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Jon Oye keeps adding images to his site Contemplations on Classic Movies and Music
David Lobosco has continual additions to his site The Bing Crosby News Archive
Tony Mead adds photos and other interesting material Bing's Photos
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See
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Well, well, well.
Raid the Christmas and birthday funds and break open the piggy bank!
Even rather difficult to sort out what is on offer - a multiple set of DVDs containing 24 movies,
four CDs plus a DVD "American Masters" (which is also included in the multi DVD pack), the Anniversary edition of "White Christmas" on Blu-Ray AND standard DVD, and then there are the Rosie Clooney CDs.
A certain amount of head scratching is needed to sort out what is what and where priorities might lie!
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Nowhere in the vast stetement did I see the UMe release of the Merry Christmas 180gm LP. Must be from a different source bot involved with the Crosby estate.
Yes, this is yet another example of how fine the people working on keeping Bing's memory alive are doing. They are to be wildly applauded.
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The titles of the songs included within the massive diamond mine that is the "Colossal Crosby Celebration" are now shown on Amazon, here
A very interesting mix including radio, unissued tracks, rehearsals and the original tracks. In some cases it is possible to deduce the origins of the tracks but others are quite a challenge. But nearly two months to wait!
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This is such a great dilema on what to buy!
I am going to pass on the DVD collection of Bing's movies - all of them are already out on DVD. That will save a chunk for me.
The CD issues I am looking most forward to is "Bing Sings Irving Berlin" and "Songs I Wish I Had Sung".
Last edited by Lobosco (30/9/2014 2:44 am)
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A fascinating collection of new CDs. I'll have to buy them all I fear! Wonder if they will be available as downloads? This would save paying the import duty.
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It is, indeed, a fascinating collection of new CDs, and I know I'm going to have to buy them all, because even if some of them had been available before (Songs I Wish I Had Sung, for instance, is contained in one of the volumes of the Through the Years series from Sepia) there are bonus tracks that sound very interesting. One of them, for example, is Bing singing "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine," one of my favorite tracks by Nick Lucas that I've never heard Bing sing! Let's hope that the future holds many more releases like these!
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ThGreat Sounds So Interesting. IndEeA Colossal Crosby Celebration! LookingForward TThe New Bing Goodies.ItWould Be Great IF Downloads were Uu
available
WiNdyd
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I agree with Lobosco - if you have collected Bing's movies on DVD over the years, it doesn't appear that there's anything new or unreleased. In fact, the extra features on the discs are exact clones of DVD releases that have already come out via Universal (the "Road" movies are a primary example).
But, I very much look forward to the CD releases, as the bonus tracks look amazing and interesting! November should be a fantastic month for a Bing fan!!!
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Sheesh....All I can say is I am so glad I neither buy nor collect DVD's!!.
After an extremely quiet year (although nice to have breathing space to listen and enjoy the spoils of the last few years) it is a relief to see those CD releases - although a bit of a mixed bag.
I have "Some Fine Old Chestnuts in a number of formats already, and not a big fan of various alternative "takes" but it does remain a firm favourite and has to be bought (yet again) for those few remaining bonus tracks. Would have liked to have seen a 60th Anniversery version of "A Musical Biography" as well (and a deluxe Holidays In Europe!!),
"Songs I wish I Had Sung" is one I don't take off the shelf and play very often - but look at all those bonus songs - Might just be the excuse to play it more. Anybody know if the bonus tracks are from the same sessions or can we expect more tag on from the Radio sessions??
"The Irving Berlin Songbook" looks a charming little compilation- just what the winter nights require - although could have seriously done without the Buble duet.
Unsure about the "Rediscovered" Soundtrack - not particulary critical at face value.
All in all though, great to see these titles coming out. It would be nicer if they were spread out over the year....say a release every 3 months. I dread to think that it may be another full year before we get to hear more once these come out.
Last edited by Kevin (07/10/2014 8:43 pm)
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I must make a correction to my statement above regarding the DVD's. This new set contains "Variety Girl" in a non "on demand" form, meaning that it will be in an officially pressed DVD versus in a DVD-R format as places like Amazon and Deep Discount in the US currently have for sale:
There have been sketchy reviews regarding the quality of the DVD-R, so hopefully the version on the upcoming box set is without issues.
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Kevin wrote:
It would be nicer if they were spread out over the year....say a release every 3 months. I dread to think that it may be another full year before we get to hear more once these come out.
