The Once And Future King

Due to excessive material, I'm running a few tributes a bit late.  Such as Paul Whiteman, who died around 45 years ago, though time had passed him by decades earlier.

Known as the "King of Jazz" in his day, detractors consider his fox trot versions of so many hits to be missing the spirit and depth of true jazz.  But "jazz" was thrown around a lot in the 20s (look at The Jazz Singer) and if "White Man" didn't swing like others, he sure recorded a lot of beautiful versions of great songs.  In fact, going by the size and number of hits, he and his orchestra were more than twice as popular as any other act in the 20s, and, after Bing Crosby, were the biggest act of the first half of the twentieth century.  In the 20s and 30s, he recorded over 200 hits, including 32 number ones.  For better or worse, he introduced millions to many of the top tunes in the Great American Songbook.  Gershwin, Berlin, Kern, Rodgers and Hart, Porter, they all got the Whiteman treatment, and it sounded wonderful.

There's tons of his stuff on YouTube.  It's worth checking out.