Advertisement |
Bob Crosby (August 23, 1913, Spokane, Washington – March 9, 1993, La Jolla, California) was an American dixieland bandleader and vocalist, best known for his group Crosby and the Bob-Cats.
He was the youngest of seven children: five boys, Larry (1895-1975), Everett (1896-1966), Ted (1900-1973), Harry (1903-1977, popularly known as Bing Crosby) and Bob; and two girls, Catherine (1905-1988) and Mary Rose (1907-1990). His parents were English-American bookkeeper Harry Lowe Crosby (1871-1950) and Irish-American Catherine Harrigan (1873-1964), (affectionately known as Kate), the daughter of a builder from County Mayo in Ireland.
Bob Crosby began singing with Anson Weeks (1931-34) and the Dorsey Brothers (1934-35). He led his first band in 1935, when the former members of Ben Pollack's band elected him as titular leader. His most famous band, the Bob-Cats, was a Dixieland jazz group with members from the Bob Crosby Orchestra. Both the Bob Crosby Orchestra and the smaller Bob-Cats group specialized in Dixieland jazz, presaging the traditional jazz revival of the 1940s. Crosby's singing voice was remarkably similar to that of his brother Bing, but without its range.