Music: Home on the Range?

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There was a time when Bing Crosby used to explode, "My son Gary a crooner? Never!" Last week Der Bingle's explosion was muffled down to a tongue-in-cheek pop.

Bing had never exactly discouraged Gary, the eldest of his four kids, from joining in the free-for-all barbershopping that goes on around the Crosby house. In the last couple of years, he even let him appear occasionally on his radio show. Bing wasn't really worried about Gary turning groaner; Gary was too interested in football. And for a career, said Bing, "he has told me he wants to study animal husbandry and agriculture and become a cattle man—and I highly approve of that." But after strapping (180 Ibs.), 17-year-old Gary guest-starred on one radio show four months ago, things began to happen.

Hulking alongside his dad at the microphone, Gary chimed in on a ragtime duet called Play a Simple Melody, written by Irving Berlin back in 1914. He had some of the old man's verve, if not much of the voice. Decca Records' Dave Kapp heard it, last month got the Crosbys, father & son, to do a repeat in front of a recording mike. By last week, Play a Simple Melody —with its companion piece, Sam's Song—was a runaway bestseller: more than 300,000 records had been sold in less than three weeks.

What did Gary think of his new success? "He hasn't heard about it yet," said Bing by telephone from his Elko County (Nev.) ranch. "He's just about the best haying hand I've got, and I'm not going to take a chance on my new hay crop by telling him until we get it in."