Dear all,

For ten years now every December, Malcolm Macfarlane and I have been hosting a yearly Bing Crosby podcast on YouTube in which we discuss different aspects of Bing's life and career. This year's podcast features Malcolm and myself, joined by Jason Liddiard and Ken Crossland, and presents a discussion of Bing's recordings from the 1960s. It will premiere on Sunday, December 14, at the following time:

UK Time - 8:00 p.m.
US Time (Eastern) - 3:00 p.m.
US Time (Central) - 2:00 p.m.

You may access the premiere by clicking on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FINS-yDft0s 

After the premiere, you can still watch the entire podcast at any time by clicking on that same link.

We hope you enjoy it and wish everyone a happy, Bing-filled holiday season!

AGF

Dear all,

It was a very fun Christmas meeting last night, with some great music, interesting interactions between attendees, and a very good presentation by Greg. Oh, and Jason was a great host, as usual! The recording of the meeting is already available here:

https://youtu.be/cGg3NpSWrZQ 

Happy holidays everyone!

AGF

Dear all,

I am not sure if this has been posted to the forum before (possibly so), but I recently found out that the Internet Archive has this impressive collection of Bing Crosby radio shows, most of them with really good sound. In case you weren't aware of this (I wasn't until recently), here's the link:

https://archive.org/details/general-electric-show-52-54-1952-12-25-12-guest-gary-crosby 

Episodes of the Bing Crosby / Rosemary Clooney radio show are also available on the Internet Archive here:

https://archive.org/details/OTRR_BCRC_Singles 

Happy Thanksgiving!

AGF

Thank you, Pantelis, for your always interesting and well-researched contributions to the meetings!Σας ευχαριστώ!

AGF

We did miss you at the last few meetings, Carmela. For those that weren't able to make the meetings, they are all available in chronological order here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcrPMqN7tSWeE9kvGv-ZXgGsIKToLoDw0 

AGF

My favorite is Feels Good, Feels Right, followed closely by Seasons.

Dear all,

To celebrate the 200th issue of BING Magazine, I have recorded this video about the ICC and the magazine that premieres TODAY, July 21, 2025 at these times:

4:00 p.m. US Eastern Time
3:00 p.m. US Central Time
9:00 p.m. British Time
10:00 p.m. Central European Time

You may watch it by clicking on this link during the premiere or at any time after the premiere, since it will be lodged permanently at this same link:

https://youtu.be/dA4ac9FUusw  

I hope you enjoy it, and congratulations everyone on the publication of this landmark issue of BING!

AGF

Francis was an interesting singer who felt comfortable in different musical settings and who had a respectable number of hits, some of them during the early years of rock'n'roll, which is one of the reasons why I don't understand why she hasn't been inducted into that musical style's Hall of Fame. Requescat in pace.

P.S.: It's incredible how things play out sometimes in unexpected ways. In the past few months, a recording Francis didn't even remember making, the B side "Pretty Little Baby," has become viral on social media because countless influencers used the song and sampled it. Francis, who wasn't aware of what "becoming viral" means, was with us long enough to realize that much younger generations on social media really enjoy her old song. I'm sure she must've been surprised and delighted!

Ian Kerstein wrote:

... and of course thanks once again to our joyous, jovial Jason for as ever, making everything possible and so delightful. To anyone on here who hasn't partaken in these monthly meetings, should time zones allow (or even if they don't) come on aboard. They are incredibly fun and enjoyable (and would be even more so to one and all if only Jason would just mute my microphone) and there's also so much learn and discuss. 

Yes, Ian, this whole online meeting thing is Jason's brainchild, and he should be applauded for all the work that he puts in every month to make them happen. Without Jason, these meetings wouldn't be possible. All I do is prepare the recordings of the meetings to be posted to YouTube, but (except for the cases when there are copyright issues) that doesn't require much work or time. In any case, I am delighted to see how successful these monthly online meetings are, and I hope we keep having them for a very long time. Thanks for your participation, and see you in September, Ian!  
 

I also like traditional country music, and for several years I hosted a traditional country music radio show on station WRVU in Nashville. I also rate Bing Sings the Great Country Hits very highly among his late-career albums, even if reportedly he was suffering from a cold while he recorded it.

Always great to welcome new members to this Crosby forum!

Dear all,

During the online ICC meeting for June, it was my pleasure to do an hour-long presentation on Bing Crosby's contributions to country music, illustrated by a number of recordings made between the thirties and the seventies. Yesterday I took the recording of that presentation, which is part of the meeting, and turned it into a separate video that only includes the presentation and the music in an audio-only format. If you're interested in listening to it, here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wid62iM7-y0&t 

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy it!

AGF

Ian Kerstein wrote:

Fred Allen's gentle, sophisticated and cerebral style was indeed similar to the slightly more expansive Benny's. I thought television was far kinder to Jack Benny, though. Did Allen radio "guest" often with Bing?

Yes, Bing and Fred Allen did appear on radio together many, many times over the years. Here are two examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn0dc77VflU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7mENsFdTdM&t

And I do agree that Fred Allen was much better suited to the medium of radio than to that of television, though he often did a great job as panelist on the famous game show What's My Line?, hosted by one of the most soft-spoken American TV hosts of all time, Mr. John Charles Daly.