I picked the 70's because (as I have said before) I feel the Latter Day Bing is a more "honest" singer.

I chose the 50's because despite Crosby thinking his abilities were diminishing, THIS is the sound when I think of Bing Crosby, smooth and seemingly effortless!

I love the sound of Crosby on the different albums from the decade, whether it's a little dixieland with Scoby, brash with Bregman, or duetting with Clooney. 

And then there is all the tracks recorded for his radio show, not quite part of his recording career, (tho some were used by Decca),. They just impress me with every listen and I alternate from liking Bing with full sounding arrangements to preferring the more intimate sound of him with Buddy Cole. 

I wonder if in the 50's did Sinatra and the rest finally catch up, or did Bing decide to back off a little due to the things going on in his personal life? - maybe someday Vol. 3 of his biography will clue us all in!

Lobosco wrote:

That's a good point. The 1950s are overlooked for some of the remaining boring arrangements by John Scott Trotter and the horrible backing of Buddy Cole. Bing's "concept" albums in the 1956-1959 period are great!
 

I agree that latterly John Scott Trotter's arrangements had become somewhat "stale". They tended to be too rooted in the past. But Buddy Cole's "horrible backing"? As with all things, just as we have our own individual tastes, so performers meet those tastes to varying degrees, but Cole's small group or piano accompaniment was for me highly entertaining and Bing reacted very positively to the freewheeling possibilities. (Here I believe we must include all those radio tracks). The low points where Cole fails to meet my tastes were those in which he indulged himself with overlaying some of those recorded tracks with his wretched organ.   

Were the option available of awarding graded votes I think I would have placed my preferences in this order - 
1 1940s
2 1950s (the second part of the decade being the major influencing factor).
3 1970s
4 1930s
5 1920s 
Though I do very much like a selected few from the 20s.
The 1960s comes a poor last with those singalong LPs (though the first was recorded in late 1959, in practical reality I think it falls into 1960) getting minus points from me. However, we should not forget the album with Louis Armstrong or Holiday in Europe, (soon to be released on CD). 

I think of the 1930's.
Bing's voice seemed really powerful and there were just so many great songs that he sang.
Please, Thanks, Black Moonlight, Down by the River, Cabin in the Pines, and so on and so forth and fifth.
However, we all have our reasons and perhaps the era we grew up in.
Being a 1934 model and becoming aware by the time I was 10.
An uncle had some Bing 78's and every time I visited my grandmother I asked could I play Bing. Always yes was the answer. It was Black Moonlight and played on a wind up that had speed control. I probably had that down to about 60rpm to make it sound like Bing. The record had been played that much. Those arms with a steel needle were heavy and it is a wonder the records lasted so long.
Happy twenty nineteen to one and all and as Bing sings - Lets Start the New Year Right.

I realise I'm on controversial territory here but I must plump for the 1970's. I'm fully appreciative Bing's voice was now in its most senior years but oh lordy, he so moves me so much with his beautifully mellow interpretations. Although - and by his own admission, he did not have the range of decades previously, nor the lung power but those low resonant notes, particularly when so sympathetically engineered on some of those Ken Barnes sessions, so help dear Bing plumb some profoundly emotional depths. "At My Time of Life", "What I Did for Love", "September Song", "The Summer Wind" and "Autumn in New York"  stand testament to this. Away from Ken, "As Time Goes By", "The Way We Were"  and "Once in a While" equally prove that the wisdom and reflection that comes with age certainly helps to provide some classic readings, here. 

I agree, Pantelis that the 1930's was an incredible decade for Bing. It certainly saw his voice at its most powerful with those sustained top notes never bettered. The many, many superb songs debuting from then of The Great American Songbook were of course jaw droppingly supreme. Plus of course with his film and radio career really having taken off as the decade wore on, there just seemed to be an endless amount of goodies to choose from.

I also agree with Stepo that by the 1940's Bing's voice and material was at its most varied and impressive. I think all round, that decade saw him in in the best voice, a really beautiful sounding instrument by that time. Yes, his 1950's period can be frustrating when he could produce such long playing gems as "Fancy Meeting You Here" but then also some considerably lesser fare. Album and song wise, I thought the soundtrack of "Say One for Me" ("The Secret of Christmas", apart) hit a particular low.

Looking back, I'm sure the frustration of the 1950's is partially born out of its  pickings being far fewer and then even more so during the following decade. So when a new recording was issued, expectations were inevitably higher. However, it's my contention, though that the 1960's was responsible for his very greatest Christmas recordings and album, "I Wish You a Merry Christmas", where that smooth, warm maturity masterfully served those carols and seasonal songs with pitch perfect orchestral arrangements, choir and chorus.

Pantelis, I can only echo over that perfect (albeit unplanned) career ending album triumph of "Seasons". It was I believe, the most beautiful example of an artiste bowing out with grace, taste, dignity and with all their interpretive powers so purely intact.

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (22/10/2025 9:49 am)

Yes, Stepo. Indeed it is.

Thank you for informing me that Bing's version of "Around the World" was a hit. I had no idea of this. It's a recording of his I came to fairly late and first heard it (ironically) on a 78rpm disc. Due to the player's extremely primitive amplification (plus my not too subtle hearing) and my surprise to hear Bing singing it, I could have initially sworn it was Victor Young backing him. It was years before I found the recording on a CD and after promptly snapping it up, then finally discovered it was Buddy Cole's (of all people, normally associated with many of us for his small group recordings with Bing) orchestra.

