Many older readers of
News Four will surely
remember the day the
famous crooner Bing Crosby
came to sing in Tara Street.

It was the late 1950s and I was
involved at the time with the
Tara Record Shop along with
Mike Tyrell, Louis Mullin and
George OʼReilly.

Louis was the resident vocalist
in the Crystal Ballroom
in South Ann Street, where we
all danced almost every night.

George OʼReilly was our senior
partner and a great friend of
Bing. He had been to Crosbyʼs
home in Hollywood many times
and invited Bing to officially
open the record store.

Sad to say, Bing was shooting
ʻHigh Societyʼ with Frank Sinatra
and Grace Kelly and could not
oblige. However, Bing asked his
friend Nat King Cole to cut the
tape and we all had a wonderful
time with Nat, as I related in an
earlier issue of NewsFour.

Some years later, Bing came
to Dublin to record a T.V. special
and at last we got Bing to call to
see us. We all got busy tarting
up the shop; we festooned the
shop window and all the inside
walls with dozens of Crosbyʼs
record covers and posters.

I organized microphones and
loudspeakers in the upstairs
apartment windows as we knew
there would be a big crowd and
we were hoping Bing would sing
a few songs for them.

Sure enough, when the big day
came Tara Street was absolutely
packed with people. Crosby and
his entourage turned up in the
early afternoon and it was utter
mayhem in the shop.

We brought him upstairs to get
away from the crowd and get
some refreshments. Then, fair
play to him, he sang a few songs
to the crowd from the upstairs
windows. He sang ʻIsle of Inishfree
ʼ but seemed to forget some
of the words, but, great showman
as he was, he started conducting
the crowd who were all
singing along– nobody was any
the wiser. It was a great occasion
and we all had a great day.

As I look back fifty years later,
it is only now that I realise I was
in the company of arguably the
biggest recording star of the 20th
century. Sales-wise, Bing beats
everybody, only Sinatra and
Presley come near.

One reason for this is Crosbyʼs
incredibly long recording career.

He cut his first records with the
Paul Whiteman Orchestra in
1928 and was still scoring hits
in the late 1970s. The Billboard
Magazine Charts show that
Crosby had 317 charted singles,
36 number one singles and total
record sales of over one billion.
ʻWhite Christmasʼ alone has
sold more than 32 million copies
to date.

Crosbyʼs marathon career finally
came to an end in 1977.
He died suddenly in Spain while
playing golf, his favourite pastime.
On 30th October 2005, my old
friend George OʼReilly held a
tribute concert to Crosby at The
Helix in Glasnevin.

George looked great and gave
a wonderful talk about his friend
of so many years past. Halfway
through the show, Bingʼs widow
Katherine phoned from America
to thank George and the sold-out
audience for remembering her
husband. On exiting, each member
of the audience received a
CD of the maestroʼs greatest
hits, a welcome surprise.

As I finish this article, I am actually
listening to Bingʼs warm
and mellow tones as he sings
ʻIsle of Inishfreeʼ. Rest easy
Bing and thanks for the memories
of many years ago.

Picture, from left: Bing
Crosby, Dorothy Lamour and
Bob Hope in ʻThe Road to Baliʼ
(1952).