I tend to agree with you on this one, Joe. There's no doubt that Sinatra has more admirers these days than Bing, and since this is his centenary year, Kaplan's book should sell quite well this Christmas season. I myself am planning to buy it, since I read Vol. 1 and liked it. I didn't like it as much as Giddins's book on Bing, though, because in my opinion, Giddins is a better writer than Kaplan and one of the best jazz critics of the present time. You're absolutely right that the longer Giddins waits, the less economically viable his Vol. 2 of Crosby's biography becomes. But I have a feeling that whether Vol. 2 comes out or not doesn't necessarily depend on him...

I do not like Kaplan's style of writing. He often places his subject in certain mythical situations (which include exactly what the subject is doing and feeling at that time) to tell the story or set the scene. Nick Tosches did this to  a much more grievous effect in his biography of Dean from some years ago. Very bad style IMHO.
Plus, I don't know what it is but Kaplan sure had the need to continually discuss the size of Mr. S's genitalia in Vol.1. Let's hope he is over it in this book.

  

This was the quote in full in the Hope book.
Though he always had words of affection for Crosby in public, in private he was less charitable. Many years later, after Crosby died, Hope was sitting in an NBC editing room looking over film clips for a TV special he was preparing on their screen work together. Associate producer Marcia Lewis was startled when Hope turned to her and made a blunt admission.
“You know, I never liked Bing. He was a son of a bitch. In all their years of working together, Hope said, “He never had Dolores and me to dinner.” (page 243)
 We discussed this in the Spring 2015 edition of BING magazine when I said: "Kathryn Crosby has refuted this earlier in this issue and, as an example, on page 321 of her book “My Last Years with Bing” she describes how Bob and Dolores went to the Crosby home in 1973 for a Thanksgiving Dinner. The families lived together for three months in England in 1961 as well. So clearly we cannot place much reliance on the recollection of an associate producer from 1977. I wish the author had examined the claim more thoroughly. The quote has been mentioned to me by several friends who had happened to notice it and I have spent some time putting them right.
There are however many favourable references to Bing in the book and undoubtedly the newspapers picked out those which would cause a stir. One extract that is worth considering was this from page 158 which looks at the Hope / Crosby working relationship.
Yet they brought out the best in each other, both onstage and off. Hope loosened up Crosby, unleashed his sense of humor. Crosby gave Hope a role model, both as a businessman and as a manager of his own career. Crosby was arguably the greater artist. But Hope was more driven, more responsive to the changing entertainment landscape, and, in the end, had a broader and more lasting impact on the world of show business. He simply tried harder. 
 

If Bob did say that maybe he was joking around. Bob was the one who was upset with Gary Crosby for the book he wrote. Bob listened to Bing records when he was sick and near death. Bob showed his love for Bing many times.

Here's another one where Kaplan really "wets the bed" as far as accuracy goes!

Saxophonist Don Raffell is quoted on pages 128-129 of The Chairman and credited to the Riddle biography September in the Rain pages 136-137 :

We had rehearsed the music and were sitting there. The double doors at Capitol open up and there's Sinatra. He's got a black hat on with a white band, black suit, black shirt, black shoes, white necktie - gangster. He doesn't say anything to anybody, walks into the recording booth, and says, "You've had plenty of time to get the balance on this thing. I don't want any fooling around or it'll be your ass!"

We did one take on each thing that we did. One! That's it. That's all he wanted to do. No slips, no nothing. He was an evil monster!

OK... on 11/15/56 from 9:30PM -12:30AM Raffell is listed as playing tenor sax. According to Put Your Dreams Away the tunes recorded were:

"I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'" take 21 was used *

"I Won't Dance" no listing of takes

"Stars Fell on Alabama" take 7 was used *

* edited recordings from the session are also heard on From the Vaults Archive 2201 (obviously unauthorized) and Mr. S is bright, buoyant and seemingly having a fun time even at the expense of his own mistakes.

There is an often seen (and used to portray the "gangster" side of Mr. S) photo of him wearing that aforementioned suit. He is seated in an office or a waiting room and he has an impatient look upon his face. Whether it is from that record date or not is AFAIK unknown. However, what we hear on the CD is obviously not some "evil monster" and not a "one-take-Charlie"!

