Another Crosby connection is that in the late 30s Bea Wain led a vocal quartet called, 'Bea and The Bachelors', whose personnel included former 'Rhythm Boy' Al Rinker.

Bear with me - there is a Bing connection here..! 

April 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first issue of Gramophone magazine - the UK’s premier journal dedicated to reviews of classical recordings. I have been subscribing to Gramophone for more years that I have been an ICC member! The centenary issue contains a series of articles dedicated to each of the decades since the magazine’s founding. That for the 1940s naturally concentrates largely on the war years and contains extracts from a number of letters to Gramophone from classical music loving servicemen who were being held prisoner in POW camps in Germany. For example, in October 1941, Driver MC Moore, writing from Stalag XXB POW camp, told how gramophones and records were supplied to working camps of 100 men or more, 30 records being the average. More often than not, the discs were of Beethoven, Bach and Mozart. However, writes Driver Moore, woe betide, ‘…the POW who wanted to listen to Bach. I personally have been told in no uncertain terms, just where to go when attempting it. The war cry was, “Give us Bing!”’ 

I sympathise with Driver Moore, but can’t help smiling at the thought of a sublime Bach fugue being shouted down in favour of Bing singing San Antonio Rose!

Many thanks to John and David for identifying the sources of the tracks. I subscribe to the Qobuz streaming service so I've lined up this and the Valentine's album for streaming in CD quality. Qobuz allows me to 'import' tracks for offline listening, but only within the Qobuz app, so I couldn't burn a CD from them. To do that you have to purchase the album from Qobuz and download the tracks. You can then do what you like with them! Current price for the album in CD quality is £13.99. Amazon's tracks are mp3 quality and the album is £10.29.

I think David Krayden's article neatly sums up what we all feel about Bing's inexplicable neglect today, but I agree with Ron that he misses an essential point about Bing's unsurpassed influence on popular singing in the 20th century. 

I have always thought that one of the most significant examples of this sincerest form of flattery is that of Al Jolson, whose style of singing Bing single-handedly rendered obsolete, but who affected numerous Crosby vocal mannerisms in his later years.

Dean Martin summed it up nicely in his tribute at the time of Bing's death. 'Any singer who approaches a microphone has to pass through Bing Crosby's shadow first'.

Archiefit wrote:

So right.  And can you imagine with that minimalist piano style of Gordon Jenkins if Bing had made some beautiful recordings with him.   I think if Bing had made an album similar in style to Godon's  "Jimmy Durante's Way of Life".   What a fine Bing album it would be. 

I agree with Archiefit. One of my favourite ever albums - Bing or otherwise - is Harry Nilsson's 1973 release A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night, a selection of 'Golden Age' standards with wonderfully lush arrangements by the great Gordon Jenkins. Although Nilsson very occasionally brings a contemporary 70s 'pop' touch to a couple of the tracks, I nevertheless think that the whole concept of the album would have suited Bing to a tee and a similar project would have made a wonderful addition to that amazing late flowering of his recording career.

Very grateful to Archiefit for the link to 'The Star Maker' but - er - the thread concerns a hi-def copy of the 1936 'Anything Goes'..!

The 1936 version of 'Anything Goes' has always been at the top of my list of Bing's movies that I would love to see in re-mastered HD versions rather than ropey old YouTube transfers, so it's amazing that David has managed to track down just a version! I know that a lot of the wonderful Cole Porter songs were ditched, but I love the on-screen chemistry between Bing and Ethel Merman.

Blonde56 wrote:

David, That's a Great song for Bing. It got me thinking. How many songs does Bing Whistle on? Maybe someone can compose a list? Also, love If I Had My Way. I was playing the song one day, back in good old Brooklyn when mom heard it and started crying. She told me her favorite uncle use to sing it all the time. She made me play it again and she knew all the words!

Hi Carmela, and a belated welcome back to the board..!

Regarding songs on which Bing whistled, I'm pretty sure someone has compiled a list! I can't quite put my finger on who at the moment, but I'm sure Malcolm will know!

Great to hear the story about your mum and 'If I Had My Way'...

Ian Kerstein wrote:

 Can anyone bring to mind any out and out jazz sides Bing recorded during his Kapp years?

The 2-CD set, "The Jazzin' Bing Crosby", with an excellent booklet essay by Stan Britt, contains nine tracks from the Jack Kapp years, most of which seem to me to have been chosen more because of the jazz credentials of Bing's collaborators - Louis Armstrong, Joe Venuti, the divine Connie Boswell, etc. - than anything inherently 'jazzy' in the tracks themselves. There are two tracks, however, which in my opinion do represent a "jazzin' " Bing Crosby - 'Someday Sweetheart', with the Georgie Stoll Orchestra from the very first Decca/Jack Kapp session on 8th August 1934 and 'Moonburn' from 13th November 1935, with an instrumental trio drawn from the Stoll band. 

Will Friedland's 1996 book, 'Jazz Singing' contains a fascinating passage comparing the relative influences of Bing and Louis Armstrong on American popular music of the late '20s and early '30s, and for a purely personal view of the significance of that first Jack Kapp session on Bing's musical development, could I humbly give a nod towards my article 8th August 1934 in issue 176 of 'Bing' magazine.

I agree with David that it's a great shame Bing didn't record more with the Boswell Sisters. Although I love the stuff he recorded with the swing-orientated Andrews Sisters, I find the Boswells' style - which was more rooted in jazz -  much more exciting to listen to. As far as I know all we have of them together are the two commercial sides and that tantalising snippet of St Louis Blues from the Woodbury show of Nov. 13th 1934.
At least we have the wonderful tracks he made with Connee - many of which have always been on my 'desert-island' list of Crosby recordings.

Ian Kerstein wrote:

Hooray for Cagney, too!

Will "The Roaring Twenties", biopic "Yankee Doodle Dandy" or "White Heat" be among them, Blonde56?
Did Jim and Bing ever work together? I know they were jointly on a Hollywood Victory Caravan tour.
Unforgettable table top dance routine with Bing's road buddy Bob in another biopic, "The Seven Little Foys", where Cagney reprised his "Yankee Doodle .. " role of George M Cohan. 

Cagney was a guest on Bing's KMH show on 25th February 1937. Other guests included 'regular' comic Bob Burns, Scottish operatic soprano Mary Garden and Hollywood gossip columnist Sidney Skolsky. Apparently, Bing, Cagney and Skolsky did a skit wherein Crosby and Cagney try to persuade Skolsky to reveal where and how he gets all the gossip he prints. Unfortunately, as far as I'm aware, nothing survives of this KMH show.

Thanks for posting that, David...

The entire War Bond Rally of 30th June 1943, broadcast from The Hollywood Bowl, was released on CD some years ago on the much-missed Redmond Nostalgia label, and it boasted quite a line-up! As well as Bing and the Rudy Vallee orchestra, the evening also featured Dinah Shore, Edward G Robinson, a young Kathryn Grayson, George Burns and Gracie Allen, jazz pianist Hazel Scott, Betty Hutton, Cecil B DeMille and violin virtuoso Joseph Szigeti.

Lobosco wrote:

Here is the Decca version of the song that Bing recorded on July 17, 1936...


 

Thanks David. (I wouldn't have the first clue how to make a song appear on CFW..!)