I covered this Bregman LP in my book "Just Remember This".I note Bing's lack of committment, still giving the nod to 5 titles.I also note ;he literally runs out of gas" (page 326). / There is a similar problem with his (then) contemporary " Songs I Wishe I Had Sung   LP , in which I picked only 2 titles worth it.I also noted the slightly later "Bing With A Beat" LP. I consider Bob Scobey's MUCH better, backing as Bing's only SOLO album performance that found him committed to EVERY title. Even when Bing slides a bit on "Mack The Knife", Scobey's jazz band saves it. / Bing  IS excellent on  the Hight Society  LP , but this is with other artists,  No, Bing was hardly an LP  ( 12 inch) entity , except for  his  very good LP with Rosemary Clooney  & Billy May & his fab 1962 Christmas LP for Warner Brothers. You can list his  Decca LP "Merry Christmas " , as still popular, noting the 12 inch product started in the later 1950s-all reissues-mostly 1940s singles..THIS ONE also does well over the hump of 2000-even NOW!  Later Christmas fodder was good, yet not on major labels. Ken Barnes did some good things with the (even)  older man.Let's call it  all nice.With no disrespect, for this kind of pop (LP) concept,Nat King Cole,Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin,- were more involved,committed. 

This album has always divided opinion amongst Crosbyphiles. I've always thought that part of the problem lies in the fact that Bregman produced the album as well as providing the orchestral arrangements, so there was no guiding (restraining?!) hand as there was with Bregman's work on the two 'Songbook' albums he arranged for Ella Fitzgerald, which were produced by Norman Granz.

I've always loved the album and I think it's great that Bing was exploring new styles and approaches after the end of his exclusive Decca contract. A matter of weeks separates BSWBS from Songs I Wish I Had Sung... and they couldn't be more different! (I completely agree with Colin, though, that Bing With a Beat is by far Bing's most successful foray into the LP format from around this time.)

Ken Barnes was pretty dismissive of Buddy Bregman's abilities as an arranger/accompanist, but he did concede that, "... it was refreshing at the time to hear Crosby with a modern-sounding orchestra and while this album is no match for Sinatra's Songs For Swingin' Lovers classic LP, it was a step - albeit a hesitant one - in the right direction".

Lobosco wrote:

Great talk about Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings. I think it's a great album. Buddy Bregman always was more loud of a orchestra, kind of like Billy May. Bregman was definitely an improvement over the slow and bland Buddy Cole that backed Bing for most of the mid 1950s. 

The songs were great, and Bing was in great voice. I wish Bing had made more concept albums. I wish he would have signed with Capitol after Decca. He could have been the next Sinatra. LOL

But I guess we can ponder "what should have been" forever, but I am so glad with what Bing left us in musical memories.

Yes, David. Bing at Capitol would have been almost too good to be true. Just the one later reunion there with Rosie on "That Traveling Two-Beat".  Ironically, wasn't he briefly signed to Sinatra's later, own Reprise label. Other than his appearances there on the quartet of Sinatra's Reprise Musical Repertory Theatre  albums (also featuring Frank, Dino, Sammy, Rosie and plenty of others), the soundtrack album of Robin and the Seven Hoods, and his Return to Paradise Island  album, that seemed to have been it. Although he did record his glorious "I Wish you a Merry Christmas" album, along with a couple of others around that time for the soon to be Reprise affiliated Warners label.
 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (13/4/2022 10:59 pm)