I really think it's such a beautifully sympathetic arrangement, evoking the quieter moments from the film's soundtrack. I prefer Bing's version from his "High Society" co-star's, simply because I think his slightly less intense delivery suits the dreamy aspirations of the song a little more. 

Does anyone know if Bing was approached at all to put in one of the film's many famed guest appearances? Or may his Paramount contract have put paid to that? 

Goodness me, Stepo - that's some serious chart travelling!

I knew it was a popular song (and a well covered instrumental) for the time but didn't realise it was real a hit for Bing. I think I've heard Gracie Fields' version (but I could be confusing it with her "Isle of Capri" due to both songs being on Frank's addictive "Come Fly With Me" album) and am certainly familiar with Ronnie's. I knew poor Victor Young didn't live to see old bones but to be gathered as early as fifty-seven years, so soon after that prize winning film score! 

It's such a shame that as those  significant 1950's changes to popular music wore on, that dear Bing wasn't now viewed as commercially viable because otherwise, would it have been a stronger possibility that better opportunities and more records (and in particular, albums) would have been made? 
I fully appreciate his voice was gradually aging but was not yet (to my ears, at least) aged.

I am though so grateful in particular for "Bing with a Beat", the afore mentioned "Fancy Meeting You Here" (so far, my all time favourite album from anyone), "High Society" and the even though sometimes just a little heavy handed accompanied, "Bing Sings While Bregman Swings".

I realise we can wish on forever but I so wish Bing could have recorded in that decade with Nelson Riddle, Duke Ellington, another album with Louis Armstrong, a more satisfying session with Basie, one with Bob Hope and to have prized Ella out of Norman Granz's protective hold for just one magical set. 
Dammit, how about an unashamedly showbizzy bash with Miss Garland, too. I can hear them now gloriously and good naturedly competing on "Who Cares?".

Solo wise at that time, possibly also an album of outstanding (maybe Oscar winning?) ballads, arranged by Gordon Jenkins?

I'd also love to think had he lived, even a Disney album would have been forthcoming, sometime later in the 'seventies. So easy to imagine him  teasing best pal Phil Harris with his own version of "The Bare Necessities" waltzing along to "Once Upon a Dream", having a ball with "Let's Go Fly a Kite" and whistling through ... . "Whistle While You Work".

I don't want much, do I? 

 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (23/10/2025 12:41 pm)

Yes, Pantelis - the 1960's are overlooked and I enjoy Bing's work very much from that decade. It's just such a shame that comparatively, there isn't very much of it. I wonder if the lack of a major label at the time was purely due to economics and market forces? Interesting that Greece didn't have a record chart in the 1950's - has it now? "Human Race" is incredibly catchy, isn't it? I heard it for the first time as Jason's ICC  "Winnick" gathering this June (which already seems much longer ago) and was really taken with its optimism. The Longlines box sets, no matter how good his performances are always overlooked I think, due to the unusual nature of their presentation, as with the "How The West Was Won" concept box set.

"Incurably Romantic" is beautifully sung by Bing and the song itself seems deceptively simple but is an extremely intelligently structured, weaving ballad, Lovely. 
However, my single favourite of Bing's 1960's love ballads is easily, "The Second Time Around". 
The warm balm of his voice is so sincerely conveyed in this gloriously gentle celebration of second chance love. 
 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (23/10/2025 1:35 pm)

STEPO wrote:

Victor Young made many fine recordings with Bing, Peggy Lee wrote in her autobiography that Victor Young kept a roll of paper of all the Oscar nominations that he had but had yet to win one sadly he didn't live to collect his Oscar for his score for "Around The World In Eighty Days. "Straight Down The Middle" is an example off a well known Bing recording released in 1958 never making any chart but having a life of it's own over many years.

Surprisingly Victor Young had a really nice band in the 1930s.I have a lot of those recordings, and the band is surprisingly good.
 

David Lobosco wrote:

STEPO wrote:

Victor Young made many fine recordings with Bing, Peggy Lee wrote in her autobiography that Victor Young kept a roll of paper of all the Oscar nominations that he had but had yet to win one sadly he didn't live to collect his Oscar for his score for "Around The World In Eighty Days. "Straight Down The Middle" is an example off a well known Bing recording released in 1958 never making any chart but having a life of it's own over many years.

Surprisingly Victor Young had a really nice band in the 1930s.I have a lot of those recordings, and the band is surprisingly good.
 

Victor Young was one of the best arrangers ever. His work for movies like the Quiet Man and Johny Guitar is timeles. I think he was also the compose of I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You.

David Lobosco wrote:

STEPO wrote:

Victor Young made many fine recordings with Bing, Peggy Lee wrote in her autobiography that Victor Young kept a roll of paper of all the Oscar nominations that he had but had yet to win one sadly he didn't live to collect his Oscar for his score for "Around The World In Eighty Days. "Straight Down The Middle" is an example off a well known Bing recording released in 1958 never making any chart but having a life of it's own over many years.

Surprisingly Victor Young had a really nice band in the 1930s.I have a lot of those recordings, and the band is surprisingly good.
 

I must seek some of these recording out if they're generally available, as I'm only knowingly familiar with his film music.