Crooner

Alex Coles is Professor in the School of Arts and Humanities, University of Huddersfield. He is the author of The Transdisciplinary Studio (2012) and Tainted Love: Twisted Romantic Ballads (2023), and editor of Design and Art (2007).

"On the cover of Alex Coles’ Crooner is a picture of Sammy Davis Jr, eyes closed, mouth half open, microphone in hand, midway through a number . . . When it comes to Sinatra, Coles’ taste is impeccable . . . Crooner [has] the virtue of sending you back to the songs and albums Coles discusses." - Christopher Bray, The Mail on Sunday"This is an intriguing study of a wide array of vocalists who were inspired by Sinatra. A fresh and educational look at an influential element of popular music." - Peter Thornell, Library Journal"A satisfying historical survey of crooners . . . music history buffs will be riveted." - Publishers Weekly"The crooner is one of the most enduring personas in popular music . . . As the book’s subtitle suggests, Coles has structured his exploration by selecting ten vocalists from more than 50 years of recorded music. He investigates each one’s contribution to crooning by focusing on just one of their songs. This structure allows for a focused examination of the individual artist and song and a broader analysis of work by other musicians that influenced the recording . . . Coles skilfully strikes the right balance between these two components, employing extensive research to create informative and provocative discussions . . . It’s particularly commendable that the songs Coles has selected are not the best-known tracks by each artist - far from it, in several cases. Some choices push the boundaries of what might be considered crooning . . . the chapters on each of the ten artists collectively give the reader a better appreciation of an often satirized or misunderstood musical style. In that way, Crooner contributes to the literature on popular music." - Fiona McQuarrie, Pop Matters"Crooning . . . is an extremely broad church, as Alex Coles' new book on the subject shows us, through several case studies which include Frank Sinatra, Bryan Ferry, Grace Jones and Nas." - The Quietus"Crooner: Singing from the Heart from Sinatra to Nas is part of Reaktion Books’ Reverb series. Established in 2010, it is a series that swerves the more predictable biographies and traditional histories of popular music. Instead, books published under Reverb focus on situating popular music in much broader historical and deeper cultural contexts. Alex Coles skillfully achieves this with his imaginative, radical history of the crooner . . . With each chapter saturated with references, the frequent illustrations do well to bring a sense of humanity to the crooner’s lived life . . . Crooner is undoubtedly a book written with passion for crooning, but Coles balances that passion with measured insights and a carefully crafted narrative. More than mindful listening at a cool distance, Coles offers a closeness that is personal, perhaps quasi-fanatical. With little to no abstract metanalysis that would explain crooning away into a confusing fog of theory, Coles’s post-critical writing delivers a rich, vibrant genealogy of crooning. This accessible study will appeal to casual fans of music, and not exclusively fans of crooning, while also holding court in academic circles for those looking to follow Coles’s idiosyncratic tracing of the crooked timber of crooning." - James Dyer, Popular Music and Society Journal"It’s about time somebody properly investigated the modern art of the croon and Alex Coles is the right person for the job. We’re not talking about the “golden age” of crooning here, although of course Sinatra is a natural place to start. Across ten carefully selected case studies from those you might expect to be reading about (Nick Cave or Tom Waits) to others that may come as more of a surprise (the rapper Nas, for instance), Coles explores what it means to croon and how the art has evolved." - JR Moores, author of Electric Wizards

• Introduction1 Frank Sinatra: ‘What’s New?’ (1968)2 Scott Walker: ‘It’s Raining Today’ (1969)3 Barry White: ‘Bring Back My Yesterday’ (1973)4 David Bowie: ‘Word on a Wing’ (1976)5 Bryan Ferry: ‘When She Walks (in the Room)’ (1978)6 Tom Waits: ‘Ruby’s Arms’ (1980)7 Grace Jones: ‘Unlimited Capacity for Love’ (1982)8 Ian McCulloch: ‘Ocean Rain’ (1984)9 Nick Cave: ‘Far from Me’ (1997)10 Nas: ‘Bye Baby’ (2012)ConclusionReferencesSelect BibliographySelect DiscographyAcknowledgementsPhoto AcknowledgementsIndex