Malcolm Macfarlane is a noted Bing Crosby
authority and music historian who has edited BING magazine since 1993. Formerly a Fellow of the Chartered
Institute of Bankers and an ex-Rotarian, he retired from a senior banking position
in the U.K. in 1999 and his first full-length book “Bing Crosby – Day By Day”
was published in 2001. His next book was Perry Como A
Biography and Complete Career Record which was published in 2009.
This was written in conjunction with his friend Ken
Crossland and it went on to win the prestigious Association of Recorded
Sound Collections 2010 Award for Best Research (History) in Popular or Rock
Music. Subsequently Ken and Malcolm have
written a book about Rosemary Clooney which was published by Oxford University
Press in 2013. This won a Certificate of Merit in Pop Music from the
Association of Recorded Sound Collections in 2014.
Amongst his media credits, Malcolm was a
consultant to the Landseer Productions television documentary Bing Crosby—The Voice of the Century in
1999, which was shown on the Bravo channel in December 2000, and he contributed
to the BBC television series Walk on By,
which was shown in the U.K. in March 2001 and on the Bravo channel later that
year under the title Popular Song:
Soundtrack of the Century.
In addition, he worked on the BBC Radio 4
documentary Bing Crosby Meets....
broadcast on December 29, 2001, the BBC2-TV documentary Bing On Bing, shown on December 25, 2002 and the Crosby episode in
the BBC-TV series Living Famously which
was initially shown in the UK in 2003 and in Australia in 2004.
He was a contributor and consultant to the
KSPS-TV documentary Bing Crosby - Going
My Way originally shown in the USA in 2003 and subsequently made available
on video. During 2003, he was prominently featured in a two-part Bing Crosby Centenary Special and also a
Bob Hope tribute, both for Saga Prime Time Radio. In 2004, he played a major
part in a radio documentary about singer Frankie Vaughan which was broadcast on
Saga Prime Time Radio in May of that year and he also contributed to the BBC1
TV documentary Kings of Cool. In
2006, he assisted the BBC Radio 4 team with their program about Bing Crosby’s
appearance at the London Palladium For
One Night Only.
He has been interviewed by many radio
stations about Bing Crosby, Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney, and prior to his
retirement, on banking matters. Furthermore, he has contributed to several
other books, video, and CD releases relating to Bing Crosby. He wrote the sleeve
notes on the Universal Music CD Holiday
Inn issued in November 2002 and he delivered a paper on Crosby’s activities
in World War II at a three day seminar held at Hofstra University, Long Island
in November 2002. This paper has subsequently been published by University of
Rochester Press as part of the book Going My Way – Bing Crosby and American Culture.
In May 2003, Malcolm was one of the
speakers at the centenary dinner for Bing Crosby attended by 600 people and
held at Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington. In 2005, he wrote the sleeve
notes for the Avid CD Bing - A Musical
Autobiography and in subsequent years he has followed this with the sleeve
notes for the Sepia CDs Bing Crosby -
Good & Rare – vols. 1-3, Bing
Crosby – Through the Years, vols. 1-10 and Say One for Me / The Road to Hong Kong.
Since 2010, Malcolm has been a speaker on
cruise ships about nostalgic music topics and he is frequently in demand to give
such talks to clubs and societies in his local area.
Malcolm and Pat Macfarlane
live in Wilmslow, Cheshire, in the U.K. and they have three adult daughters and
one granddaughter. He will be very pleased to hear from anyone wishing to
comment on, or ask questions about this book or any other related matters.
Malcolm can be reached by e-mail at Macwilmslo@aol.com