Celebrate the Oscar-winning composer who wrote high-flying songs for Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, such as "Moonlight Becomes You" and "Come Fly With Me" in PBS's JIMMY VAN HEUSEN: SWINGIN' WITH FRANK & BING special, featuring interviews with Frank Sinatra, Jr., Harry Crosby, Tony Bennett, Shirley MacLaine and more. Go behind the scenes in the video!
JIMMY VAN HEUSEN: SWINGIN' WITH FRANK & BING celebrates the four-time Oscar-winning composer whose musical genius created dozens of beloved classics for the American Songbook. With a remarkable career that spanned five decades and several eras in popular music, his close association with two of the greatest entertainment icons of the last one hundred years -- Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby -- resulted in numerous hit songs for both.
Featuring interviews with Frank Sinatra, Jr., Harry Crosby, Tony Bennett, Angie Dickinson, Shirley MacLaine, Woody Allen and John Pizzarelli along with archival footage of timeless performances by Sinatra, Crosby, Judy Garland and many others, JIMMY VAN HEUSEN: SWINGIN' WITH FRANK AND BING is part of special programming premiering on PBS stations beginning tonight, August 9, 2014 ( check local listings).
Jimmy Van Heusen's relationships with Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra were musical magic, and the composer's four Academy Award-winning songs are all best known for their Crosby-Sinatra performances: "Swinging on a Star," sung by Crosby in Going My Way (1944), "All The Way," performed by Sinatra in The Joker Is Wild (1957), "High Hopes" sung by Sinatra in A Hole in the Head (1959), and "Call Me Irresponsible," performed by Jackie Gleason in Papa's Delicate Condition (1963) but made famous by Sinatra and Jack Jones. In addition, Van Heusen won an Emmy for the song "Love & Marriage" from the 1955 live television production of "Our Town." His collaborations with Crosby included the creation of songs for six of the seven Crosby-Hope "Road Pictures," as well as for the all-time Hollywood classics Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary's.
Sinatra recorded over 80 songs by Van Heusen -- more than any other composer -- including "Come Fly With Me," "Here's That Rainy Day," "The Second Time Around" and "The Tender Trap." Close friends and musical kindred spirits, "they got into music together, they got into movies together and they got into trouble together," says Frank Sinatra, Jr. in the program.
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