Crosby Fan World / Bing's favorite song

**Posted by Pantelis Kavouras** 27/9/2026 9:15 am

Does anyone know which was Bing's favorite song or recording?

We have talked about his Desert Island Discs, but in his life he had declared other songs as his all-time favorites.
I have two songs on my mind that in different sources are referred to as his favorites, but I would like to hear your thoughts first.

**Posted by Aaron Tickner** 27/9/2026 9:52 am

Do you mean other people's recordings or his own?

Bing did an interview for 3AW - a Melbourne radio station on 16 June 1969. Although he has also said elsewhere, I can vouch with my own ears that he declared My Isle of Golden Dreams (DLA 1775-A) as being a favourite. He felt he was vocally at his best on that disc.

Last edited by Aaron Tickner (28/9/2026 11:09 am)

**Posted by Pantelis Kavouras** 27/9/2026 1:36 pm

Yes, My Isle of Golden Dreams was the one that I had also in mind as his favorite, yet while I heard again the musical autobiography set he mentioned Star Dust as being his favorite in the intro.

**Posted by Aaron Tickner** 28/9/2026 11:18 am

Even though the Musical Autobiography set was scripted, I do believe Bing meant what he said about Star Dust. I'm sure this statement is supported somewhere else. Didn't he mention Star Dust on one of the Parkinson interviews???

Star Dust may well have been Bing's favourite song but that does not mean it was his favourite performance. On the other hand, he felt his performance of My Isle of Golden Dreams was good, but that doesn't mean he liked the song.

**Posted by Pantelis Kavouras** 28/9/2026 1:00 pm

Very nice points.
Star Dust is (I read it somewhere) the song that has the more different recordings, it is sung by hundreds of artists and it is indeed a masterpiece.

My Isle of Golden Dream seems as you pointed out to be his favorite of his own recordings, although it is great, it seems an odd choice as an all time favorite.

Of course neither of them was selected for his Dessert Island discs which seems strange.

Bing's version of Star Dust (although I agree with you Aaron that he must have been talking about the song and his recording) is my favorite, Bing is in fine vocal shape and gives it a sublime treatment. This alongside Louis Armstrong's version must be the best.

Last edited by Pantelis Kavouras (28/9/2026 1:02 pm)

**Posted by Blonde56** 28/9/2026 2:50 pm

I remember Bing saying Stardust was his favorite. Don't remember what interview I was watching at the time. I know I am one a a very few who does not like the song Stardust. I just never liked the flow of the melody. It just did not do anything for me and I thought Bing sang many other songs much better than he sang Stardust. But hey, I always had different taste from the majority. Anyway, didn't he also mention once liking Ghost Riders in the Sky? He probably had many favorites. Great topic Pantelis!

**Posted by Pantelis Kavouras** 28/9/2026 7:43 pm

Glad you liked the thread Carmela!

I think Nathaniel Crosby and not Bing named Ghost Riders in the Sky as his favorite at some point.

**Posted by David Lobosco** 28/9/2026 11:29 pm

I don't know if Bing Crosby really had a favorite song. Like so many of us, it depended on his mood, etc. I have a lot of favorite songs, but my all-time favorite song Bing never recorded. I think he sang a snippet of it on this radio show - Gershwin's "Someone To Watch Over Me".

**Posted by Malcolm Macfarlane** 29/9/2026 6:54 am

SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME11 Feb. 1948 Rad. “Philco Radio Time”.Joe Venuti; violin, Oscar Levant; piano, John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra

**Posted by Ian Kerstein** 14/10/2026 5:55 pm

Here's a link to the spoken and sung portion of his "Musical Autobiography" as mentioned by Aaron, Pantelis and Carmela where Bing seems to definitively declare "Stardust" as his favourite song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR3Q51ZF2qg

I am fond of this song but please don't hate me when I say my favourite version is Nat "King" Cole's recording from his 1957 album, "Love is the Thing" with all those luscious Gordon Jenkins strings. "When I Fall in Love" is the album's opening track.

However, Bing mentioned in his first interview with Michael Parkinson of the songs he had recorded that "White Christmas" was his favourite. Bing's answer was a little more detailed when you hear him actually say this.

For what it's worth, my favourite song of all is "Let's Face the Music and Dance". Can anyone in Bingland tell me if Mr Crosby recorded this? I've yet to hear a version by him.

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (15/10/2026 6:10 am)

**Posted by STEPO** 14/10/2026 8:21 pm

I agree no disrespect to Bing but my favourite version is Nat "King "Cole's as well, Bing sang it well in 1931 and 1939 but Nat really nailed the song as the definitive version when he recorded it in late 1956 , the same goes for his version of "Lush Life".

**Posted by Aaron Tickner** 14/10/2026 10:53 pm

STAR DUST:

Absolutely agree - Nat's version is sublime.

I've always loved Louis Armstrong's version too.

For an instrumental, try Clifford Brown with Strings. Beautiful trumpet solo.

Last edited by Aaron Tickner (14/10/2026 10:54 pm)

**Posted by Ian Kerstein** 14/10/2026 11:17 pm

Isn't it strange how certain songs seem to not just fit a singer's style but also their voice and perhaps even the shape of their mouth? I know much of this also has to do with the musical arrangement and how familiar we are with a particular version. I first heard Stardust being sung (or was it narrated?) by its writer Hoagy Carmichael and thought it unbeatable - until I heard Nat Cole's version. Rather like Sinatra's version of "I've Got You Under My Skin, Bing's "Temptation", Louis Armstrong's "We Have all the Time in the World" or Ella's "Every Time We Say Goodbye", Nat put his own very special stamp on this one. Yes, his "Lush Life", too - and I would add so many more of his as definitive. "Let There Be Love" and "Too Young" to name two.

