I have always taken Bing's humility in such statements as being quite sincere.  I think it is one of the 'habits of the heart' permanently instilled by his raising and experience prior to his becoming one of the world's most popular entertainers.  Rather refreshing, isn't it, in our times to read such remarks, when so many performers and celebrities try to outdo one another as showoffs.

I haven't traced the titles in your discography, Richard, but I would assume that Bing had already sung most or all of these songs before, some perhaps several times, over his decades on radio.  His audiences expected him to provide his renditions of the current hits and other favorites they would have known and loved well.  Perhaps this makes these selections more valuable, because Bing would have known these songs already as both a listener and a singer during the times when they and the artists who introduced them were influencing audiences most strongly.

Richard, and others, what are some of your favorite songs on this album?  Also, does anyone know if this was Pleis's regular orchestra or simply a gathering of studio musicians he was asked to conduct?

The title implies that Bing had not recorded the songs before but as Ron says there was a little bout of amnesia. In fact several had been performed on radio on many occasions. As Ron points out 'Blues In The Night' had been recorded for commercial release and (slightly stretching the point) so had 'My Blue Heaven' though that was admittedly as part of a vocal chorus with Whiteman.

A brief run down  -

1 - April Showers had been in a Philco programme in 1947 with Al Jolson.
It was subsequently sung by Bing on a couple of TV shows and in the last recording session in 1977 - a considerably superior version - recently reissued on 'Seasons'

2 - When My Baby Smiles At Me first cropped up in parody form on KMH in 1938 and repeated a couple of times in 1938 and 1939. Oddly, it was recorded with Buddy Cole for radio  in the same month as the recording with Jack Pleis. The Cole version was subsequently included as one of the Pete Moore stereo overdubs

3 - My Blue Heaven was one of the very early recordings with Paul Whiteman in 1927. It was included (in presumably a similar form) in an  'Old Gold'  broadcast in 1929. Bing got round to a solo performance with Jimmy Dorsey on KMH in 1936 and it appeared in an AFRS broadcast with, of all people, Harpo Marx, playing, of course, his harp. It reappeared on radio  in 1948, 1950, (twice) and was again included with the Buddy Cole radio recordings in 1955, in which form it was repeated on radio on many occasions. It also cropped up on TV.

4 - A Little Kiss Each Morning is known to have been included in an Old Gold broadcast with Whiteman in 1930 but I don't think it was otherwise performed by Bing.

5 - Prisoner of Love had not been performed  by Bing previously but was sung in fragmentary form on the Hollywood Palace TV show iin 1965

6 - Ain't Misbehavin' popped up on radio in1931 (twice) and was again one of those recorded with Buddy Cole in 1954, being repeated in the radio shows on many occasions, and was also overdubbed by the Pete Moore Orchestra..

7 - Paper Doll first appeared on KMH in 1943 (three times), then 1944 (three), 1945, 1949 with the Mills Brothers (a superb version) and on TV in 1966 again with the Mills Brothers

8 - This Love Of Mine was another with almost no exposure - a fragment only on radio in 1943.

9 - Thanks For the Memory - 1938 (twice)  1944 fragmentary a cappela,  1948 (with Robert Taylor playing cello -quite funny) and subsequently several TV appearances.

10 - Blues in the Night was perhaps the most frequently performed. It was also one of the songs parodied by Bing on an 'African Safari' medley. Bing had previously recorded it for commercial release in 1942 and it was included in radio shows with some frequency in 1941, 42 and 43 on KMH and Victory Caravan shows. It was then put to sleep until the Jack Pleis recording.

11 - Mona Lisa was another parodied in 'African Safari' and otherwise appeared twice on the Chesterfield show in 1950 and on TV in 1967

12 - Memories Are Made of This - so far as I know the Jack Pleis recording is the sole example.

I know nothing about the Jack Pleis Orchestra but I suspect that like many others appearing on record it was drawn from jobbing musicians for the task in hand.  Searches on the internet for such an orchestra and for Jack Pleis as a conductor or arranger throw up almost nothing apart from other recordings in which he was involved.

