I voted - Feels Good, Feels Right (hands down for me)

Seasons. I was 8 when Bing died and my Granddad was a big Bing fan. He bought the album and I remember him playing it. When he died I inherited it. Still has happy memories for me.

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

I also put "Feels Good..." as my #1 post-1974 album pick. Lke Anton, "Seasons" is #2 for me. Both are well programmed albums and I especially like Alan Cohen's orchestrations on "Feels Good...". There are excellent moments in all of Bing's 1974-77 recordings. What a "vocal renaissance" he had during this period! 

It was a hard choice, but I voted for Seasons. Ultimately, I believe it stands as one of the finest concept albums ever created. The album offers a cohesive narrative from season to season, providing each song with profound meaning. It’s a testament to the passage of time, of seasons, and of a life. The fact that an album with such a theme was recorded just days before Bing's death makes it my choice. The series of tracks was perfect, and Bing's voice had a mellow quality and interpretational depth that stood out.

Though no one has voted for it yet, Bing Viejo is somewhat underestimated. Barnes compares it unfavorably to Southern Memoir, but objectively, it stands as one of Bing's most interesting projects in Mexican music. Over time, I have come to find it superior to El Bingo and El Señor Bing, his other albums with Latin influence.

It's "Seasons" for me. I appreciate Bing's voice is a little frailer on this one than some of the earlier albums listed but I believe this to be our man at the top of his interpretive powers. His age gives wisdom to many of the songs - particularly, "September Song", "Autumn in New York" and "The Summer Wind"  where here, he gives Sinatra a definite run for his money. Fond as I am of the other albums ("At My Time of Life"  and "Feels Good, Feels Right", in particular), I feel with Seasons, Bing is particularly as one with those shimmering, vibrant  Pete Moore arrangements. It's my favourite of all of Bing's solo album works. The near perfect song choices and the various depths of the moods struck between singer and musicians really drive home so many emotions throughout.

I have on a couple of occasions, played selected tracks from it for friends and family who were doubting Bing's interpretive skills and on both occasions, they were impressed (they weren't just being polite). I believe this often reflective work to have been the perfect album exit for dear Bing, recorded just a month before his final golf game. 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (16/9/2025 10:05 pm)

Yes, that would have been an interesting project. Bing was very suited to the Tom Sawyer recording, his warm, homely voice drawing the listener into the story. His emphasis and tone were just pitch perfect. It would indeed have been interesting to have heard Bing read Twain from that differing "Huckleberry Finn" perspective. 

I wonder how the planned album with Bob Hope would have been? Maybe a semi tie-in with "Road to the Fountain of Youth"? Plus perhaps more intriguingly, that  Noël Coward project? I can hear Bing crooning effortlessly through "I'll See You Again" and "A Room with a View" and then singing with gusto on "London Pride" and then out and out swinging "Dance Little Lady". Surely he would have had to have closed with "The Party's Over, Now"? I wonder if a list of preferable songs were already being considered? 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (Yesterday 11:02 am)

I couldn't agree more, John. It is such a beautiful, beautiful work. Bing really commands with his vocals and is so moving with his interpretations. The sound engineering is beyond perfection and those arrangements (soaring violins and all) fit him like a glove. Unlike Sinatra's later "Duets" albums, Bing (along with his later "Maida Vale" sessions) bowed out from the studio with his dignity intact. I too could gabble on about this project forever. When did you first hear it? 

I know I had heard some of “Seasons” prior to March of 2019, but I don’t think I had quite digested it yet. I was quite early into my Crosby fandom I guess you could say. It was in that March that my mother, father, and I had taken a trip from Iowa down to Arkansas, with a stop in Branson, Missouri along the way. I remember playing the album on streaming while my mother drove down the glittering lights of the Branson streets, and I was mesmerized by “Autumn In New York.” My father had given me an allowance of $400 dollars for souvenirs during the trip, much too much, but I wasn’t going to complain. I had a plan. That prior Christmas, I had received a suitcase record player, which was not great quality at all, and now that I was diving deep into the depths of Crosby et al. I wanted to get a good record player. So, I decided then that I would strategically save all of that 400 bucks to put towards a record player. My father appreciated that I had saved money for it instead of just randomly spending it, so he helped in buying some nice speakers as well. I still use that setup to this day. Anywho, I then went to eBay and duly bought a complete in box version of the 17EP Musical Autobiography set along with a sealed copy of “Seasons.” Later that year for my birthday I bought the CD reissue. At that point in time, I think I liked the BBC session included more than the actual album, but as time has gone on, “Seasons” has become my overall favorite album of Bing’s. I find it to be the height of his interpretative powers.