I see to remember treading at the time that it was scheduled to be shown on television hat David Niven's last film "Better Late Than Never" in which had also starred Maggie Smith and Art Carney was intended originally to have starred Bing and Bop Hope but after the tragic event in Madrid was later made starring David Niven and Art Carney in their roles if that was really the case then there seemed to be some sort of a jinx with the film as David Niven was already suffering from Motor Nurone Disease the director Bryan Forbes had to redub parts of the voice track as David Niven's speech was becoming inaudible to pick up i remember watching  an edition of "Parkinson" and he sounded very hoarse you could see and hear something wasn't right.

Could it be that the Jackal does something to people by shooting them.

Strangely enough i ha[[en to prefer "Return To Paradise" the Reprise album Bing did with Nelson Riddle to "El Senor Bing", i feel it's underrated.

The strange thing was Billy May did adventureos arrangements for the two albums Bing did with Rosemary Clooney as well as the Louis Armstrong one yet did bland cha cha arrangements for "El Senor Bing".

Yes Donny & Marie Osmond revived "Deep Purple" in 1976 it was a minor hit here in the UK , that's why considering that Nino Tempo % April Stevens was a huge hit in the U.S. and a top 20 hit here in the UK in 1963 i was surprised that Bing's version wasn't on as many compilations that appeared after he passed considering the song's enduring popularity was the metal part for the song worn or missing? also Pat Boone did a good version on his classic 1958 album "Stardust".

I consider "Paris Honeymoon" to be Bing's worst film of the 1930s how anybody thought it was meant to be funny especially the scene where the girl puts her hands over Bing's eyes while he's driving what were the scriptwriters thinking.

Also i think the sold as slaves plot may have been an inspiration for the 1971 tv movie "Skin Games" which starred James Garner and Louis Gossett Jr.

The acting and scripts were very good it also was repeated on Channel 4 from 1986 onwards for a while. I Last saw it on TV on ITV4 a few years ago, i have watched the forst four episodes on Internet Archive over the last three years.

I got the two Al Jolson Sepia 3 cd sets they are both excellent the Decca studio and Kraft radio recordings.

I bought the 4 CD set off E Bay for about £8 at the beginning of the year and was disappointed that quite a few errors were made with the tracks i noticed that they used the commercial recording of "You Are My Sunshine" straight away the Frank Sinatra one Sony put out was better which i also bought on line about two years ago was much better as they issued all the correct V disc versions of the songs obviously as Bing was a much bigger name during 1940s it's quite possible the V Discs that were missing from the set were probably in not a good condition to use if that was the case the commercial recordings that were used in their place should have been left off as there were numerous compilations that had "Sunshine" so Bing Crosby collectors would obviously have had that recording already it was a huge success in the United Kingdom for Bing it was Sir Winston Churchill's favorite song i also wonder if he heard Bing's recording of "Clementine" as that was his wife's name.

Regarding Frank Sinatra's Columbia recordings i don't think they  were as well recorded as Bing's and Dick Haymes were at Decca alsom some of Axel Stordahl's arrangements haven't aged as well as the Nelson Riddle ones for Frank Sinatra at Capitol generally i think between 1939 and 1965 Sinatra for the most part could do no wrong but from 1966 things get a bit bumpy some of the bad recordings Sinatra made for Reprise were no different from what Mitch Miller foisted on him at Columbia i consider the "That's Life" album from 1966 with the exception of the title song to be Sinatra's worst Reprise album from the 1960s , he seemed sing songs he didn't believe in , ironicaaly it was Sinatra's last top 10 album in the states until the dreadful duets album in 2003.

Oh meant to add Michael Holliday recorded a tribute album of Bing Crosby songs in 1962 , i  heard a track or two on the radio some years ago and when i heard one song now i can't remember which i thought it was Bing singing at first until i realized it was Holliday singing which was the problem with the singer he sounded too much like Bing that when the music scene was changing in 1963 the year Holliday sadly took his own life his style started to seem dated.