it's begun
0:36:05 > 0:36:09# And too many moonlight kisses
0:36:09 > 0:36:13# Seem to cool in the warmth of the sun... #
0:36:13 > 0:36:16- This is very exciting. - Yeah, great, great.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19And the way you sing it, my friend!
0:36:19 > 0:36:24You... You had enormous success in the time that rock and roll
0:36:24 > 0:36:27- was taking over the radio...- Yeah.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30- ..airwaves.- Yeah, people used to say, you know, like, for instance...
0:36:30 > 0:36:34"What is this guy doing with all these rock-and-roll people," you know?
0:36:34 > 0:36:35But my songs were...
0:36:35 > 0:36:38You know, I'm a balladeer, basically, a balladeer, you know.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41- Yeah.- And my songs, I think,
0:36:41 > 0:36:44had that longevity because they have a great story,
0:36:44 > 0:36:46they've got a great melody.
0:36:46 > 0:36:48But you've got to be able to sell it in the proper manner.
0:36:48 > 0:36:50And, er...
0:36:50 > 0:36:52That's what I do, I'm an actor on stage.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59# Please release me
0:36:59 > 0:37:03# Let me go
0:37:05 > 0:37:13# For I don't love you any more
0:37:15 > 0:37:24# To waste our lives would be a sin
0:37:26 > 0:37:30# Release me
0:37:30 > 0:37:34# And let me love again... #
0:37:36 > 0:37:39Can you tell me about Release Me, in 1967?
0:37:39 > 0:37:43It was quite a unique, er, beginning to that particular song.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47And when we recorded it, it sat on the shelf for about three months
0:37:47 > 0:37:51- until I did Sunday Night at the London Palladium.- Mm-hmm.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54And then the very next day, bang, it started to go.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56This is the power of television, you know.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00It sold an amazing amount of records and, of course,
0:38:00 > 0:38:03stopped the Beatles from going to Number One with Penny Lane,
0:38:03 > 0:38:05on their 13th Number One.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08# Please release me
0:38:08 > 0:38:13# Can't you see
0:38:16 > 0:38:19# You'd be a fool
0:38:19 > 0:38:25# To cling to me... #
0:38:25 > 0:38:28It's just an amazing journey that I've had, you know,
0:38:28 > 0:38:30and I've learned from all these people.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32- Mm-hmm.- I've learned a lot from them, you know.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36I can remember Bing standing out while I was rehearsing in a show
0:38:36 > 0:38:41and watching me do my own song, and he had his pipe, and he said...
0:38:41 > 0:38:45He said, "Boy, that's some set of pipes you've got there!"
0:38:45 > 0:38:47Coming from Bing, that was really wonderful.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49That's awesome! Yeah! Yeah.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52- A real pleasure. Thank you so much. - Thank you so much, Gregory.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55- Thank you very much.- Yeah. Yeah, you blessed me. Thank you.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03# Bells won't be ringing... #
0:39:03 > 0:39:07Whilst ballad singers were keeping the romantic tradition alive,
0:39:07 > 0:39:13in the real world, the idea of what crooning could actually be was changing.
0:39:13 > 0:39:15# Who is willing to try
0:39:17 > 0:39:21# Oh, little darlin'
0:39:21 > 0:39:24# To save a world... #
0:39:24 > 0:39:26Those '70s soul singers opened up...
0:39:28 > 0:39:33..er, the...the conversation for the crooner.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36They're, like... They're, like, crooning to society.
0:39:36 > 0:39:41# When I look at the world
0:39:41 > 0:39:45# It fills me with sorrow... #
0:39:45 > 0:39:49Take Marvin Gaye and his great songs
0:39:49 > 0:39:54in which he is almost pleading for love.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00But not just romantic love.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02He turned the thing all the way round.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05He was like pleading in a way for society...
0:40:07 > 0:40:09..for love.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11# Save the babies. #
0:40:13 > 0:40:17# If you wanna love you've got to love
0:40:17 > 0:40:21# Save the children... #
0:40:21 > 0:40:25I see Curtis Mayfield in the same way.
