I heard the Ella Fitzgerald CD with the London Symphony, and it was pretty good. I will probably buy it to support Bing, but I prefer the originals.

Presumably there’s some BCE involvement in the release..?

I listened to the "new" White Christmas". Not to be negative, but I wasn't impressed. The orchestration is way too loud and over powering as it backs Bing's 1942 version.

frans wrote:

Hi David, where have you heard Bing with the LSO's  White Christmas? I only know of the promotion video with snippets of songs (which is mentioned above in this thread). I would like to hear the preview of White Christmas you are referring to.

Frans, I suspect that David refers to the short snatch in the promotion video. Malcolm has even managed to detect that they have used the original version (1942).  Personally I have mixed feelings. Part of me says it is wrong to meddle with the originals that we all know and love. And do those lush strings really fit the mood - which I always think of as plaintive longing. On the other hand, it might widen the appeal and gain a new audience.
More realistically possibly the audience will be drawn mainly from existing devotees.
 
 

frans wrote:

Hi David, where have you heard Bing with the LSO's  White Christmas? I only know of the promotion video with snippets of songs (which is mentioned above in this thread). I would like to hear the preview of White Christmas you are referring to.

The entire new version of White Christmas is available:




 

I have not been a fan of these "re-recordings" overall. Maybe the one done with Ella is still OK to my ears. However, anything to keep Bing "alive"...even if it's only another Christmas release...is surely welcomed. I am surprised at the rather inexpensive price of the CD despite the rather large undertaking this production was. Alos, that (in these days of "vinyl revival") there is not an LP issue offered.

The "White Christmas" track sounds rather good.

These should never be used for comparisons to the originals. These are purely done for sound update/refreshments.

Congrats to the LSO for taking on this project.
Amazing how they can snuff out the original orchestration.
Don’t think I’ll be buying ‘At My Time Of Life’ with much sand at the bottom of the glass and not too many Christmases left, not unless I manage another 85 years.

Talking about the digital wizardry that goes into releases like these and which are becoming easier and easier to make, I recently came across this item:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_su81LCPi8Y

I could not find out who this mr. Dunklint is. A google search leads to scandinavian websites where I cannot find a connection to music of any kind. Could it be this mr. Dunklint just made this video himself for the fun of it? If you know how, it's entirely feasible to do this on your home computer.

Can anyone shed a light on this?

There's a new and longer sampler available, this time with previews of ALL the songs on the album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RK0tyrvq2U

Can't wait to hear the album!

Hi Archiefit,
 
First of all, thanks for your interesting comments.
 
It was my belief that the juridical dispute between Bing Crosby Enterprises and Decca/Universal was solved a number of years ago. I note that at least on the more recent releases of BCE several Decca recordings are included. If you believe BCE hasn't released anything Bing in the past ten years, I urge you to check your retailers, because this is not the case. I refer for instance  to New Tricks and Among your Souvenirs, released in 2017. And then there's the BCE/Time Life set of Bing's TV specials on DVD of last year. Whether one likes that last release or not, it ìs a release. ;-)
 
I find it difficult to ascertain from the sound excerpts that are available now whether or not Bing's voice originates from Decca recordings or not. In the case of White Christmas we have the song as a complete preview and I compared the recordings. Although there is some tampering with Bing's voice track, I am quite certain it is the Decca recording.

And I must say many of the sound excerpts sound quite like the familiar Decca recordings to my ears. Anyway, this new album is actually released on the Decca label, so why do you think they would not use their own back catalogue in favour of radio tracks for which they probably should pay copyrights to the owners of those recordings?
 
Reading your remarks on Bing's version of The Christmas Song, I gave the recording another listen. I never noted a difference in sound quality between this recording and any of his other recordings of the period. Can it be it's your copy that has a lesser sound quality? I am certain any better sound quality of the voice tracks on the new album is due to the continuing advancement of digital technology.   
 
Anyway, it was interesting to read your views and I hope you don't mind me disagreeing with some things you wrote.
 

I think the promotional video is well done and I enjoyed the .new' version of 'White Christmas'. Bing's restrained rendition of 'White Christmas' backed by the choir from A CHRISTMAS SING is commendable.