Thank you Richard for the response.  Time and tide wait for no man.  Which is why we should strike while the iron is hot.  Had I followed through five years ago as planned, I may have been able to have the complete set now, as well as five years of Crosby appreciation and knowledge.  

I discovered some still for sale there in the UK on eBay.  I am awaiting a response about postage, and how to handle the sale.  But what a shame that they still are not available as complete sets.

Last edited by JackCleveland (01/1/2019 7:13 pm)

Well- I have 10 volumes heading this way, and I will also be picking up some more that are still on sale on eBay.  Waiting to hear from Malcolm if the ones he mentioned for sale are still available and how much.  Time to dig deep into this treasure trove.  Undoubtedly both of you already have these!

Lobosco wrote:

Richard - I believe you mean Sepia label, not Jasmine.

A moment of absent - mindedness - I must be getting too old. Thanks for pointing out my error, David. 
 

JackCleveland wrote:

So in the last three days I have been able to acquire over 20 of the Chronological CDs.  Good start for sure.  Now, how many times am I going to have to duplicate volumes to get volumes I don't have?

I'm afraid , Jack, that in this sphere of activity, duplication - and worse - is pretty well inevitable.  I suspect that the inference of your question is that you think you might have to buy "job lots" of CDs in order to complete your set. If so you will at least be able to dispose of the surplus and be left with a complete run of the songs with no duplication.

I acquired my first Crosby records in the mid 1950s. By the mid 1960s the "completion" insofar as that was possible became something of an obsession. By this time I had a fair sprinkling of LPs, 78s, 45 RPM singles and EPs, but in order to go as far as I could in completing the song titles I had an incredible amount of duplication.  Sometimes I was getting LPs, whether new or used, with (typically) twelve titles in order to obtain maybe three or four titles. 

Twenty years or so later I had just about everything that had been issued on LP (but still lacking numbers of then known recordings).   Then along came the CD.  Initially I resisted the new minority medium, but then had to take the plunge. In the meantime however I had acquired the parallel LP issues. Then I took the logical step and commenced getting everything that had been issued on CD - but then the Chronological Bing Crosby, obviously creating much further duplication came along. In theory I ought to just dispose of everything I have in whatever format which covers the same ground as the Chronological series, but guess what?  Whilst I got rid of most of my 78s and 45s, - with just a dozen or so exceptions the only other discs I have disposed of are those that are direct duplicates of each other.  I just cannot bring myself to get rid of them, despite the duplicatio/triplication  - - - . And then everything has been digitised as well.

Welcome to the world of collectors!

You lucky, youngsters, you.
Growing up last century, my first 78 was 'Faith of Our Fathers', bought before I had anything to play it on. First radiogram was a single play then I bought a turntable that could take up to about 10 of these shellac records, heavy arm and crash bang wallop when a record changed. I put the new multi turntable to replace the single, got a bit of a tickle with the wires.
Then I started to buy Bing every few weeks.
Then a bloke at the GPO (General Post Office) was also a Bing fan and now and again he would lend me a Bing record.
Oh, the strain of it all travelling by train and bus 10 miles or so to get home. Worrying that I might damage the record.
One time I did put my knee on one of my 78's and so only about a minute of playtime was available.
How lucky we are these days we can put a cassette or CD in our pocket without fear of breaking it.

I miss the old days of collecting. I will be an old man of 45 this year. I miss going to the flea market with my Grandfather and not knowing what I would find. This is the early to mid 1990s when there was no computers or digital music. I used to have so many duplicates, but those were the days!

Wow- great story.  Love when you read about a fellow fan's generosity.  Perhaps I will get lucky with some of those Jonzo CDs... maybe even a free one now and then!

The “Chronological” series is an amazing achievement and we all owe its originator a huge debt of gratitude, not to mention our friends at Sepia who took up the baton to complete the sequence up until the end of the Decca years.

There are indeed some great tracks on Vol. 33, but I hope you’ll persevere with the early years of Bing’s career. When I first started collecting in the early ‘70s I used always to gravitate towards the “golden era” of the late ‘30s through to the mid ‘40s. Then I bought an RCA LP, “Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams”, which had a great selection of tracks from 1927 through to 1931, with the Whiteman band  and Gus Arnheim’s Cocoanut Grove Orchestra. This LP really made me sit up and listen! This was the “jazzin’ Bing Crosby” before he became the global super-star of the Jack Kapp years. After more than 40 years I still find it fascinating to listen to Bing at different stages of his phenomenal career.

jeremyrose wrote:

The “Chronological” series is an amazing achievement and we all owe its originator a huge debt of gratitude, not to mention our friends at Sepia who took up the baton to complete the sequence up until the end of the Decca years.

There are indeed some great tracks on Vol. 33, but I hope you’ll persevere with the early years of Bing’s career. When I first started collecting in the early ‘70s I used always to gravitate towards the “golden era” of the late ‘30s through to the mid ‘40s. Then I bought an RCA LP, “Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams”, which had a great selection of tracks from 1927 through to 1931, with the Whiteman band  and Gus Arnheim’s Cocoanut Grove Orchestra. This LP really made me sit up and listen! This was the “jazzin’ Bing Crosby” before he became the global super-star of the Jack Kapp years. After more than 40 years I still find it fascinating to listen to Bing at different stages of his phenomenal career.

Oh don’t worry, I will, I just had to choose one cd to buy for the time being.

Thank you, this will be my first Jonzo CD, but I have 7? (Not sure) CDs of the Through the Years CDs. Along with the complete Decca Christmas CD, Seasons, Complete UA, Bing His Legendary Years, Holiday In Europe and Beyond, Sing Along with Bing and On the Happy Side, Bing With A Beat, Fancy Meeting You Here, and Bing At Christmas. Then on vinyl I have Merry Christmas, Seasons, a RCA compilation with half early and half Bing With A Beat, Crosby Classics (reprocessed for stereo version though), a Christmas radio program LP, two Bing in Hollywood LPs, Small One and Happy Prince, Songs of Christmas, MCA Best of Bing, two MCA 45s one has St Patrick’s Day Parade and the other has White Christmas, Musical Autobiography 45s set, a Capitol Christmas LP with Bing featured on Do You Hear What I Hear, and finally one 78 with 2 songs from Road to Utopia containing It’s Anybody’s Spring and Welcome To My Dream.

Ah! the pleasures of new finds. Treasures to be savoured. 

I remember the feeling. But as you fill in the gaps the new finds get fewer and fewer until eventually they almost cease and come along so infrequently that you wonder if they really have ceased.

Then, out of the blue another turns up. 

 

Some great tracks on Vol. 16, AND you get to hear the infamous argument with Jack Kapp..!