About This Quiz
When it comes to three of the most famous crooners of all, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Perry Como, do you know who sang what, and with which band?
Crosby died in 1977. Sinatra, in 1998. And we lost Como in 2001. Before Elvis Presley, before the Beatles and the Stones and Led Zeppelin, there were the crooners. You might know the style best from the famous Rat Pack, playing shows and carousing around Las Vegas casinos. But crooners were any singer, although usually male, who sang jazz standards (by musicians such as George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin) in a soft, silky-voiced style -- the style emerged in the 1920s and lasted until the early 1950s. Frank, Bing, and Perry -- that's Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Perry Como -- were all, back in the day, crooning sentimental pop and jazz favorites from the Great American Songbook, often backed by a big band, full orchestra, or, at the very least, a piano. Today, famous crooners including Tony Bennett and Johnny Mathis, are still touring.
Whether, like Sinatra, their early days were spent as a singing waiter, or, like Crosby, in a popular vaudeville act called, "Two Boys and a Piano," all three of these men were driven to be entertainers from a young age. Como even gave up his paychecks for music lessons as a kid.
Ready to test yourself? See if you know who was nicknamed "Scarface," who was part owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and even which entertainer closed his career with three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame!
It's become a tradition since it began in 1980: Frank Sinatra's "Theme From New York, New York” has become the adopted song of the New York Yankees, and is played over the loudspeakers at Yankee Stadium every time they play a home game.
Although he couldn't deny he enjoyed music and had musical talent, Perry Como's goal was to be the best barber he could be. When he was just 10, Perry Como began pitching in to support the family with an after-school job at a barber shop; and, by 13, he had his own chair. Even when his singing career was hot, Como was known to still throw down a cut or two.
Francis Albert Sinatra went by Frank, not Francis. But he collected several other nicknames throughout his life, including The Voice, The Sultan of Swoon, Ol' Blue Eyes, and the Chairman of the Board.
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The 1960 Las Vegas heist story stars Frank Sinatra as Danny Ocean, as well as Angie Dickinson, Cesar Romero and other members of the Rat Pack -- Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Joey Bishop. The group of WWII veterans plan to knock over five Las Vegas casinos -- the Sahara, the Riviera, Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn, the Sands and the Flamingo -- on New Year's Eve.
Perry's just a nickname -- the singer's parents, Lucia (Travaglini) and Pietro Como, named him Pierino Ronald Como.
Up against Eddie Albert in "Roman Holiday," Brandon de Wilde in "Shane," Jack Palance in "Shane," and Robert Strauss in "Stalag 17," Frank Sinatra prevailed. In 1953, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in "From Here to Eternity" for his performance as Private Angelo Maggio.
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Bing Crosby was an avid golfer, and had a minimum of 75 golf memberships. He's credited with founded the annual tournament that would become what's now called the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Golf Tournament.
Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire paired up for the 1942 film, "Holiday Inn," about an inn and entertainment destination that's only open on holidays. This is the film where Irving Berlin's song "White Christmas" debuted.
In the 1960s in Las Vegas, the Rat Pack of entertainers included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop -- a group with a reputation for drinking and womanizing.
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The FBI kept a file on Ol' Blue Eyes, from 1943 through 1985, and released the 1,300 pages within in December 1998. What was in there? Everything from Frank Sinatra's arrest (which was for "seduction") to why and how he avoided military service to alleged links with organized crime and rumored involvement with the Communist Party.
Perry Como retired from his TV show in 1963, but not before singing "Catch a Falling Star," which featured the Ray Charles Singers on the refrain. The recording became the Recording Industry Association of America's first ever Gold Disc Award.
It's Bing Crosby whose real name is Harry -- Harry Lillis Crosby Jr., to be complete. "Bing" was a nickname he took from a favorite comic strip.
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He sold millions of records. His career spanned decades. But we'll always remember Perry Como for his voice -- and for his cardigan sweaters.