Personally I am not very keen on April Showers - it is overshadowed by the verve of the Jolson original and I suspect that the arranger was striving too hard to differentiate it from that version. I find the vocal backing here a little annoying - 'drip, drip'. Apart from that single negative comment all the tracks are quite entertaining with the qualification that it is sometimes difficult to 'forget' the well known originals - particulary so with 'Mona Lisa'. Of them all I particularly like 'Memories are Made Of This' - both for Bing's treatment (he almost seems to caress the words) and the orchestral arrangement.

Much more detail about the individual performances is given by the 'Songography' on the Bing Magazine website.

Steve Fay wrote:

One of my Gene Austin LPs says Gene first recorded "My Blue Heaven" on September 14, 1927, so we know from Richard's post that Bing recorded it sometime within the following 3 1/2 months.

Well, actually Steve, Whiteman, complete with Bing in the chorus, got in first. Theirs was recorded on 6th July 1927!

Songpluggers did the rounds of the big 'acts' of the day and songs regarded by the 'acts' as having any sort of future would have first appeared in their live performances, and with luck, might get radio or record exposure.  Thereafter different interpretations might slug it out, sometimes with several getting more or less equal prominence, in others one particular performance rising to the top,  but not necessarily the one that got in first. As you note, in later years, Bing's version might 'win' even though he might only have recorded it as a need to cover an already semi-established song.

jeremyrose wrote:

Mind if I join in..?

My copy of this album is a CD transferred from the original LP, so I don't have the sleeve notes to hand (which might answer my question), but does anyone know why Bing says "Thanks Ted" during the coda of "When My Baby Smiles At Me"?

Jeremy, Of course you can join in - the more the merrier!

I think the 'Thanks Ted' is supposed to be directed at Ted Lewis who popularised the song.

I think you have put it very aptly when you say that ' - - - give the impression of a man at the top of his game with nothing to prove. Someone in completely control of what he's doing technically and - above all - rhythmically.  - - - He just sits on all this stuff with complete ease and control'

Jeremy, thanks so much for joining in the discussion.  I hope other long-time fans of this album will be encouraged by your example to share their thoughts as well.

In any case, you put your finger on something I was feeling during my recent listening to the album but which I realize I didn't articulate in kicking off the topic.  I, too, hear the kind of "total ease and control" you describe also being in the CBS Radio recordings in the Mosaic series.  In listening to the Mosaic disks I grasped the depth of this quality and level of capability in that period of Bing's career like I never had before.  Then, in listening to this better copy of the "Songs I Wish..." LP, just recently, I was hearing/feeling that same thing coming across, perhaps more in certain passages than others, but very clearly there.

If we think of part of Bing's intent in the album as being offering a tribute both to the songs and to the artists most identified with them, then I don't think he is trying to upstage the other versions or make us forget them, even though he might have liked to have been the artist to introduce the songs.  I take it as him saying the best way he can express his value of these songs and those other singer's versions is to sing the songs for us his way, too.

Jeremy, do add more of your thoughts about the album!

That's a terrific point, Ron!  Had Bing had the opportunity to make a few more albums working with Ken Barnes, that would have been a great theme for one of them.  I think it certainly would have included some songs introduced by Rosemary Clooney, Peggy Lee, and others he frequently sang with, but it might have also included songs introduced by so many other important female vocalists who overlapped Bing's career.

(Ron, back to Vic Damone, you might want to start a thread about him in the "Others of Note" category of the forum.  I'd love to hear what you and other Crosby fans have to say about what Vic's most notable songs and albums may have been.  I'm willing to give him another chance, especially considering I was only a kid when I saw him on TV.  It was a Crosby fan, Norman, I think it was, who persuaded me to find a new appreciation of Eydie Gorme.  You can learn a lot from a group of Bing Crosby fans!)