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With the September and now October chill setting in over here in the UK, where Bing recorded his final album, "Seasons", I'd be most interested to know if anyone else shares my huge enthusiasm for one my favourite albums from our favourite singer?
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Ah yes, this album has always been a favorite of mine, if not my favorite album by Bing.
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ModernBingFan0377 wrote:
Ah yes, this album has always been a favorite of mine, if not my favorite album by Bing.
Yes, I could not agree more. It's certainly my favourite solo album by Bing. My first LP of his was the 1974 RCA compilation, "The Best of Bing" and the second being Crosby and Clooney's, "Fancy Meeting You Here" (which I think is my favourite album of anyone's), so it was also my first solo album work of his. With the other two having been gifts, it also the first LP recording I bought with my own, hard, (unearned) pocket money, on holiday in Weymouth in 1983.
Never having heard Bing's senior voice, I was uncertain, so I asked the store to play a sample. I still feel goose bumps when I remember and again hear those slow, mellow opening acoustic guitar chords of the title track echoing down the rest of the large store's speaker system and courtesy of its outside ones, wafting Bing's beautifully produced music down the promenade.
Last edited by Ian Kerstein (02/10/2022 12:00 am)
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Archiefit wrote:
There's an album I don't hear enough. Never transferred it to the computer so it doesn't pop up when playing "random" music. I'll have to go back and listen again. Hmm, that makes 2 so far I haven't heard or seen in a while, "High Society" & "Seasons". Before someone mentions it, I also haven't heard Bing's "Hey Jude, Hey Bing" album in a while. Maybe it's just as well.
Yes, I don't play it often enough, Archiefit. I think the production has so much depth and resonance, with the wonderful rhythm section, gorgeous, opulent strings and that beautiful, echoed analogue mastering. I felt much of this was subsequently digitally dampened on the still most welcome 2010 extra-laden, Collector's Choice CD release. I must play my LP version soon.
Does anyone have any favourite track choices?
Last edited by Ian Kerstein (02/10/2022 12:16 am)
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I have always been a sucker for the later songs on the album, Autumn In New York, Summer Wind, September Song, and Yesterday When I Was Young. I can’t bring myself to choose a favorite though.
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I feel precisely the same of the later tracks. They are so beautifully age reflective and Bing makes them his own. It's so difficult to choose a single one, though. If forced, I previously always plumped for "Yesterday When I Was Young". I thought Bing's deep interpretation outweighed its composer, Charles Aznavour's own.
I'm currently favouring though, "Autumn in New York". I so enjoy Bing's intimate and intense opening verse and how he and also the musicians then gracefully and seemingly without effort, slide on those handful of guitar base notes, into the body of the song. I am a sucker for strings and Pete Moore's arrangement (as with all the songs) is just a dream with those sumptuous violins sometimes giving an almost French like flavour to the proceedings. Certainly giving any of the best, signature things Sinatra did with strings, a good run for his money.
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Ian /I can't agree.This (later) Crosby vocal,while ok,had lost it's punch.On (especially) YESTERDAY WHEN I WAS YOUNG,noting stereo & a well done arraingement,Bing at least appreciated great material & did it well enough.Some years ago,my (late) friend Pete Cakanic (who used to contribute to BINGANG) ,noted THIS song as ONE of Bing's best.So your ears are at least in good company!For me, Charles Aznavor had defined it./ Another thing about Pete-When he challaged me about Bing's original song I WISH I WAS ALLADIN,I dug it up an my car's (home made ) cassette player,& startled him! He seemed to indicate it was his favorite song! IFor my ears, it's Bing at his very best! Pete got this one right!Tastes vary,yet the real time between these song titles indicates a huge vocal change.I wish the Alladin vocal for Yesterday-not possible,but that's ok.
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The "Seasons" album holds a special place in my heart. I found a copy at a flea market in 1989, and I saw Bing Crosby fan clubs listed on the back, and it got me into the clubs. Bing's voice might have been tired but some of the songs are so well sung.
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Colin Bratkovich wrote:
Ian /I can't agree.This (later) Crosby vocal,while ok,had lost it's punch.On (especially) YESTERDAY WHEN I WAS YOUNG,noting stereo & a well done arraingement,Bing at least appreciated great material & did it well enough.Some years ago,my (late) friend Pete Cakanic (who used to contribute to BINGANG) ,noted THIS song as ONE of Bing's best.So your ears are at least in good company!For me, Charles Aznavor had defined it./ Another thing about Pete-When he challaged me about Bing's original song I WISH I WAS ALLADIN,I dug it up an my car's (home made ) cassette player,& startled him! He seemed to indicate it was his favorite song! IFor my ears, it's Bing at his very best! Pete got this one right!Tastes vary,yet the real time between these song titles indicates a huge vocal change.I wish the Alladin vocal for Yesterday-not possible,but that's ok.