Frank Sinatra Jr. is the son of Frank Sinatra and his first wife, Nancy Barbato Sinatra. In December 1963, when he was 19, he was kidnapped at gunpoint from his hotel room at Harrah’s Club Lodge in Lake Tahoe and taken to Canoga Park in Southern California -- the kidnappers demanded $240,000 in ransom. Frank Sr. worked with the FBI, who tracked the ransom money and caught all three men behind the plot.
It's rare to have multiple stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but all three men do. Bing Crosby's stars are in the motion picture, radio and audio recording categories. Perry Como's stars are for his work in radio, television and music. And Frank, his are for his work in music, film and television.
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If you wanted to buy Frank Sinatra a drink, you couldn't go wrong with two fingers of Jack Daniel's whiskey, a splash of water, and four ice cubes.
Frank Sinatra's birth wasn't an easy one, and the attending physician needed forceps to help. But the forceps left a scar on Frank's face, from the corner of his mouth to his jawline.
It sounds like a odd couple, but Bing Crosby and David Bowie gathered around a piano and sang "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" for Crosby's holiday TV special, "Merrie Olde Christmas" in 1977.
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In 1950, Perry Como starred in his own show, "The Perry Como Show," which aired on CBS for five years. But it was only two years prior, in 1948, that Como made his TV debut on "The Chesterfield Supper Club" on NBC.
Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters paired up to sing a duet of "Don't Fence Me In" in 1944 -- and recorded it with Vic Schoen and his Orchestra in just 30 minutes. Their version topped the Billboard charts for eight weeks.
Frank Sinatra died in May 1998 in West Hollywood. But you can pay your respects at Desert Memorial park in Cathedral City -- look for plot B-8 #151, and the tombstone that reads, "The Best is Yet to Come."
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In the 1950s, Life magazine commissioned the National Field Service to find out what young women wanted as their "ideal" husband. The multi-city poll of 20-year-olds revealed it was Perry Como.
Perry Como's "Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom)" was released in 1956 and went on to become a No. 1 single on the U.S. charts that year. The Ray Charles Singers provided the back-up vocals on the track.
Although he grew up in Spokane, Bing Crosby's family moved there when he was a toddler. He was born in Tacoma, Washington, on May 3, 1903.
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Frank Sinatra has an asteroid named after him -- 7934 Sinatra was discovered on September 26, 1989 by E. W. Elst at the European Southern Observatory.
Frank Sinatra got into the sauce-making business with his mother's tomato sauce recipe. You could find the sauces -- called Artanis (which is Sinatra spelled backwards) on shelves in 1990.
Bing Crosby was part a part owner and the vice president of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He first bought stock in the team in 1947, and continued as part owner into the 1960s.
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Frank Sinatra lent his voice to the character of the Singing Sword in the 1988 movie, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." His blue eyes and a bowtie -- and his crooning of "Witchcraft" -- suggests that Sinatra may also have been inspiration for the Sword character.
Perry Como's idol, Bing Crosby, once called him, "the man who invented casual." He was still named Best Dressed in 1946.
With 41 No. 1 records, Bing Crosby has topped the charts more times than The Beatles as well as Elvis Presley. In total, his recordings charted 396 times (in comparison, Frank Sinatra charted 209 times).
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Eventually called simply, "Mr. C," but Perry Como was first nicknamed "Mr. Jukebox" -- and then "Mr. Nice Guy" and "Mr. Class."
One could say Perry Como began his career with the Ted Weems Orchestra -- when he joined in 1936, it was the first time the vocalist had national exposure.
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awards are generally given to artists who, sometimes, haven't been properly recognized by the Recording Academy. Perry Como won his Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously, in 2002.
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You know Columbo, the fictional homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, as he was played by Peter Falk. But the role was initially offered to Bing Crosby -- who, it's said, turned it down because it'd get in the way of his tee time.
During WWII, Bing Cosby's German fans nicknamed him, "der Bingle" -- which eventually caught on with his American fans, who also began using it. It's even referenced in the lyrics of The Andrews Sisters song, "Rum and Coca-Cola, as, "when they hear der Bingle croon."