0:40:25 > 0:40:26Laying out his story.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30Almost whispering his lyrics, talking his lyrics.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32# I'm your mama, I'm your daddy
0:40:32 > 0:40:34# I'm that nigger in the alley
0:40:34 > 0:40:36# I'm your doctor when in need
0:40:36 > 0:40:38# Want some coke, have some weed
0:40:38 > 0:40:42# You know me, I'm your friend... #
0:40:42 > 0:40:44# I'm your pusherman... #
0:40:44 > 0:40:47These are protest songs. He's not just celebrating, you know,
0:40:47 > 0:40:49life on the street.
0:40:49 > 0:40:51He's talking about the conditions on the streets.
0:40:51 > 0:40:52And in a way...
0:40:54 > 0:40:57..in a way again asking society for love.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01It's great to see the croon move through the years
0:41:01 > 0:41:04- and retain its croon-iness.- Yeah.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08And sometimes it winds up in very strange places.
0:41:08 > 0:41:13I remember seeing Iggy Pop on the floor of Enganos up on 70th Street
0:41:13 > 0:41:15singing The Shadow of Your Smile.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19And he was about as much of a crooner as could be.
0:41:19 > 0:41:24# The shadow of your smile
0:41:24 > 0:41:30# When you walked by... #
0:41:32 > 0:41:38I was a young wild man vocalist.
0:41:39 > 0:41:45Doing loud music that wasn't really rock in the '60s.
0:41:45 > 0:41:51And every once in a while I'd noticed that a part of the song
0:41:51 > 0:41:55called for a low sustain.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59It just was demanded by the music.
0:41:59 > 0:42:05Often when the song had a darker emotion.
0:42:05 > 0:42:11A case in point would be the song, Dirt, on The Stooges' Fun House.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21Iggy's baritone created beauty in the darkest places.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26# Ooh, I been dirt
0:42:30 > 0:42:33# And I don't care... #
0:42:33 > 0:42:37It started out as a way to reach darkness
0:42:37 > 0:42:40or also butchiness!
0:42:40 > 0:42:42To sound butch.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45And later it became something else.
0:42:45 > 0:42:51It became a way to express vulnerability
0:42:51 > 0:42:58and compassion, and also what I would call a human patina.
0:43:03 > 0:43:06# Get into the car
0:43:06 > 0:43:08# We'll be the passengers
0:43:09 > 0:43:13# We'll ride through the city tonight
0:43:13 > 0:43:16# We'll see the city's ripped backsides
0:43:16 > 0:43:19# We'll see the bright and hollow sky
0:43:19 > 0:43:23# And all the cloud and black guitars... #
0:43:30 > 0:43:32It's a funny thing about the baritone.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35Maybe there's something about a deep voice
0:43:35 > 0:43:39that implies that it's coming from deep in the soul.
0:43:43 > 0:43:50It was the late David Bowie that pushed me in that direction
0:43:50 > 0:43:51when I was 29.
0:43:51 > 0:43:56He said to me simply, "Jim, you should sing in the baritone.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58"You're more impressive."
0:43:58 > 0:44:00Those were the words.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03# It's a God-awful small affair
0:44:03 > 0:44:07# To the girl with the mousy hair
0:44:07 > 0:44:11# But her mummy is yelling no
0:44:11 > 0:44:12# And her daddy... #
0:44:12 > 0:44:16Of all rock frontmen influenced by theatricality,
0:44:16 > 0:44:21there was one pretty thing who assimilated more than any other.
0:44:21 > 0:44:26In 1968, teenage David Bowie submitted English lyrics for My Way.
0:44:26 > 0:44:28They were rejected.
0:44:28 > 0:44:35This is David Bowie's Life On Mars, a response, a parody, if you will,
0:44:35 > 0:44:38of Paul Anka's My Way.
0:44:41 > 0:44:42Similar song structure.
0:44:42 > 0:44:48It starts in a similar way and then goes into a larger thing.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52# Sailors fighting in the dance hall... #
0:44:52 > 0:44:56He almost has a sad clown
0:44:56 > 0:45:02pagliacci kind of approach to this song.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04And so...
0:45:04 > 0:45:06melancholy, actually.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08It makes me feel a bit sad.
