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August 11, 2011

Bing Crosby Archive Now Part of BingCrosby.com!

Bing Crosby

The Bing Crosby Archive series debuted in 2010 as an outlet for the vast film and tape library maintained by Bing Crosby and his family. The initial compact disc releases included long out-of-print albums, new compilations of hitherto unavailable recordings and an album recorded in 1962, but never issued.

Check www.bingcrosby.com and Facebook for announcements of forthcoming releases in The Bing Crosby Archive series and listen to classic Bing Crosby radio shows, newly remastered from the original sources, exclusively on Sirius XM satellite radio.

To see images of the CD covers, visit Bing’s Photo Albums: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.413059448326.209151.44544738326

Bing Sings the Great American Songbook  
This 20-track collection of Bing singing the standards had previously been available exclusively as part of a public broadcasting pledge drive. The high-fidelity recordings hail from Bing’s 1954-56 CBS radio sessions with Buddy Cole & His Trio, who provide an intimate jazz setting ideally suited for these songs and the incomparable Crosby.  Includes: I Want to Be Happy; Manhattan; ‘S Wonderful; Ol’ Man River; You Took Advantage of Me; Button up Your Overcoat; I’ve Got a Crush on You; You Do Something to Me; I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plan; Get Happy; Please Don’t Talk about Me When I’m Gone; Anything Goes; What Is There to Say; I Feel a Song Comin’ On; Cheek to Cheek; The Nearness of You; How About You?; Don’t Get Around Much Anymore; That Old Black Magic; and Almost Like Being in Love. Four tracks are previously unreleased while the remaining 16 tracks made their debut in 2009 on the acclaimed Mosaic Records 7-CD boxed set, The Bing Crosby CBS Radio Recordings 1954-56.

Seasons (Deluxe Edition)
Bing’s final album, originally released in 1977, available on CD for the first time with 13 bonus tracks!  This new deluxe edition features the original twelve tracks plus Bing’s very last recordings, made at a BBC session three days before his death, and five poems recorded for fan clubs but never distributed. Includes from the original release Seasons; On the Very First Day of the Year; June in January; Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year; April Showers; June Is Bustin’ Out All Over; In the Good Old Summertime; Summer Wind; Autumn in New York; September Song; Sleigh Ride, and Yesterday When I Was Young; plus the bonus poems Around the Corner; If; The Singers; Lucy Gray (Solitude); and The Slaves Dream, and the BBC recordings Feels Good, Feels Right; Nevertheless; The Only Way to Go; Summer Wind; The Night Is Young and You’re So Beautiful; There’s Nothing I Haven’t Sung About; As Time Goes By; and Once in a While!

Return to Paradise Islands (Deluxe Edition) 
Bing’s collection of Hawaiian favorites was recorded in 1963 by Frank Sinatra’s Reprise label and is available on CD for the first time. And for this edition a new stereo mix has been created from the original session tapes. Bing is accompanied by the Nelson Riddle Orchestra on Keep Your Eyes on the Hands; Forevermore; Love and Aloha; Beautiful Kahana; The Hukilau Song; The Old Plantation; Lovely Hula Hands; Frangipani Blossom; Farewell My Kane; Adventures in Paradise; Return to Paradise; and Home in Hawaii.  Six bonus tracks include a brief session outtake of Return to Paradise and five previously unissued Hawaiian tracks recorded in 1961 featuring My Little Grass Shack (in Kealakakua, Hawaii); The Cockeyed Mayor of Kaunakakai; Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula; Ukulele Lady; and King’s Serenade.

On the Sentimental Side (Deluxe Edition)
Recorded in 1962 and never released, this collection of popular songs, many dating back to Bing’s boyhood, has been long rumored to exist by Crosby fans, and is now available on CD with five bonus tracks! The original album is all medleys: My Bonnie/The Band Played On; Always/Wishing; Remember/Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet; All Alone/In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree; How Can I Leave Thee/A Bird In a Gilded Cage/The Sidewalks of New York; If I Didn’t Care/Blueberry Hill; Beautiful Dreamer/The Last Rose of Summer; Roll On Silver Moon/Now the Day Is Over; Tom Dooley/The Old Gray Mare; Together/What’ll I Do; Look For the Silver Lining/Say It With Music; and Did You Ever See a Dream Walking/A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody.  The bonus tracks hail from Bing’s 1950s CBS radio shows with Buddy Cole; they include Because; Love’s Old Sweet Song; Smilin’ Through; Whither Thou Goest; and a 1960 take of Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral!

