Tanner Burns Is Bringing Crooning Back!
But what, might you ask, is Crooning?
Crooning is a smooth, intimate style of singing that originated in the 1920s. The crooning style was made possible by widespread access to electricity and improvements made to microphones that picked up quieter sounds and a wider range of frequencies than ever before.
This dominant popular vocal style coincided with the advent of radio broadcasting and electrical recording. Before widespread use of microphones, singers had to project their voices to the very back of the theater, making for a loud vocal style. Microphones made quieter, more personal, intimate singing possible.
Historians believe the suggestion of intimacy in song was wildly attractive to women at the time, especially within the youth subculture known as bobby soxers.
The crooning style developed quickly among singers who performed with big bands, reaching its height by the 1940s through to the late 1960s.
Al Bowlly and Bing Crosby are often credited with inventing the crooning style, but it was Rudy Vallée who brought about its widespread popularity.
From 1929 through to 1939, his highly rated radio program beamed in the sophistication of an exquisite New York City night club, where Vallée stood like a statue, surrounded by handsome, clean-cut collegiate band musicians, sensually cradling a saxophone in his arms.
Vallée's first film, The Vagabond Lover, was promoted with the tagline, “Men Hate Him! Women Love Him!" while his success brought press warnings of “this punk from Maine, Vallée, with the dripping voice, required mounted police to beat back crowds of screaming and swooning females".
But that was then.
This is now.
And by now, we mean Tanner Burns now.
Prince Edward Island’s darling of the opera set, Burns has turned his gaze towards Crooning and bringing it back!
Find out how now!
On the latest episode of The GXO, your insider connection into what’s happening, right now!
THE MUSIC
20 years before the advent of Crooning, Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso, the very first media superstar of recorded music, became the first person to ever sell a million records with his 1902 recording of the aria "Vesti La Giubba" from the 1892 opera I Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo written just 10 years prior https://music.apple.com/ca/album/i-pagliacci-recitar-vesti-la-giubba/403362925?i=403362945 Released on G&T Records, this milestone recording solidified Caruso's status as a music industry pioneer
"You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" was originally written and composed for the 1966 animated television special Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas. With lyrics by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel and music composed by Albert Hague, the song was originally performed by Thurl Ravenscroft. Upon its original release, the soundtrack won the Grammy Award For Best Album For Children at the 10th Annual Grammy Awards held February 29, 1968, recognizing accomplishments of musicians for the year 1967. This version sung by Tanner Burns from his 2025 debut EP "A Warm Christmas With Tanner Burns" https://music.apple.com/ca/album/youre-a-mean-one-mr-grinch/1855451403?i=1855451408
"I Only Have Eyes For You" is a song composed by Harry Warren and lyricist Al Dubin. The song was written for the 1934 Warner Brothers musical film Dames and originally sung by Dick Powell. Several other successful recordings of the song were made in 1934. 25 years later, African American doo-wop group The Flamingos would score an international Top 10 hit with their adaptation of the song recorded at New York's famed Bell Sound Studios, at its height, the largest independent recording studio in the United States. in 2011 Rolling Stone magazine placed The Flamingo's version at number 158 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time. Al Jolson recorded his version in 1949 as part of his 1949 Decca Records album Jolson Sings Again https://music.apple.com/ca/album/i-only-have-eyes-for-you/1672654096?i=1672654107
"I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'" is a bass-baritone aria sung by the character Porgy from George Gershwin's 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The song has been covered by many musicians since the opera's premiere September 30, 1935 at the Colonial Theatre in Boston. Originally sung by African American baritone opera singer and actor Todd Duncan, Bing Crosby would go onto record his version for Decca Records on March 29, 1936, just six months after the opera's world premiere https://music.apple.com/ca/album/i-got-plenty-o-nuttin/1466126322?i=1466126329
"All Or Nothing At All" is a song composed in 1939 by Arthur Altman with lyrics by Jack Lawrence. Originally recorded on August 31, 1939 by the Harry James Orchestra (featuring a vocal solo by 23 year old Frank Sinatra who bandleader James had hired just two month previous to a two year contract at $75 a week). The side, as with all of Sinatra's recordings with James, had weak sales initially and would not become a hit until reissued by Columbia Records four years later when released as product to fill the music void as a result of the 1942-1944 musicians strike. The record went Number One topping the Billboard charts, selling over a million copies compared to the 8,000 sold when originally released. Interestingly, Sinatra went to Number 8 with the song on Billboard's chart for African American music, then called the Harlem Hit Parade https://music.apple.com/ca/album/all-or-nothing-at-all-feat-frank-sinatra/158597471?i=158597564
"Come Fly With Me" was written specifically for Frank Sinatra in 1958 by composer Jimmy Van Heusen and lyricist Sammy Cahn and was the title track of his 1958 album of the same name. Famed arranger Billy May arranged and conducted this swinging pop song, his first of many collaborations with Sinatra over the years. Sinatra At The Sands is Sinatra's first ever live album to be commercially released. Accompanied by the legendary Count Basie And His Orchestra, the album was conducted and arranged by Quincy Jones, recorded live in the Copa Room of the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1966 https://music.apple.com/ca/album/come-fly-with-me-live-at-the-sands-hotel-and-casino-1966/1440842924?i=1440842927
"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is an uncredited anonymous traditional English Christmas carol. It is in the Roxburghe Collection (printed in 1847 by John Payne Collier) but can be dated as far back as the 1650s as part of an anonymous manuscript. English solicitor and antiquarian William Sandys is credited with popularizing the carol after including it in his 1833 publication Christmas Carols Ancient And Modern (London, Richard Beckley publisher). This recording taken from A Warm Christmas With Tanner Burns featuring saxophone by Tanner's 16 year old jazz protégé brother Chase Burns https://music.apple.com/ca/album/god-rest-ye-merry-gentlemen/1855451403?i=1855451406
"Silent Night" is a popular Christmas carol composed in 1818 by Franz Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr who had written the piece in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. On Christmas Eve, 1818, Mohr brought his words to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for that night's mass after river flooding had damaged the church organ. The church was eventually destroyed by repeated flooding and eventually replaced by the Silent Night Chapel in 1924. Stille Nacht was first performed on Christmas Eve, 1818, at Saint Nicholas Church, the parish church of Oberndorf bei Salzburg in the Austrian province of Salzburg. This recording taken from A Warm Christmas With Tanner Burns featuring saxophone by Tanner's 16 year old jazz protégé brother Chase Burns https://music.apple.com/ca/album/silent-night/1855451403?i=1855451407
"Because" (the Guy d'Hardelot & Edward Teschemacher song) is a song originally published in 1900 with music and lyrics by Guy d'Hardelot and English lyrics by dward Teschemacher. Turn of the century tenor opera sensation Enrico Caruso recorded the song in its original French on December 7, 1912. The record was issued by Victor in the USA and His Master's Voice in Europe in 1913. American tenor and actor, Mario Lanza (1921-1959) the first artist to sell two and a half million albums, sang the song when playing Enrico Caruso in the 1951 biopic The Great Caruso, when he was just 30 years old. Lanza would go on to record the song for RCA Victor. His version peaked in the Top 20 Singles at No. 16. On a personal note, this song was my parent's wedding song when they were married July 25, 1945, a full six years before Lanza released his version https://music.apple.com/ca/album/because/400109901?i=400109935
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