0:45:08 > 0:45:14# Oh, man, wonder if he'll ever know
0:45:14 > 0:45:18# He's in the best selling show
0:45:18 > 0:45:26# Is there life on Mars? #
0:45:26 > 0:45:28He liked the sonority of the croon.
0:45:28 > 0:45:34And I think you can hear it in Life On Mars.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38And especially the beautiful melody that is Life On Mars.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40It could be a standard.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43I believe David had many guises,
0:45:43 > 0:45:48but what he was probably more than anything,
0:45:48 > 0:45:51was a performer in the English music hall tradition.
0:45:51 > 0:45:56David certainly was influenced by musical theatre
0:45:56 > 0:45:58and his early influences,
0:45:58 > 0:46:03besides Little Richard and other R&B artists,
0:46:03 > 0:46:04was Anthony Newley
0:46:04 > 0:46:08and people who were singing on the stage in full voice.
0:46:08 > 0:46:10He was totally prepared to do that.
0:46:10 > 0:46:12# What kind of fool... #
0:46:12 > 0:46:18Anthony Newley was a singer who came to worldwide recognition with one
0:46:18 > 0:46:20song that was called What Kind Of Fool Am I?
0:46:20 > 0:46:23# It seems that I'm the only one
0:46:23 > 0:46:26# That I have been thinking of
0:46:26 > 0:46:28# What kind of man is this?
0:46:28 > 0:46:31# An empty shell
0:46:31 > 0:46:37# A lonely cell in which an empty heart must dwell
0:46:37 > 0:46:41# What kind of clown am I?
0:46:41 > 0:46:44# What do I know of life?
0:46:44 > 0:46:50# Why can't I cast away this mask of play and live my life? #
0:46:50 > 0:46:53David decided to look for a publishing deal.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57He went to a company called Essex Music who published
0:46:57 > 0:46:59What Kind Of Fool Am I?
0:46:59 > 0:47:04Funnily enough, the CEO, a guy called David Platts,
0:47:04 > 0:47:08was more of a musical theatre publisher anyway, and he said to me,
0:47:08 > 0:47:12"I really don't understand this world of rock and roll and pop music.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15"I'm in musical theatre, that's what I know."
0:47:15 > 0:47:17And that's why he signed David Bowie,
0:47:17 > 0:47:19thinking he had the next Anthony Newley.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22- Beck.- Hey, man. - Thank you for sitting here with us.
0:47:22 > 0:47:30- Good to see you.- Let's talk about David Bowie and his great ability to
0:47:30 > 0:47:37gap two eras of singing, from the crooners to the rock front man.
0:47:37 > 0:47:41Yeah, I think there's something striking about his approach to,
0:47:41 > 0:47:44you know, the rock vocalist.
0:47:47 > 0:47:49There is a blues element,
0:47:49 > 0:47:51but I think there's a bit of the crooner as well.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55There was kind of a grandness and a stature that the crooners had,
0:47:55 > 0:47:59that Bowie had. You don't really necessarily connect those eras,
0:47:59 > 0:48:01but he really connected those eras.
0:48:06 > 0:48:13Like Sinatra, he was always talking to you through the singing.
0:48:13 > 0:48:17# Love me, love me Love me, love me
0:48:17 > 0:48:19# Say you do... #
0:48:19 > 0:48:22You could listen to his vocal on Wild Is The Wind
0:48:22 > 0:48:25on the Station To Station album.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29# Let me fly away with you... #
0:48:29 > 0:48:32Talking through the singing.
0:48:32 > 0:48:34Very, very effective.
0:48:34 > 0:48:39# For my love is like the wind
0:48:41 > 0:48:46# And wild is the wind
0:48:46 > 0:48:52# Wild is the wind
0:48:52 > 0:48:57# You touch me... #
0:48:57 > 0:49:00That whole period, you know, that whole '70s period,
0:49:00 > 0:49:06The Thin White Duke and with the suits and the cigarette
0:49:06 > 0:49:08and the spotlight on the stage,
0:49:08 > 0:49:13you could see the Bing Crosby and Sinatra and those great...
0:49:13 > 0:49:16Those singers from that earlier era.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20He has that bit of world weariness of the crooner...