Bing on Broadway 
When it came to interpreting show tunes, Bing had few peers. This new compilation features him singing selections from such legendary Broadway musicals as South Pacific, The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, Can-Can, Anything Goes, My Fair Lady and many others, accompanied by Buddy Cole & His Trio on 17 tracks and John Scott Trotter on two tracks.  Includes Swanee; Carolina in the Morning; Mandy; How Long Has This Been Going On?; My Heart Stood Still; Crazy Rhythm; Ain’t Misbehavin’; Fine and Dandy; But Not for Me; New Sun in the Sky; Taking a Chance on Love; It’s Only a Paper Moon; All Through the Night; Come Rain or Come Shine; A Cockeyed Optimist; It’s All Right with Me; Hey There; Heart; and Get Me to the Church on Time. Two tracks are previously unreleased while the remaining 17 tracks made their debut in 2009 on the acclaimed Mosaic Records 7-CD boxed set, The Bing Crosby CBS Radio Recordings 1954-56.

So Rare: Treasures from the Crosby Archive (2 CD set)
This career-spanning collection of rare and unusual recordings from Bing Crosby’s personal archive includes his first solo radio performance from 1931, some rare private recordings and unknown outtakes as well as the first album appearances of several rare single tracks–many of which are mixed in stereo for the first time!  Includes Just One More Chance and I’m Through with Love from Fifteen Minutes with Bing Crosby; Buckin’ the Wind from a Spanish radio promo disc; Where the Turf Meets the Surf, Del Mar race track’s theme song; Kraft Music Hall performances of Over the Rainbow, As Time Goes By, and Why Don’t You Fall in Love with Me;  I’ll Be Seeing You from a 8/31/44 British broadcast; You’re the Gem State Wonder, Idaho; Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, a 1954 recording for Shriner’s Hospital; My Old Kentucky Home, recorded for the Kentucky Junior Derby; radio performances of What Do You Mean, You Lost Your Dog?; We’re in the Money (The Golddigger’s Song); I Hear Music; I Can’t Get Started; Pledging My Love; Because, and The Yellow Rose of Texas; So Rare from The Ford Road Show; the Columbia singles Straight down the Middle and Tomorrow’s My Lucky Day; first-time stereo appearances of the MGM single The Second Time Around b/w Incurably Romantic; a 1960 private recording of Anthem of the Clams; a stereo TV outtake of Pennies from Heaven; the Reprise singles Far From Home; How Green Was My Valley; Step to the Rear, and What Do We Do with This World; Reprise outtakes of Live a Little and Don’t Let a Good Thing Get Away; unreleased versions of Take a Longer Look and The Human Race from the TV special Goldilocks, and That’s What Life Is All About live from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on March 17, 1976.  34 tracks, 26 previously unreleased!

Bing Sings the Sinatra Songbook
This 18-track collection features Bing singing songs usually associated with his greatest disciple, Frank Sinatra. Among the rarities, a Crosby-Sinatra duet on the medley of Among My Souvenirs/September Song/As Time Goes By; Young at Heart; April in Paris; Imagination; Witchcraft; Where or When; All the Way; You Go to My Head; It Happened in Monterey; and a 2010 remix of Summer Wind, plus High Hopes, an alternate take from the Thoroughly Modern Bing album session; the CD debut of South of the Border from the Songs I Love album; The Lady Is a Tramp; Too Marvelous for Words; I Get a Kick Out of You; Chicago; The Tender Trap; and Love and Marriage. Liner notes by Michael Feinstein.

The Crosby Christmas Sessions
A new compilation of Crosby holiday favorites and rarities includes: White Christmas; It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas; Jingle Bells (slow and fast versions); Deck the Halls/Away in a Manger/O Little Town of Bethlehem/The First Noel; Adeste Fidelis/O Come All Ye Faithful; Here Comes Santa Claus (with Peggy Lee); The Christmas Song; Sleigh Ride; and Silent Night; Bing’s legendary duet with David Bowie on The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth; duets with Frank Sinatra on We Wish You the Merriest  and Go Tell It on the Mountain (both from the 12 Songs of Christmas album); duets with Ella Fitzgerald on Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Silver Bells; the Columbia single Just What I Wanted for Christmas and the Secret of Christmas; the Reprise single White World of Winter; and It’s Christmas Time Again.  

