So, are they still available from them?

Stefan. All of the Harry Lillis CDs have appeared at one time or another for sale on eBay. I purchased my entire HL series via eBay (with the exception of the 5th volume). I would check there occasionally. The Bar-One CD's are rare, and I've only seen a couple of them appear on eBay (though not the ones you or I would be looking for).

I hope this helps!

Hello

I haven't heard any news of Barry for some years now. He performed a great service for Crosby collectors in the early days of CD, with some of his releases still being (as far as I know) the only CD option for certain recordings. "Hey Jude, Hey Bing!", "Bingo Viejo" and the 5 poems from 1977, for example. He also produced an 8-CD series of songs culled from KMH broadcasts called "The Krafty Young Bing".

I saw him at the Leeds meeting a few times and he used set up a stall at the back of the room and chatter incessantly throughout the meeting!

He produced a lot of compilations and various themed series - the complete Bing/Al Philcos, etc. - and although the quality could be variable, in those early years of CD (and certainly long before the internet) he was a great source of hard-to-obtain material.

I obtained my Harry Lillis releases via ICC, but with regard to the Sing-Along albums, I have an "official" release of "Join Bing and Sing Along" on a the Hallmark label. Hallmark 710082.

Other than that - as Jim says - other than the EMI Regal release, the sources seem to be from private sources. I have, for example,  a privately-produced Sing-Along compilation called "Sing Along With Bing Crosby!" on the GAV Records label. (GAVCD-1002). I seem to remember picking this up at Leeds a few years ago, but I have no idea who was responsible for GAV Records. I'm sure somebody out there will...

I also have the Hallmark "Join Bing & Sing Along" CD, which is taken from the 1959 album of the same title. But the material on the EMI Regal release is different, it is from the 1960 "101 Gang Songs" album. Based on Richard's discography there is no overlap. Also, it seems to be in stereo, whereas I believe the Hallmark is mono.

I've heard of the GAV label, but never found any of their CDs. They also released some of the Buddy Cole material, long before the Mosaic set, that I had tried to find at that time.

It would sure be nice to see the Crosby family release official versions of the Longines sessions, "Hey Jude" and "Bingo Viejo".

Jim

"Bing 'n Basie" was the first CD I ever bought - before I even had a CD player. I was so surprised to see it released, and thought it might not stay in print long. It was a pretty early CD release, and I suspect Polydor released it because it gave them the first Bing CD on the market.

I would like to see BCE reissue it, especially if they include a clean version of "If I Had a Hammer", one that doesn't sound like it was recorded on a portable tape recorder held up to a speaker. But I'm glad to have heard it even in that form. The only reason I can see for it not being released on the album is there are some passages where Bing is having to sing over the band when it is pretty loud, and since Bing recorded his vocals to pre-recorded tracks there was no way to change that. But it's a nice uptempo performance that would add to the album.

Yes, Redmond Nostalgia had extensive lists of non-Bing material. With every "Bing" order I placed with Redmond, I used to include a couple of other discs of other favoured singers, and so I have quite a few Mario Lanza Coca-Cola shows and Gordon MacRae "Railroad Hour" productions of classic musicals, for example...

Other contributors to this board will, I feel sure, have much more extensive recollections of, and information about, father-and-son, Larry and David Kiner, who were responsible for making this material available. I seem to remember there was a direct - even personal - link between Larry's possession of the Bing material and Bing himself, but without doing a bit more research, I hesitate to elaborate on that... 

Thanks, Richard. I knew I could rely on you..!