{"id":445509,"date":"2025-09-23T09:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T09:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/445509\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T09:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T09:58:11","slug":"chuck-berry-believed-elvis-presley-had-a-voice-better-than-bing-crosbys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/445509\/","title":{"rendered":"Chuck Berry believed Elvis Presley had a voice \u201cbetter than Bing Crosby\u2019s\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chuck<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Tidal)<\/p>\n

Tue 23 September 2025 5:00, UK <\/p>\n

Vocalists come and go with the changing of the tides, but a select few names continue to prevail year after year, and perhaps the only thing that those names have in common is that they all took their cues from Bing Crosby<\/a>. <\/p>\n

One of the world\u2019s biggest-selling artists back in his day, Crosby set the standard for male vocalists of all genres and generations. That buttery smooth baritone lent itself to a plethora of utterly iconic recordings, from \u2018White Christmas\u2019 to \u2018Swinging on a Star\u2019 \u2013 for which he won an Academy Award \u2013 and even today, nearly 50 years on from Crosby\u2019s death in 1977, his influence over male vocalists remains utterly undeniable. <\/p>\n

When you think about those who came in the wake of Crosby, it is easy to conjure up images of Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin, but the influence of the performer stretches far beyond classic crooners. In fact, those wholesome, inseparably festive tones formed an unlikely influence on the age of rock and roll rebellion back in the 1950s, particularly in the case of Elvis Presley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A vast amalgamation of R&B, blues, jazz, country and boogie-woogie, the origin story of rock and roll<\/a> is a topic we simply don\u2019t have time to delve into within this article. However, the style was ultimately rooted in rebellion and a subversion of mainstream culture; nobody represented the musical mainstream of the 1950s quite so all-encompassingly as Bing Crosby. Nevertheless, when that Mississippi-born performer began to slick back his hair and shake his hips, it was Crosby who informed his vocal sensibilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Attention was quickly drawn to the unique energy of Presley as a performer, along with his apparently outrageous dance moves, but the real reason for his enduring title as \u2018The King of Rock and Roll\u2019 lay with his voice. Nobody else during that first age of rock boasted the same vocal abilities as Presley, equally befitting of high-energy rebel anthems and deep, intimate love songs. You can certainly hear Crosby in some of Presley\u2019s more intimate anthems, \u2018Can\u2019t Help Falling In Love\u2019 being perhaps the most notable example.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even Presley\u2019s rock and roll contemporaries could recognise the power of that distinctive voice at the time. \u201cI think he had a wonderful manager,\u201d Chuck Berry joked in a 2008 interview with St Louis Magazine<\/a>, downplaying the quality of The King. \u201cBut one thing Presley had that no other person had was that voice. He had a voice better than Bing Crosby\u2019s,\u201d the guitarist boldly declared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s another thing: I came up believing that singing did not mean just saying it with ups and downs and varied melody,\u201d Berry continued. \u201cSinging is almost like swinging: It vibrates\u201d. Therein lies the appeal of a voice like Presley\u2019s. After all, there are countless vocalists out there who are technically more skilled than Elvis (including Bing Crosby), but his voice swung in a way that very few other artists could pull off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, without Crosby, there is no Elvis Presley, but \u2018The King\u2019 arguably eclipses his mentor in terms of vocal power, at least according to Chuck Berry. While there is an argument to be had there, we are not rushing to disagree with Chuck Berry \u2013 have you seen him putting Keith Richards in his place? The sensible option is just to smile and nod, it would seem. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Tidal) Tue 23 September 2025 5:00, UK Vocalists come and go with the changing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[38512,10113,34221,77,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-445509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-bing-crosby","9":"tag-chuck-berry","10":"tag-elvis-presley","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115253025547044344","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}