"Bing Crosby was a baritone".    Exactly, and as the biography of him that I'm reading now notes, with the new recording technology--especially the mike--the era of tenor domination of popular music ended and the age of baritones began.   Admittedly the author has very little use for tenors, it appears--even Jolson gets grudging praise, and he quotes, approvingly, it seems, descriptions of people like Rudy Vallee as "whining a degenerate song, which is unworthy of any American man."


His own description of Vallee's music:   "He believed he possessed rare insight regarding his generation's musical tastes, which he construed as a desire for rah-rah Ivy League songs, adapted European ballads, and mildly risque novelties about stupid or easy girls."

It's a very lively biography.