Colin. Thank you so much for your highly considered response. Compared with Bing's voice in full throated glory on his outstanding and beautifully reflective rendition of your suggested (and my debut listening of) "I Wish I Was Aladdin", I cannot argue. Nor may I have done if I had heard Aznavour's version of "Yesterday When I Was Young" before Bing's.
However, having first heard "Seasons" at the impressionable age of merely fourteen in 1983, there was something in Bing's senior sounding vocals that really commanded my attention. A little like a slightly frail elderly relative - but still the best in the family at telling stories or spinning yarns. To this day this album gives me such pleasurable goose bumps, particularly as I listen to the full work in its analogue glory of vinyl.
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Lobosco wrote:
The "Seasons" album holds a special place in my heart. I found a copy at a flea market in 1989, and I saw Bing Crosby fan clubs listed on the back, and it got me into the clubs. Bing's voice might have been tired but some of the songs are so well sung.
Yes, David. Mine, too. I originally purchased a single sleeve edition but then later at a shop I used to be employed by, that full gatefold sleeved edition. I do so agree with you on the tired sound of Bing's voice. Indeed it was due to my having previously read two years before about his lung operation, that I was keen to hear the store play the first track.
I remember during the first few seconds of its playing that this was indeed a far older sounding Bing than I'd heard before but as the song progressed, I really began admiring those wonderful, resonating low notes that came with his age and the album's wonderful production values. I thought his reflective interpretations of a man then in is mid seventies were as you have noted, so well sung and so beautifully interpreted.
Do you have a favourite song from the album?
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I reckon it's a splendid album. As usual, it's hard for me to select a favourite track because I like some of the songs more than others but i believe Bing did a superb job of Yesterday when I was young'.
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Ian Kerstein wrote:
Lobosco wrote:
The "Seasons" album holds a special place in my heart. I found a copy at a flea market in 1989, and I saw Bing Crosby fan clubs listed on the back, and it got me into the clubs. Bing's voice might have been tired but some of the songs are so well sung.
Yes, David. Mine, too. I originally purchased a single sleeve edition but then later at a shop I used to be employed by, that full gatefold sleeved edition. I do so agree with you on the tired sound of Bing's voice. Indeed it was due to my having previously read two years before about his lung operation, that I was keen to hear the store play the first track.
I remember during the first few seconds of its playing that this was indeed a far older sounding Bing than I'd heard before but as the song progressed, I really began admiring those wonderful, resonating low notes that came with his age and the album's wonderful production values. I thought his reflective interpretations of a man then in is mid seventies were as you have noted, so well sung and so beautifully interpreted.
Do you have a favourite song from the album?
I would say I have always been partial to "Yesterday When I Was Young", but in recent years I really thing the title song "Season" is very pretty. My least favorite song is "Autumn In New York". Bing's voice wasn't strong enough for the song, and it's not one of my favorite songs in general. However, Bing's Seasons album is a fitting way for Bing to end his recording career on.
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I think I have read more than once that Seasons is a fitting final note to Bing's career. It's an album full of reflective songs and Bing's voice, while maybe not as strong as it was 40 years earlier is still wonderfully rich and able.
As for songs, I love the title track, a great song that Bing really makes you feel, but I also love "Autumn in New York" and I agree with Ian and love how Bing opens the song! There is great warmth in his delivery and if Sinatra's version from '49 has a young man's excitement, Bing's is an older man's warm reminiscences. "Yesterday When I Was Young" is outstanding, but I also love "April Showers".
Really I love Bing's 70's output and if Seasons is fitting final album, it's also the sad reminder that Bing was was really doing great work and didn't intend for this to be his final album.
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The film version of ALADDIN, while in a jail cell is much better than the time limit on the 3 minute 78.
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Graham Pascoe wrote:
I reckon it's a splendid album. As usual, it's hard for me to select a favourite track because I like some of the songs more than others but i believe Bing did a superb job of Yesterday when I was young'.
Yes, Bing really did invest so much drive, passion and meaning into that one. It just seemed one of those perfect, valedictory songs to both lost youth and as it turned out, dear Bing himself. From the number's quiet, first opening chimes and Bing's delicately sung, almost halting first few bars to the glorious sweeping finale, where both orchestra and singer seem to be racing against time itself, the whole number moves me in such a way that this is a track I play to interested parties who claim our man was, "just a crooner" and one who always lacked the emotional commitment of Sinatra.
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Lobosco wrote:
Ian Kerstein wrote:
Lobosco wrote:
The "Seasons" album holds a special place in my heart. I found a copy at a flea market in 1989, and I saw Bing Crosby fan clubs listed on the back, and it got me into the clubs. Bing's voice might have been tired but some of the songs are so well sung.
Yes, David. Mine, too. I originally purchased a single sleeve edition but then later at a shop I used to be employed by, that full gatefold sleeved edition. I do so agree with you on the tired sound of Bing's voice. Indeed it was due to my having previously read two years before about his lung operation, that I was keen to hear the store play the first track.
