In 1939, he became a solo crooner with a voice described as a strong baritone with a tenor lilt.
This new sound led to the popular epithet crooner.
Crooners had soft voices that were well suited to the intimacy of the new medium of the radio.
In light of his musical career, he was nicknamed the crooner politician after he entered politics.
It wasn't the picture of the lone crooner standing in the spotlight.
Following the war, the popularity of big bands declined as crooners and bebop came to dominate the charts.
With vocals that are part dive-bar crooner and part righteous rocker, theatrical overtones and gothic undercurrents, the album is overblown, intense and great fun.
It's the rhythm that gets to the kids they're starved of music they can dance to, after all those years of crooners.