El Senor Bing (Deluxe Edition)
Bing loved Spanish music, and for this 1960 collection, recorded for his own Project label, he was accompanied by none other than the Billy May Orchestra. On CD for the first time, this deluxe edition includes, from the original album: Ramona/Amapola (Pretty Little Poppy); Marta/The Rose in Her Hair; Again/Allez-Vous-En (Go Away); In the Still of the Night/I Could Have Danced All Night; Pagan Love Song/Cuban Love Song; Down Argentine Way/What a Difference a Day Made; Heavenly Night (Cielito Lindo)/My Shawl; Malaguena (at the Crossroads)/Andalucia (The Breeze and I); How High the Moon/Old Devil Moon; and C’est Magnifique/Taking a Chance on Love.  There are six Spanish-flavored bonus tracks from Bing’s 1950s CBS radio sessions with Buddy Cole & His Trio including Papa Loves Mambo; Floras Negras; Solamente Una Vez; No Te Importe Saber (Let Me Love You Tonight); La Borrichita; and In A Little Spanish Town, plus the markedly different mono mix of the original album.

A Southern Memoir (Deluxe Edition) 
This 1975 album of songs inspired by the South was among the rarest items in the Crosby canon, as it was only released in Great Britain. Bonus tracks include alternate versions of On the Alamo; Alabamy Bound; Stars Fell on Alabama; Swanee; and Sleepy Time down South, as well as the unedited version of Georgia on My Mind. Those tracks also appear in their original album versions along with Where the Morning Glories Grow; Carolina in the Morning; Way Down Yonder in New Orleans; Cryin’ for the Carolines; She Is the Sunshine of Virginia; and  Sailing down the Chesapeake Bay. Appearing for the first time ever is Bing’s South Texas Quail Hunting Medley, a private recording from the album sessions on which he substitutes some special lyrics for Galway Bay/Mack the Knife/The Surrey with the Fringe on Top/The Pleasure of Your Company that lampoon, in that ever-so-gentle Crosby way, friends like Phil Harris!  

Bing & Rosie: The Crosby-Clooney Radio Sessions(2 CD set)
This two-CD set presents 59 unreleased tracks taken from Bing’s radio sessions with Rosemary Clooney (The Bing Crosby Show for General Electric, The Ford Road Show and the Crosby-Clooney Show), complete with some charming studio chatter and fidelity that rivals their commercial recordings.  Includes their duets on The Merry-Go-Run-Around; Takes Two to Tango; Chicago Style (two versions); Open up Your Heart (with Bob Hope); South Rampart Street Parade; Something to Remember You By (three versions); You’re Just in Love (two versions); It’s Only a Paper Moon; Easter Parade (two versions); People Will  Say We’re in Love (two versions); Only Forever; a medley featuring These Foolish Things Remind Me of You/We Just Couldn’t Say Goodbye/You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To (complete with flub and pickup take and versions of all three songs by themselves); That’s Amore; The Little Brown Jug; Sweet Genevieve; Shine on Harvest Moon (two versions); Buckle Down Winsocki; Indian Summer; Man (Uh-Huh) and Woman (Uh-Huh); Lily of Laguna – all with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra providing the backing. Buddy Cole’s quartet provides accompaniment for a couple of Ford jingles; Will You Still Be Mine; another version of We Just Couldn’t Say Goodbye; I May Be Wrong; Would You Like to Take a Walk; They Can’t Take That Away from Me; another version of You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To; Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off; Ain’t We Got Fun; Isn’t This a Lovely Day; Let’s Put out the Lights and Go to Sleep; They Say It’s Wonderful; Let’s Take a Walk Around the Block; Don’t Worry (About Tomorrow); Hey, Look Me Over; Anything You Can Do; What Takes My Fancy; Summertime; True Love; It’s Been a Long, Long Time/Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries/Gimme a Little Kiss; Moon over Miami/Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland/There’s a Long, Long Trail; Goodnight My Someone; September Song/As Time Goes By/Till We Meet Again; Any Town Is Paris When You’re Young/Paris in the Spring/April in Paris/The Last Time I Saw Paris; Singin’ in the Rain; a rare promo record for Eastern Products; and the only two solo tracks on the set: Rosie’s You’re in Kentucky Sure as You’re Born and Bing’s This Ole House