I think the reason is simply because it seems to me that the most popular time of the year for Bing is during the Christmas holiday and prior - November through December. That's probably why a slew of releases always seem to happen at November, which was the case last year I think.
I agree, Kevin - I wish these releases were a bit more spread out than 4 CDs and various DVD releases all available in November and December, but I'm still glad to be getting them (the CDs, that is), regardless.
Last edited by zanereed (14/10/2014 6:31 pm)
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Some of the titles included in the "A Colossal Crosby Celebration" release have now started appearing in the Amazon UK lists - but as a request to be notified when available only so far - no release date or price shown, and "Some Fine Old Chestnuts" and "Songs I Wish I Had Sung" are the only titles shown at this point.
I can currently find no other non-US listings on the internet.
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Just so everyone knows, Amazon has posted the disc by disc breakdown of the movie collection. I will post it below. My only wish is that this collection was available on Blu-ray. I realize most of the films were not of the utmost production values but still, it's hard to justify buying a DVD set in 2014 when film contains a lot more info/image quality than can be displayed on a DVD. The current price of $92 isn't too shabby. If it drops considerably in the future I'll scoop it up. Here's hoping for a Blu-ray set, though.
Disc 1 - College Humor
Disc 1 - We're Not Dressing:
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The four CDs from the "Colossal Crosby Celebration"
- Bing Rediscovered - American Masters
- Bing Sings The Irving Berlin Songbook
- Songs I Wish I Had Sung
- Some Fine Old Chestnuts
are now listed (at last) by Amazon in the UK. I'm slightly surprised at the prices shown. £20 is twice as much in pounds as prices listed on US Amazon in dollars. The prices shown equate to over 30 US dollars!
Looks as if I might have to import.
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Richard
I found last time round that if I waited a few days after the release date to purchase them, that a number of American and Canadian companies sell them via Amazon UK, and I purchased Le Bing and the others for approx £5.70 plus postage (£1.26). They took about 10 days to arrive...but the saving over a few CD's is quite considerable.
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The new CDs are now on i-tunes and Spotify. Excellent compilations.
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Anyone want to comment on the new CDs? I like 'em!
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Malcolm, I listened to Rediscovered , Songs I... and Chestnuts CD's so far. I Love them! I also listened to cd from White Christmas Diamond set, that I love also. DVD's are Excellent too!! The booklets to cd's should not be ignored, alot of info about songs, albums that I didn't know about.
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I'm getting them from Santa in a few weeks - I hope!
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Just watched the American Masters TV show. Some interesting stuff on it - eg: an interview with Gary. Also it stated that Dennis and Lindsay committed suicide - true, but Gary and Phil died of natural causes - untrue. Phil did but Gary didn't. Wikipedia says lung cancer and I thought leukemia (are they the same thing?).
Interesting interviews too with Kathryn (looks awful), Harry, Mary Frances and Nathaniel.
Nice clip with Judy garland too.
How tempting to buy the whole set for $216.00.
Hope a lot of younger people saw it and come to appreciate Bing.
Gary Giddins and Michael Feinstein speak a lot.
Needless to say I enjoyed the show (except for the PBS 'overkill'. They could do the whole promotion in a minute and not 5 minutes or more.
Now a Barbra Streisand special.
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Malcolm Macfarlane wrote:
Anyone want to comment on the new CDs? I like 'em!
Same. I've heard a good part of them via the Spotify stream. The actual CDs are yet to arrive, ordered from the US rather than the over priced Amazon UK offering (though I will have to pay import duties and taxes they will still be cheaper).
What I have heard of the unfamiliar tracks is very interesting though I wish I could distinguish more of what is said during the studio chatter on the rehearsal tracks. Audio quality seems very good though four tracks on one of the CDs that Spotify are streaming are over amplified and distorted with lots of "clipping"- particularly the "virtual duet" with Michael Buble on White Christmas. I hope it is not representative of the CD itself, but perhaps others could confirm this.
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Richard, Everything I listened to so far 3 of the 4 new cd's[ Berlin one didn't arrive yet] had nice sound no distortion. Everything I watched was Great too!
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I had purchased Rediscovered dvd before special on PBS and watched it before it came on TV. The disc I bought included clips in one scene with Bing singing "I'll be Seeing you" in the background, I don't remember seeing or hearing it in the TV broadcast. Maybe I am wrong and missed it? The TV broadcast I thought had a few more clips shown in the beginning than the dvd. I could be wrong about this too.
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"Smashing" interviews Kathryn Crosby on topic of "On Life with Bing Crosby and PBS'"American Masters""
HERE
Good long piece.