1-Too Romantic,2-I'll be Seeing You, 3-Beautiful Girl, 4-Only Forever and5- Pennies From Heaven. Wow! This was hard to do! Happy 110 Bing!!!

How does one choose out of the massive output? Questions of mood and occasion arise, how Bing treats the song, and the general atmosphere created. 

I fear that I must fall back on a rather trite answer - my most liked song is the one I am listening to, closely followed by the one I have just heard. Those are the ones I pick to fit current moods and feelings, the ones that might stir memories or maybe a melody has been running around in my mind and I want to hear it again.

But then there are a few I would not willingly listen to again! Not many, a tiny percentage of the whole. . 




 

No need to be sorry! I think it was Michael Feinstein who said that Bing's speaking voice was 'exquisite'. It certainly seemed to start in his stomach and resonate through his chest. I've read much on this forum about Bing being a rhythm singer, jazz singer ("the first hip white guy") and the perfect duet singer, all of which are true and can be backed up with endless examples, but I believe the overriding appeal lies in Bing's sound; that quality of voice that drives through your heart and makes you feel as though you have received a satisfying, life-extending injection of the world's only worthwhile medicine.

Bing could sing on the edge, which is always exciting ("when she lands in tow-n" - Sweet Georgia Brown) and he could sing in an inticingly intimate tone to draw you in on his secrets ("on the first of May, this is moving day" - Mountain Greenery).

If you put all of these things together, coupled with his myriad output, It's hardly surprising, then, that every Bing admirer should chose 5 favourites different from every other Bing admirer!

Richard mentions that his favourite could easily be the one he is listening to at the time, and there's probably some truth in that for most of us. I also think that Kevin's comments about hearing a record for the first time that stops him in his tracks is also vaild. My first Bing album, bought at the end of 1977, was Seasons. The opening verse to June in January (the booming "and yet it's June") certainly stopped me in my tracks! Likewise the 2nd refrain of Spring Will be a Little Late This Year - the Crosby cry being evident in the phrase 'that music it made in my hea-a-art';  was that the last time the cry was recorded?

If I listed 5 favourites today, I would list 5 other favourites tomorrow. But isn't that one of the appeals of being a Bing admirer?

It's nine years since David Lobosco asked us about our favourite Bing recordings. The mother of Australian columnist Bernard Salt included an unexpected Bing record in her list of favourite songs. Last month Salt's article in our national newspaper The Weekend Australian recalled that after her death two years ago he found her recipe book from the War Years.. When she digressed from recipes she listed her favourite songs, including Bing's 'Sing a Song of Sunbeams'. Was it a favourite of many other Aussies? Probably not. Bing's two records of four songs from East Side of Heaven were not big sellers in this country.