I remember during the first few seconds of its playing that this was indeed a far older sounding Bing than I'd heard before but as the song progressed, I really began admiring those wonderful, resonating low notes that came with his age and the album's wonderful production values. I thought his reflective interpretations of a man then in is mid seventies were as you have noted, so well sung and so beautifully interpreted.
Do you have a favourite song from the album?
I would say I have always been partial to "Yesterday When I Was Young", but in recent years I really thing the title song "Season" is very pretty. My least favorite song is "Autumn In New York". Bing's voice wasn't strong enough for the song, and it's not one of my favorite songs in general. However, Bing's Seasons album is a fitting way for Bing to end his recording career on.
As much as I love it, my late brother would be with you on that one, David. Knowing my love of Bing and this album, he used to mimic and deride some of Bing's sustained notes on "Autumn in New York", claiming he could hear him struggle. Yes, I also have a soft spot for the title track, too. it certainly does convey the prettiness of all four seasons - and again, is sung with such emotive storytelling by Bing.
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Sadly Bing's voice had deteriorated by the time he recorded his last album "Seasons" , he never really fully recovered from his stage fall earlier that year but the album was an interesting concept nevertheless.
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Yes, I believe you are are most correct there, Stepo. Rosemary Clooney sensed him slowly fading after that dreadful fall. Despite Bing's voice inevitably aging, I can still find much richness and depth to admire within it on "Seasons". Although strain and frailty is audible, I am always so impressed Bing never rasped or demonstrated any "gravel" as Tony Bennett or Sinatra did with their voices during their middle seventies. Both of course unsurpassed artistes, too. Do you think Bing perhaps sounded stronger on the BBC recordings he also made in London, just three days before his death? Welcome by the way, Stepo to the forum.
Last edited by Ian Kerstein (19/6/2024 9:49 pm)
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Strangely enough Bing did sound stronger on the BBC recordings also the version of "April Showers" on "Seasons" was better than the earlier version on "Songs I Wish I Had Sung Before Now".
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Yes, I'm of the same view.
A few years ago, I played both sets of recordings to my late wife (a trained nurse) to see which she thought were the strongest performances. She chose the later BBC set. When I informed her Bing recorded them just three days before died, she was most surprised but then responded that it's quite usual in many cases for people to have a final strong and sudden burst of autumnal sunshine just prior to death.
I remember in particular, how impressed she was with Bing's force on "Feels Good, Feels Right". I'm just listening to both versions of "The Summer Wind" from each session and am having difficulty in deciding which is the best, all ways round. I think I'm currently (just to contradict myself!) favouring the "Seasons" version. I think it's because I'm finding that version a little less forced and more intimate. Plus, the sonics in a perhaps a more attuned studio, seem to present Bing's voice a little better and bring it further forward on this particular recording.
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With regard to the 1956 and 1977 versions of April Showers. Again, I could not agree with you more, Stepo. The jollier arrangement of the former, along with its chirpy chorus work and Bing's less emotionally halting performance is another world away from his "Seasons" rendition. A really mature, beautifully interpreted classic - with a superbly empathetic arrangement to boot. Thank goodness for Ken Barnes for providing such wonderful gems in those final handful of Bing's years.
Last edited by Ian Kerstein (20/6/2024 8:57 pm)
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Another thing regarding "April Showers" i was used to hearing Al Jolson's definitive 1945 recording of the song that when one hears backing vocals on another version one feels it spoils the recording anyway the song belonged to Al Jolson anyway.
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Yes, the song will always be Jolson's, won't it? Another artiste who as with Bing during his final years, basked in a wonderful recorded Indian Summer with, in his case, those superb Decca recordings containing that definitive 1945 recording of April Showers. I've just loaded into my player, the first CD of Sepia's beautifully remastered 2019 triple set of "Al Jolson - The Decca Years 1945-1950", from which April Showers is the second track. Yes - to my ears, too, it will always remain the gold standard version. The strong violins, its powerful but unfussy arrangement and Jolson's deeply resonant vocals, makes this a classic.
I have often wondered on Bing's Season's recording, if his beautifully light and sensitive whistling towards its end, was a general nod towards Jolson? Or just something that seemed to be naturally appropriate?
I'm sure many of us will be familiar with this?
Last edited by Ian Kerstein (24/6/2024 7:03 pm)
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"April Showers" by Al Jolson the 1945 version was the other side of "Swanee" another song Bing later recorded , it was released as a tie in with the biopic of George Gershwin "Rapsody In Blue" in which Jolson appeared although the film flopped the net year "The Jolson Story" was released and Jolson was back on top again.
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It's off the subject but has anyone heard the Margaret Whiting version of "April Showers"? It ranks right up there with Jolson and Bing's version.