0:49:20 > 0:49:21- Yeah.- ..mixed in there.
0:49:21 > 0:49:23And it's an interesting hybrid.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28Recording in Berlin in 1977,
0:49:28 > 0:49:32Bowie would lay down his crowning vocal glory, Heroes.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36At the controls was producer, Tony Visconti.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39This is a very important vocal in David's history
0:49:39 > 0:49:42because so many things happened whilst we were making this.
0:49:42 > 0:49:45First of all, he's singing it in Hansa Studios
0:49:45 > 0:49:48which is a master hall, Meisterhalle,
0:49:48 > 0:49:50and this is where you could put
0:49:50 > 0:49:53at least 130 musicians in this huge hall.
0:49:57 > 0:49:59# We can be heroes... #
0:50:02 > 0:50:04Now, right at this point he said,
0:50:04 > 0:50:07"Stop the tape," because he had not yet written the rest of the song.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12So he scribbled a few lines out, started writing...
0:50:12 > 0:50:14And I left him at the piano and he's, like,
0:50:14 > 0:50:19reading them and crossing them out and he says, coming up to this part,
0:50:19 > 0:50:23"OK, I'm ready to record this next bit."
0:50:23 > 0:50:28# I, I wish you could swim
0:50:31 > 0:50:34# Like the dolphins... #
0:50:35 > 0:50:37I thought this was a beautiful couplet.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40"I wish I could swim like dolphins could swim."
0:50:40 > 0:50:43# Though nothing
0:50:43 > 0:50:46# Nothing will keep us together
0:50:48 > 0:50:54# We can beat them for ever and ever... #
0:50:54 > 0:50:58You know? A lot of rock music can be linear,
0:50:58 > 0:51:01you know, at just one level.
0:51:01 > 0:51:06In the case of Heroes, it is theatrical, you know?
0:51:06 > 0:51:11Something more akin to the big band era or something.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14The voice leads up to this big finale.
0:51:14 > 0:51:19# I, I will be king
0:51:23 > 0:51:28# And you, you will be queen
0:51:31 > 0:51:37# Though nothing will drive them away
0:51:39 > 0:51:43# We can be heroes
0:51:43 > 0:51:46# Just for one day
0:51:48 > 0:51:53# We can be us just for one day. #
0:51:53 > 0:51:56This was contemporary. This was about contemporary Berlin.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00He observed a drunken couple having an argument in the street
0:52:00 > 0:52:05and the guy's shouting and pretending we could be heroes,
0:52:05 > 0:52:07or acting like even though we're drunks, you know,
0:52:07 > 0:52:11we could climb out of this and we could be heroes.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14This is the bit, the Gods shout over our heads,
0:52:14 > 0:52:18is where he observed the backing singer Antonia Maass and I
0:52:18 > 0:52:21having a little snog by the Berlin Wall.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25That even made it into the song, which, you know, is history now, too.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29# As though nothing can fall... #
0:52:30 > 0:52:33I have to tell you, he's one of the best people I've ever met,
0:52:33 > 0:52:35one of the finest people I ever met.
0:52:35 > 0:52:39And, as a singer, I've not worked with any singers better than him.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42# Oh, we can beat them
0:52:42 > 0:52:45# For ever and ever. #
0:52:45 > 0:52:48Professional fade out. There you go.
0:52:51 > 0:52:52DOORBELL RINGS
0:52:55 > 0:52:59Hello. Are you the new butler?
0:52:59 > 0:53:02Well, it's been a long time since I've been the new anything.
0:53:02 > 0:53:03What's happened to Hudson?
0:53:03 > 0:53:08In 1977, this odd couple's duet may have seemed surreal,
0:53:08 > 0:53:13but now we see it as Bowie's inner crooner revealed.
0:53:13 > 0:53:15News sure travels fast, doesn't it?
0:53:15 > 0:53:18- I'm Bing. - Oh, I'm pleased to meet you.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22It's interesting because you see the generations meeting,
0:53:22 > 0:53:28and in a certain way, David seems as old as Bing.
0:53:28 > 0:53:29You know, they are both troupers.