Plus, I have never read or heard of him making any grand entrances into the recording studio as described in the quote. If anything, he usually sauntered in the side door and made the rounds saying hello to guests and the musicians. Then he'd head to the conductor's podium, pick up the sheet music and begin rehearsing.

Oh, I would LOVE to run this one by Frank, Jr. !!!!!  

Oh yes! I have many session tapes from Mr. S at Reprise. He hand his producer Sonny Burke wanted "perfect" records, so they often called for an "inner-cut" during a recording of a song. He was the master of that "art".

One that is worth briefly mentioning is his recording of "The Impossible Dream". He was in rather poor voice at the outset of the session and called for several restarts and inner-cuts. By almost 3/4 way thru the song he hit his stride and ended the song beautifully. He then did the unthinkable and went back and re-recorded the pervious inner-cuts "backward"!!! He remembered exactly the spots where he had broken the recording process, called out the bar from which to start each inner-cut and redid each one again from mid song back to the beginning. It is awesome to hear this and I am sure the entire studio was totally confused as to what Mr. S was doing. But Sonny pieced it all together with the great Lee Hershberg  and what you hear is a beautiful recording of the song that one would think was recorded beginning to end nonstop.    

Happy 2016 to you an all members here @ Crosby Fan World. Happiness and GOOD HEALTH to all!!!

Last edited by paulmock (31/12/2015 7:54 pm)

Ron Field wrote:

I have a tape of a recording session of Frank making "East of the Sun". Several takes and interesting how they would start in the middle or other section of the song and you wouldn't think it was all put together with stops and starts.

The great audio engineer Steve Hoffman told me that the 2nd Basie album It Might as Well Be Swing! was a nightmare to re-master because it is loaded with inner cuts and bits and pieces from other takes inserted in after the recording sessions. To listen to it one would never imagine that as it has such lovely continuity to it.

I hope I haven't taken this thread too far off topic. It will get back on track once I find another "clinker" from Kaplan...which I suspect won't be too far from now! 
 

Hi Steve,
I have mentioned here before I am a big fan of "Latter Day Bing" as I feel he was more honest with himself and his performances and comfortable in his then stage of life. (No offense, please...but I find a good bit of his work in his "prime" to be less-than-real and honest. But that is purely me speaking).

That said, in answer to one of your questions, I think that as much as it devastated all of us to face his sudden death (he was definitely way into the September of his years) IMHO Bing left us at just the right time. He was in great voice and seemed really happy with doing a world tour and some resurgence in appeal. That may have proven ghastly if he had lived a good while longer. I feel "the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd" was taking him over and he may have begun to feel like it would go on forever. To say he went out on top surely applied to Bing.

To answer another question or comment...YES! Mr. S stayed at the fair way too long. I saw him 30 times in concert or nightclub "live". Most were very, very good. Some were excellent. A few were poor. I last saw him live at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles in August 1991. He was OK but lost at times and embarrassed himself by telling the same story or joke more than once. As he finished with "New York, New York" and the crowd roared and stood and stomped in appreciation I stood and applauded with tears running down my face saying farewell to my Champion. I knew it was time to cut-the-cord. I never wanted to see him in that state onstage again. He continued to perform almost 3 1/2 years longer. But I could never bring myself to a Sinatra performance again. I had the memories of greater times.

I really appreciate your comments and opinions as always.    

Last edited by paulmock (18/1/2016 2:04 am)

I think Bing might have had a few more very interesting film roles in later years.  Think of his work in Stagecoach, as the central character actor who at times fully carries the movie making one forget some of it's other shortcomings and poor production values.  Then, too, I think he might have been very effective playing against type in more dramatic roles, as in Dr. Cook's Garden  And both of those were non-singing roles, even the theme of Stagecoach being sung (forgettably) by Wayne Newton 

Then when we look, for example, at some of the songs recorded for the Seasons album, I think we are not just hearing Bings voice at that age, we are also hearing the voice of his maturity in the interpretation.  Furthermore, considering the sequence on side two of "Summer Wind," "Autumn in New York," and "September Song" -- I contend that these songs are not only products of Bing's vocal ability and rhythmic interpretation; rather, they are also dramatized, we might say *embodied*  through Bing's actor's soul.  I think this quality might have become more and more apparent in later Crosby albums, even if his range or power failed in ways not apparent in Seasons, where some of his low notes are so rich that they could rattle the windows if you turned the stereo up enough!

Last edited by Steve Fay (19/1/2016 3:26 pm)