That's very interesting, I am wondering who might have been the one that put more Bing Crosby records to the notorious list of 8. Bing's list was very interesting and included wonderful discs but not a single one from his thousands records. Hopkins is a brillian actor, and he appears to have diversed musical tastes, Les Pecheurs de Perles for instance that he lists is a relatively overlooked opera yet as nice as it is it is not one of the great masterpieces of the genre and his Liszt choice and the Scriabin one, are not obvious, the show his deep knowledge of piano and classical music and personal reasons that led him to chose them.

Mcormacks Rose of Tralee was a choice that resembled Bing's admiration for that record, Bing said that his father had it and played it often and that was the start of his "musical love affair with Ireland". Bing's versio of the song made I think for radio was also sublime, and deeply expressive. 
I was not aware of his admiration for Bing. He did spoke indeed higly of him.