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Great feature..., I would love to meet to mr. HAJDU.
Mr. B. actually actually broke the attendence records set by sinatra and martin & lewis at the paramount .
But in fairness , B. Also played a pro active part in his cultural demise. He was a hard man sometimes. Very proud .sinatra could get away with being hard ...B was considered uppity.

Also he turned down MGM`s carmen jones . A big splashy color musical that eventually went to belafonta

B. considered the film too degrading to people of color .

I actually have a screenplay about B. written years ago containing some of these elements but also much more .
Anyway good story WNYC.

Carl from harlem.

Great show. But it does not ring true that he could have been blacklisted for over 35 years. I could agree that he may well have been shunned and prevented from working through the 50s. But the 60s and 70s as well? After the civil rights movement? After Motown? After Hendrix? Then again, the audience (his audience) that pursued Perry Como, Dean Martin, or Tony Bennet in the 1960s was probably more conservative than the younger white audience that went for Motown.

The show on Billy Eckstine was the highlight of my day--a great way to begin the morning. I take difference with the historian's comment that blacks were on on the radio during the 1940s. Black, in many ways, dominated popular music during the 1940s and early 1950s. Not only was this the hey day of Nat King Cole, it was also the day of Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holidays and many others. Even white segregationists liked black music; and these performers ofter played in segregated clubs.

And please don't compare Herb Alpert and Eckstine; they belonged to two different eras. Alpert was popular in the 1960s. Eckstine was light-skinned but not so fair as to pass for white. And Nat King Cole would not have faired well, if he had been in that Life Magazine picture instead of Eckstine. Think!

Hey John,
I really enjoyed your Soundcheck segment on BILLY ECKSTEIN. I recognize his voice, but I never considered the man and his music, nor the lineage of his band.
It's interesting, now that I hear Eckstein had a bigger following at his peak than Sinatra, I can understand it. As for Sinatra, I never got into the groove (?) of the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. They never did it for me.
Basie, yes. Riddle, no.
I'm going to check out more of Billy Eckstein's music...He was surrounded by all the musicians I love.
Best regards,
Vic Offray
P.S.
And what ever happened to Gene Ammons ?

(Oh yeah, I hate the changes at the station)

[10] I'm a big Eckstine fan. And you have no idea what you are talking about - but please keep publicly projecting your own insecurities. PS - aren't you the same dude from Hampton, VA who keeps posting under different names, but always from crooklyn? Yes, I think so.

Re: Calls'em As I Sees'em from "McLean, VA"

I think you missed the point of the discussion and David's comparison of Mr.B to Sinatra, et al...I believe he said "by the end of the 1940's", Eckstine was outselling and had become more popular than Sinatra. Hence the Life magazine photo taken in 1949 and appearing in the magazine in 1950. However,thanks for the BillBoard's decade long #s. You too sound like you are defending "the good old days" when "those people" had to know their place and leave our women alone. So, let's punish them the old fashion way...steal their money/contracts and give all the publicity to our sacred cows. No one is attacking Sinatra, however, when you listen to the music on WNYC, especially weekends, there is definitely a bias towards European-American musicians. Just ask DJs like Jonathan Schwartz what the "American soundbook" sounds like...Sinatra often gets entire shows of his music as if there were no other singers.

I was driving to new Jersey listening to the show, but unfortunately I arrived before I heard the whole half. Nonetheless I immediately wondered whether this suave crooner pass for white if you didn't see him? Did the LIFE photo finally show that he wasn't white? The discussion was fascinating.

Great Show, but too much talk as usual. As for John Schaefer's comment acknowledging white America's racism but blaming Mr. B for breaking up his band to pursue a solo career and "pop music", it has a stench of present day "white" Americans reluctance to see things as they were and sometimes still are and instead choosing to blame the victims to save face. Mr B broke up a great band and went solo...well, so did Sting,Paul Simon, all members of the Beatles, Peter Gabriel, and countless other musicians who did not get "blacklisted" by their record labels, etc. Put some more thought into your commentaries John. Nonetheless, good show.

Full Ranking Of Acts, 1941-1950 From Billboard - Billy Eckstein was #188 Bing - #1 and Frank # 6

Rank
Act
Weeks
Points

1
Bing Crosby
481
19341

2
Paul Weston
313
10009

3
Perry Como
267
9562

4
Glenn Miller
226
9207

5
Harry James
220
8612

6
Frank Sinatra
244
8452

7
Andrews Sisters
229
8301...

...187
Carl Grayson
18
554

188
Billy Eckstine
23
531

189
Tennessee Ernie Ford
21
531

re: Johnny Hartman, he did not make it as big as he could of because america could only stand one Black male singer with a voice similar like Eckstine's so he did not become as successful. Fact.

Keep in mind, as great as Mr. B was, he was horrible to women and would beat them in public which incidentally impressed Miles Davis. Fact.

nations riot

A lot of comparisons can be drawn to Nat King Cole...same time period, hip jazz player to smooth pop singer.. why wasn't he ostracized like Mr B?

I'd love to hear more music here. Why don't you give us a taste of what Billy Eckstein sounded like? Enough chatter.

if this photo was, indeed, the reason eckstine was shunned, then it clearly was white fright speaking. herb alpert had similar photos on his album covers with alpert surrounded by adoring, physically-clingy women. i don't recall any outrage over those.

Please stop comparing Billy Eckstine to Kanye West. That is ridiculous.

how did the gorgeous crooner johnny hartman fit in here?