I was not inclined to buy the new CD but after hearing a couple of tracks I was hooked. Publicity for the CD in Australia has put Bing back on the front page of our The Sydney Morning Herald. I can hardly believe it. Yippee!

The notes which accompany many of the Crosby CDs I have add to the pleasure they provide me. I love the selection of pictures which came with Bing At Christmas, especially the snapshot of Bing in the snow. The next two are intriguing. Would they be photos of the masters from the 1947 recordings? I wonder when the photos were taken and if it was the usual practice for Decca to take such photos. Where would those discs labelled LM4376 and LM4374 be now?

I'm a bit late to this party, but I wasn't late to purchasing the CD, thanks to my still being on Malcolm's email list, despite my inactivity as a Bing discussant the last few years.  My wife and I ordered two copies, one for us and one for a friend's Christmas gift.

Perhaps I haven't listened to the album hypercritically, but I have found it rather a delightful experience -- even though I'm usually a rather stodgy "originalist" when it comes to music and other things.  I certainly don't think anyone should think of this new album as any sort of replacement for any of the original tracks we may know from studio recordings or from radio. I think it mainly should be regarded as a vehicle for letting new audiences hear him, or for listeners who have been away from Bing for decades, to hear him again.

Obviously, one might expect the orchestra, and sometimes back-up singers/choruses, to be much more forward in the mix, relative to Bing, than would have been heard in recordings of the 40s or 50s. Maybe because I knew the songs well enough, Bing being nestled deeper in the mix didn't keep me from hearing-and/or-knowing what he was singing.  And while I might not love all of the back-up singer arranging, most of it seemed pretty good to me, letting a little fresh air into the orchestrations,  As much as I appreciate the role of the Ken Darby Singers in some of the original versions of some of the songs -- they in fact tend to transport me back to childhood walks with my family through Christmas-decorated department stores, while Bing's carols streamed from 10-inch loudspeakers installed in the store ceilings -- I am a bit afraid that being subjected to listening to the Darby crowd continuously might wear the eardrum right out of most human beings. ;)   Alternate choral groups, or no choral back-up, can be a welcome alternative at times, especially if we can still go back to the Darby version when we want to.

I didn't start out as a fan of the Bowie/Crosby drummerboy song, but it has grown on me. Perhaps learning how unlikely it was to ever have been filmed or recorded (considering that Bowie couldn't stand the original Drummer Boy song and his alternate lyrics were written in the hour or so before he and Bing performed it for a TV special filming segment) has affected my appreciation.

My standard for a remix of a deceased vocalist with modern accompaniment is not one of those mentioned already in this thread.  It is the duet between Nat King Cole and his daughter Natalie Cole doing "Unforgetable."  While it could never replace Nat's classic original, it -- very deservingly -- became a classic in its own right. It is probably too early to know if any of this album's tracks has begun to move in that direction.  I don't know if any of these tracks were released as "singles" as the Nat/Natalie "Unforgetable" was.  I don't know if what we used to call "singles" even get released anymore for that matter. Maybe what gets the most likes on social media is what amounts to a single now.

If I took the time to compile my own list of tracks, for my own CD of favorite Crosby Christmas songs, I probably wouldn't include anything from this new CD.  I would probably only include originals. I probably would include some songs that others of you might not include, like the school song version of "Bells of St. Mary's" from the movie, the recording of "Snow" including Peggy Lee, and I might even conclude with "June in January" fading between the 1930s and 1970s versions as a coda to all of the other songs of the season. Still, I like this collection with the London Symphony Orchestra.  It is more Bing for people to listen to.  I think most people who get to hear it will think it sounds very good.  Some of them are going to get caught in the Bing fandom vortex, too, and want to listen to more and more Bing and want to learn more about Bing, too.

Last edited by Steve Fay (29/1/2020 7:40 pm)

Modern Bing Fan, I love your suggestions for the Puppini Sisters singing with Bing. What a novelty that would be. I'd not heard of them until last month when Howard Leader played one of their records on his Sunday afternoon program. I reckon they'd also team well with Bing and Bob on 'Road to Morocco'.

Graham Pascoe wrote:

Modern Bing Fan, I love your suggestions for the Puppini Sisters singing with Bing. What a novelty that would be. I'd not heard of them until last month when Howard Leader played one of their records on his Sunday afternoon program. I reckon they'd also team well with Bing and Bob on 'Road to Morocco'.

I modeled it after the Bing At Christmas CD, so I included groups like the Puppini Sisters and the Tenors as they were on the CD, so if you don't mind a listen of Jingle Bells or The Twelve Days Of Christmas from the Bing At Christmas CD, or you could use YouTube to find these version if you don't have the disc, you might be able to hear them. I say might because the Andrews Sisters vocals are still in those songs along with the Puppini Sisters.