28/4/2013 6:24 pm  #1


Favorite Bing Recordings

May 3rd will mark the 110th birthday of Bing Crosby...what are your five favorite Bing recordings? Hard to pick five with an output of 2000+, but here are my five favorites currently:

1. Pennies From Heaven
2. The Search Is Through
3. You Are Too Beautiful
4. Brother Can You Spare A Dime
5. You Keep Coming Back Like A Song

 

28/4/2013 6:35 pm  #2


Re: Favorite Bing Recordings

Just 5 songs out of nearly 6,000 titles sung is a big, big job. So many will be left out. So, I'll give it a go---
1. Down by the River
2. The Very thought of You
3. The Touch of Your Lips
4. Deep Purple
5. Out Of Nowhere

Then, perhaps in a day or two a couple may change as to what I may or may not listen to and think..'yes! I like thatone'.

 

28/4/2013 7:29 pm  #3


Re: Favorite Bing Recordings

1-Too Romantic,2-I'll be Seeing You, 3-Beautiful Girl, 4-Only Forever and5- Pennies From Heaven. Wow! This was hard to do! Happy 110 Bing!!!


Peace and Love! 
 

28/4/2013 9:03 pm  #4


Re: Favorite Bing Recordings

This was easier than I thought it would be. There a probably more important songs in the Bing catalogue, or even better sung; however I have a simple rule about what makes a great song for me and it usually starts when I'm listening to an album for the first time and the song stop me in my tracks, it then gets played again, and then through time becomes a regular friend that my children get to know through me playing or "singing" around the house....these ones fit into that category.

1 - The Song is You - This is where the love of Bing started for me!!! Still gives goosebumps. Doesn't need to fight against the orchestra, and puts in a near perfect vocal.

2 - My Heart Stood Still - Simple but beautiful version - really highlights how effective an interpreter Bing was and that all you need with a beautiful song is a beautiful vocal, and really little else.

3 - Secret Love - If the lyrics and violin obbligato didn't damn near break you heart, then Bings vocal certainly will.

4 - Tu Ne Peux Pas Te Figurer - Stunning....although don't bother to learn the English translation...it doesn’t sound quite so lovely when not sung in the native tongue, which Bing does so eloquently

5 - Don't Fence Me In - The perfect pop song....perfected by Bing & The Girls.

I wanted to squeeze "If I Loved You" on there as 5½ but not sure that would be allowed.

 

 

29/4/2013 10:37 am  #5


Re: Favorite Bing Recordings

How does one choose out of the massive output? Questions of mood and occasion arise, how Bing treats the song, and the general atmosphere created. 

I fear that I must fall back on a rather trite answer - my most liked song is the one I am listening to, closely followed by the one I have just heard. Those are the ones I pick to fit current moods and feelings, the ones that might stir memories or maybe a melody has been running around in my mind and I want to hear it again.

But then there are a few I would not willingly listen to again! Not many, a tiny percentage of the whole. . 




 

 

29/4/2013 1:49 pm  #6


Re: Favorite Bing Recordings

I think being a woman affected my choices. I thought Bing's singing voice in the 30's and 40's was so sexy! Swooner Crooner! His speaking voice was always sexy! I'm sorry, I probably made some guys cringe here. Anyway, no other male singer comes close. Sorry.


Peace and Love! 
 

29/4/2013 7:20 pm  #7


Re: Favorite Bing Recordings

No need to be sorry! I think it was Michael Feinstein who said that Bing's speaking voice was 'exquisite'. It certainly seemed to start in his stomach and resonate through his chest. I've read much on this forum about Bing being a rhythm singer, jazz singer ("the first hip white guy") and the perfect duet singer, all of which are true and can be backed up with endless examples, but I believe the overriding appeal lies in Bing's sound; that quality of voice that drives through your heart and makes you feel as though you have received a satisfying, life-extending injection of the world's only worthwhile medicine.

Bing could sing on the edge, which is always exciting ("when she lands in tow-n" - Sweet Georgia Brown) and he could sing in an inticingly intimate tone to draw you in on his secrets ("on the first of May, this is moving day" - Mountain Greenery).

If you put all of these things together, coupled with his myriad output, It's hardly surprising, then, that every Bing admirer should chose 5 favourites different from every other Bing admirer!

Richard mentions that his favourite could easily be the one he is listening to at the time, and there's probably some truth in that for most of us. I also think that Kevin's comments about hearing a record for the first time that stops him in his tracks is also vaild. My first Bing album, bought at the end of 1977, was Seasons. The opening verse to June in January (the booming "and yet it's June") certainly stopped me in my tracks! Likewise the 2nd refrain of Spring Will be a Little Late This Year - the Crosby cry being evident in the phrase 'that music it made in my hea-a-art';  was that the last time the cry was recorded?

If I listed 5 favourites today, I would list 5 other favourites tomorrow. But isn't that one of the appeals of being a Bing admirer?

 

30/4/2013 4:39 pm  #8


Re: Favorite Bing Recordings

I'm never good at these lists.  I imagine making a list of my one top favoite song from each of Bing's albums, but with some of the albums I can't pick just one, and then with a few albums it's not Bing's voice, but something else interferes with what I want to call the top song.

 

22/10/2022 4:27 am  #9


Re: Favorite Bing Recordings

It's nine years since David Lobosco asked us about our favourite Bing recordings. The mother of Australian columnist Bernard Salt included an unexpected Bing record in her list of favourite songs. Last month Salt's article in our national newspaper The Weekend Australian recalled that after her death two years ago he found her recipe book from the War Years.. When she digressed from recipes she listed her favourite songs, including Bing's 'Sing a Song of Sunbeams'. Was it a favourite of many other Aussies? Probably not. Bing's two records of four songs from East Side of Heaven were not big sellers in this country.

 

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