The singer who turned "White Christmas" into a seasonal standard and won an Oscar for Going My Way.
For the full picture, listen to "Dinah" for the early swing and "I'll Be Home For Christmas" for the sound that still fills department stores every December.
His 1942 recording of "White Christmas" became the holiday song everyone knows, but that's just part of the story. He recorded over 1,600 songs across decades, from early jazz numbers like "Dinah" with The Rhythm Boys to later hits like "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive." That easygoing baritone made him the voice of American comfort for a generation.
He started in the early 1930s singing with the vocal quartet The Rhythm Boys. After that launch, he moved into films and won a Best Actor Oscar for 1944's Going My Way, while his Christmas recordings like "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" kept selling year after year.
Keep it compact: a lyric you come back to, a live memory, or the part of the catalog you would point someone toward first.
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