For Crosby’s renown to endure, he needs to make the transition from faded star to timeless artist...fortunately for Bing, Gary Giddins has taken up the gauntlet with surprising vehemence ... Mr. Giddins’s thorough research pays dividends. By digging into day-by-day and week-by-week itineraries, our biographer demands our admiration for Crosby’s unflagging efforts, often with little concern for personal rewards or favorable publicity ... Mr. Giddins is surprisingly non-judgmental about this subject—especially when compared to his strong opinions on Crosby’s recordings. He chastises the performer when he 'misses each and every high note' on a track ... But Crosby’s approach to child-rearing is never directly criticized, and often presented as symptomatic of its time and place ... But no one can accuse Mr. Giddins of shortchanging us on the facts. Every aspect of Crosby’s life is laid bare for close inspection in this penetrating biography ... I especially enjoyed previously unpublished extracts from a fan’s diary that recount minute details of Crosby’s life from the perspective of two sisters who followed him wherever he went ... It’s hard to reconcile the different facets of this oddly private man who thrived in the limelight while maintaining such reserve.
For a twenty-first-century audience, the idea of Bing Crosby as both a swoonworthy movie idol and an inspiration to battle-hardened soldiers may seem difficult to comprehend, but that is the brilliance of Giddins’ work: he makes us see how, in a very different time, Crosby’s easygoing, waggish style was just what the country craved, on records and radio, at the movies, and in person.
Worth the wait. ... an astute account ... a densely packed, sometimes excessively detailed narrative ... It must be noted, with regret, that Giddins has a terrible weakness for unnecessary material ... [an] evocative portrait of a man and a historical moment, which would be even better if it were about 100 pages shorter.
Mr. Giddins chronicles the recordings on a microscopic level ... At 700-plus pages, Swinging on a Star is no quick, breezy read. Mr. Giddins includes ample historical context, so much that in places his lengthy digressions slow the narrative ... As it stands, Swinging on a Star defines and solidifies Crosby's stature as a transcendent American original, beyond his annual Christmas revival.
No one has done more to put Crosby in the proper context than veteran music writer Gary Giddins ... Giddins is back with a strong round two, Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star: The War Years, 1940-1946. He used the time well: Over nearly 600 pages, he dives into hundreds of recordings, dozens of films, family tangles and financial details. It's perhaps daunting to a more casual reader but a treat for any Hollywood history obsessive ... The book stumbles for a stopping point ... Overall, it's enough to make you eager for the third installment — and hope the next one takes much fewer than 17 years.
Scintillating ... Giddins packs exhaustive research and detail into his sprawling narrative while keeping the prose relaxed and vivid, and sprinkles in shrewd critical assessments of Crosby’s music and films. Crosby emerges as an aloof, cool cat, and Giddins’s engrossing show-biz bio richly recreates the popular culture he helped define.
The author impressively maintains a balanced view of Crosby’s complex character ... A deeply researched and thoroughly engrossing biography that confirms Crosby’s essential role in the history of American music and film during a crucial period of the 20th century.