0:53:29 > 0:53:35- # Peace on Earth, can it be? - Come they told me pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
0:53:35 > 0:53:40- # Years from now, perhaps we'll see? - A newborn king to see pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
0:53:43 > 0:53:49- # See the day of glory - Our finest gift we bring pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
0:53:49 > 0:53:55- # See the day, when men of good will - To lay before the king pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
0:53:55 > 0:53:58- # Live in peace, live in peace again - Rum-pum-pum-pum... #
0:53:58 > 0:54:02In some ways he respected someone like Bing Crosby
0:54:02 > 0:54:07because Bing could be so many of these aspects, the movies,
0:54:07 > 0:54:12you know, the television host, the shape shifter.
0:54:14 > 0:54:19Conventional wisdom holds that the crooner was a moment in history,
0:54:19 > 0:54:23but I've discovered that while crooning was a 20th century invention,
0:54:23 > 0:54:27it never actually left the art of popular singing.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33In the 21st century, the crooner lives on everywhere.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36You can even find him in the dulcet tones of
0:54:36 > 0:54:40Queens of the Stone Age's Joshua Homme.
0:54:42 > 0:54:48Homme has just a beautifully smooth tenor.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51# You wanna know if I know why?
0:54:51 > 0:54:55# I can't say that I do... #
0:54:55 > 0:54:59I just did a tour with them, the girls love him.
0:54:59 > 0:55:01# I don't understand the evil eye
0:55:01 > 0:55:05# Or how one becomes two... #
0:55:05 > 0:55:08Crooners, would you put yourself in that category?
0:55:08 > 0:55:12Erm, I like to wander in that direction.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16And I feel comfortable doing that as well.
0:55:16 > 0:55:20# If I told you that I knew about the sun and the moon
0:55:20 > 0:55:23# I'd be untrue... #
0:55:23 > 0:55:29I kind of hold Nat and Roy and even Johnny Cash, that baritone,
0:55:29 > 0:55:33like those are unattainable things.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36They really are ideals, something I look up to but never expect.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39- Yeah.- And so I always feel comfortable in a way that
0:55:39 > 0:55:42it's never going to be that, so what have I got to lose?
0:55:42 > 0:55:43I just...
0:55:45 > 0:55:48..be myself as much of the time as possible
0:55:48 > 0:55:52- and it should be fine, you know? - Yeah.- I love your voice, too.
0:55:52 > 0:55:55Like, when I saw you on Graham Norton. I was like...
0:55:55 > 0:55:59Because I just thought, "Holy shit, this is the real thing."
0:55:59 > 0:56:01That's really... It's nice.
0:56:01 > 0:56:02Yeah. You're the right dude for this.
0:56:02 > 0:56:07- Oh, thank you, man.- Because you have to able to sing or you couldn't talk about it. That's not right.
0:56:16 > 0:56:21# There was a boy
0:56:21 > 0:56:26# Very strange enchanted boy
0:56:28 > 0:56:33# They say he wandered very far
0:56:33 > 0:56:36# Very far
0:56:36 > 0:56:40# Over land and sea... #
0:56:41 > 0:56:45The question - am I a crooner?
0:56:49 > 0:56:51I am.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54But not just a crooner.
0:56:56 > 0:56:58We have all of these eras
0:56:58 > 0:57:04and all of these influences in which to consider.
0:57:04 > 0:57:08# Then one day
0:57:09 > 0:57:11# Magic day he past my way... #
0:57:13 > 0:57:17From Bing Crosby to Nat King Cole...
0:57:19 > 0:57:24..Frank Sinatra to David Bowie.
0:57:26 > 0:57:30Nowadays, there's a crooner in every popular singer.
0:57:32 > 0:57:37# The greatest thing
0:57:37 > 0:57:42# You'll ever learn
0:57:46 > 0:57:48# Is just to love... #
0:57:51 > 0:57:53I am a crooner, but then not!
0:57:55 > 0:58:03# ..and be loved in return. #
0:58:19 > 0:58:24# The falling leaves
0:58:27 > 0:58:30# Drift by the window
0:58:33 > 0:58:37# The autumn leaves
0:58:40 > 0:58:44of red and gold.... #