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (14/10/2026 11:18 pm)

**Posted by Colin Bratkovich** 15/10/2026 5:05 am

Bing's 1931 version of STARDUST found him in his prime as a vocalist.More so HE defined the song,ALL other versions after him looked to HIS masterpiece. Chick Bullock's 1932 version was very good,close in style.Still a great record. Later versions by.Sinatra,Cole, and even Bing's 2nd (1939) version do not even come close./

**Posted by Ian Kerstein** 15/10/2026 6:02 am

Colin Bratkovich wrote:
Bing's 1931 version of STARDUST found him in his prime as a vocalist.More so HE defined the song,ALL other versions after him looked to HIS masterpiece. Chick Bullock's 1932 version was very good,close in style.Still a great record. Later versions by.Sinatra,Cole, and even Bing's 2nd (1939) version do not even come close./

Colin, this is where we will have to respectfully disagree as we did over Aznavour and Bing's treatments of "Yesterday When I was Young" which I felt fell in Bing's favour.

Bing was indeed in his vocal prime and his 1931 version of Stardust is magical. The physical strength of his vocals and interpretation are riveting. The arrangement and gentle rhythm very stirring but at the same time, reflective.

However, due to what I perceive as Nat Cole's far more natural, gentle and even more understated, delicately nuanced interpretation (and surely he would indeed have taken many cues from Bing), Cole's increased lightness of touch and slower, deeper treatment of this great ballad seems to my ears to serve the plaintiveness and mood of the song even greater. Here, Bing defined, Nat refined.

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (15/10/2026 6:07 am)

**Posted by Pantelis Kavouras** 15/10/2026 10:32 am

To my ears both versions are masterpieces. Each for its own reasons.

For me also the 1931 Crosby version is the best due to the purity of the vocal strenght and the palpable tension and melancholism that this recording had. Cole's refined version as you so eloquently put it Ian is as you said "slower, deeper" yet i prefer the tensier Crosby record.

Another version that I adore is the Louis Armstrong one. He had such warmth, sentiment and power in it.
There is good reason that Stardust is considered one of the most recorded songs in history, each giant of the industry was able to take something different out of the tune.

**Posted by Ian Kerstein** 16/10/2026 1:19 am

Thank you as always for your kind word, Pantelis.
You are completely correct in pointing out the tension in Bing's version, which I had not fully appreciated.
It's always so interesting to learn everyone's preferences over song versions and Stardust is indeed a masterpiece. I'd never heard Louis' version before and it was wonderful. As you've said, he really (as he always did with everything) gave such a warm and powerful reading of the song with the huge benefit of his and his band's incredible playing either side.Stardust seems to have such a modern, minimalist feel to it, too. This was the very first version of it I ever heard - performed by the composer himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCKMFcqxmdo

**Posted by Pantelis Kavouras** 16/10/2026 3:41 pm

This was the first time I heard it sung by its composer.
I am startled, by the tension that arrives from the plain nature of its delivery.
It is a poem (as all great love songs) !

**Posted by Colin Bratkovich** 16/10/2026 5:59 pm

Pantelis / I agree,I should have brought up Louis Armstrong's contemporary version on Okeh-41530- great,You may look for the Chick Bullock version on Perfect-11326,with a Crosby croon and a Hawaiian guitar-also very good.There is also the contemporary (female) version as by Connie Boswell (Boswell Sisters) on Brunswick-20100-interesting..After this early 1930s period,styles changed .I prefer STARDUST vocals and background from this period,with Bings Brunswick version still tops.

**Posted by Ian Kerstein** 17/10/2026 4:29 am

... and here's Hoagy, again with him actually singing Bing's favourite song.
I'm assuming it is also he on the piano.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRsLWsCGMDE&list=PLZSbX-Vx1XeY9r_E-0qhdSi2MDBhHAMvs

During our UK Covid lockdown periods, I took great delight in ordering and listening to instrumental but mostly singing albums/collections made by some other composers and lyricists of The Great American Songbook era. I remember Sammy Cahn coming off particularly well and Cole Porter's collection revealing himself to sounding a little potentially similar to author Truman Capote had he ever dared to record.

Out of all those composers I purchased and heard, George Gershwin I found to be the most impressive musician and Johnny Mercer the songwriter who I felt could have made a successful singer in his own right. For so long I've loved the "Two of a KInd" album he recorded with Bobby Darin - and of course the tracks he duetted with Bing, right up untl the mid-1970's.I so wish during that period they could have made a full album together.

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (25/10/2026 5:20 am)

**Posted by Ian Kerstein** 17/10/2026 5:44 am

By the way, talking of favourites and near-favourites, would anyone agree that Bing, among his own recordings would have had a particular soft spot for the songs, "True Love Love" and "The Second Time Around"? Although Sinatra's more dramatically urgent version was very good, I felt Bing's recording of the latter was far superior as it came across as far more gentle, warmer, emotionally sincere and reflective. The arrangement seemed far more sympathetic, too.

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (17/10/2026 6:19 am)