Songs I Wish I Had Sung the First Time Around (Decca, 1956 / BCE, 2014)

Here's a review I recently wrote for the U.S. Amazon website and that I have adapted for publication in this website. Although some fans find the arrangements on this album to be a little on the syrupy side, I must admit that I've always admired the work of Jack Pleis, both with Bing and with other singers, such as Johnny Hartman, so perhaps I am a little biased, but I've always considered this one of Bing's best albums of the 1950s.

This is one in a batch of four releases that Bing Crosby Enterprises issued back in November, the other three being the soundtrack of the PBS documentary on Crosby’s life and career, American Masters, a reissue of Some Fine Old Chestnuts with bonus tracks, and the collection of Irving Berlin tunes Bing Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook. This very welcome CD is a deluxe edition of Bing’s 1956 album Songs I Wish I Had Sung the First Time Around (which would be his last for Decca) complete with bonus tracks culled from recordings made for radio broadcasts. I won’t write an in-depth review of the first twelve songs on this CD (the actual Songs I Wish I Had Sung LP) because those tracks were already available on the Sepia Records release Through the Years Volume 9, which originally appeared back in 2012, and which I've reviewed in depth here.

As its title implies, Songs I Wish I Had Sung is a collection of songs carefully chosen by Bing that were hits for other artists and that Crosby wished he’d gotten around to recording before anyone else.

Arranger and conductor Jack Pleis

As Crosby himself states in the original liner notes that he wrote for the album (reprinted in the CD booklet), this project gave him a chance to pay tribute to other singers he admired: “Certainly I have no hope of embellishing these songs,” Bing writes, “nor do I dream of adding luster to the rich nostalgic patina which already surrounds them. Let’s just say it’s my way of paying tribute to the people who introduced and popularized them – people who . . . are particular favorites of mine.” Thus, Crosby sings twelve songs associated with the likes of Al Jolson, Ted Lewis, Louis Armstrong, the Mills Brothers, Nat King Cole, and even crooning rivals of yore such as Russ Columbo, Rudy Vallee, and Frank Sinatra. While not necessarily attempting to improve on the original versions, Crosby does succeed in making these tunes his own, and the album benefits from carefully constructed, mostly unobtrusive arrangements by the somewhat underrated Jack Pleis.



Pianist and organist Buddy Cole

This CD reissue of Songs I Wish I Had Sung also includes ten bonus tracks taken from recordings that Bing made for different radio series between 1951 and 1960, often accompanied by a small group led by pianist Buddy Cole. All but one of these bonus tracks (“Cocktails for Two,” which already appeared on the Mosaic Records 7-CD set of Bing’s CBS Radio recordings) are previously unreleased, and they are interesting in that producer Robert S. Bader attempts to stick to Bing’s idea of featuring songs that Der Bingle might have wished he had sung the first time around. Among them are Maurice Chevalier’s “Thank Heaven for Little Girls,” Dick Haymes’s “You’ll Never Know,” and Louis Armstrong’s “A Kiss to Build a Dream On.” Crosby is joined by the Four Aces on “(The Gang That Sang) Heart of My Heart” and applies his relaxed vocal technique to classics such as “’Deed I Do,” “At Sundown,” and “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans.” From Crosby’s radio show for General Electric come “Lady of Spain” and the lesser-known “Mandy Make Up Your Mind,” the latter a tune associated with Paul Whiteman that shouldn’t be confused with Irving Berlin’s similarly titled “Mandy.” The sound is very good throughout, and Bing’s original liner notes are augmented by an essay by Crosby specialist and radio show host, Arne Fogel, making this the definitive edition of a very enjoyable Crosby concept album.

On this album, Crosby pays tribute to his childhood hero, Al Jolson, among others

On the Sentimental Side (BCE / Collector's Choice, 2010)

Personally, I've never understood the appeal of the singalong records pioneered by producer Mitch Miller, but the truth is that the public was drawn to them in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Of course, in the wake of Miller's singalong success both on record and on television, Bing Crosby recorded his own take on this type of albums, and his efforts were hugely popular as well. One of these projects was shelved and never released, and for many years, collectors believed that either it had never been completed or else it had been lost to history. However, a few years ago, some tapes containing the results of these sessions were located by Crosby archivist Robert Bader and issued in 2010 as On the Sentimental Side.

The liner notes of this CD, written by James Ritz, explain in detail how the tapes were miraculously retrieved and how, after a few obstacles, they were mixed together for release. As it happened, the basic tracks for the album were recorded in London in March of 1962, but Bing didn't contribute his own vocals until June of that year in Los Angeles. For some reason, after the project was abandoned, the instrumental tracks and Bing's vocals were somehow preserved on different tapes and needed to be synched in order to achieve a satisfactory product for release on this CD. The sound, as always, is magnificent, and Bing Crosby Enterprises have done their usual outstanding job, and so now On the Sentimental Side is finally available on a high-quality digipack issue for the delight of all Crosby completists.

Mitch Miller, the singalong pioneer

As for the music, the title doesn't actually imply that the album is made up of sentimental songs, but of tunes that had a sentimental value for Bing, "songs that Bing grew up on and was intimately familiar with as far back as the 'Twenties when his musical career was in its infancy," as Ritz observes. In keeping with the singalong format, the collection contains twelve medleys of songs such as "My Bonnie / The Band Played on," "Beautiful Dreamer / The Last Rose of Summer," and "Look for the Silver Lining / Say It with Music," with Bing in perfect voice and always accompanied by a choir. Some of the tunes ("Tom Dooley / The Old Gray Mare," for instance) have a folkish air, and in my opinion, Bing's interpretations of Irving Berlin ballads like "Always," "Remember," "All Alone," and "What'll I Do" are the highlights of the disc. They would certainly benefit from not having been sung as part of a medley and with the often annoying choir accompaniment, but then this wouldn't be a singalong record, right? The CD also includes five bonus tracks made with Buddy Cole for radio broadcast, which show what a good idea it would have been to record a whole album of this type of material with Cole and no choir. Overall, while this isn't an essential Crosby release, it does have its worthwhile moments, and if you have little kids, like I do, you can always slip it into your CD player and have the little ones sing along with you and Bing—after all, that's what this kind of record is for, isn't it?

TRACKS: My Bonnie - And 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 / Did You Ever See a Dream Walking - A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody / Because / Love's Old Sweet Song / Smilin' Through / Whither Thou Goest / Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral.

Songwriter Irving Berlin was much admired by Bing. Six of his songs appear on this album

Bing Crosby Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook (BCE, 2013)

This is one of the most recent releases by Bing Crosby Enterprises, the other one being Bing's 1953 French-language LP, Le Bing, both of them, as usual, in beautiful digipack presentations and perfect sound. As its title suggests, this CD is a collection of songs written by Johnny Mercer and sung by Bing Crosby. That alone is a good idea, but if we consider that, alongside some classic studio recordings like "I'm an Old Cowhand," "Too Marvelous for Words," and "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby," this album also contains several previously unreleased radio performances, then the disc becomes a necessary purchase for any serious Crosby fan. The radio tracks are culled from Bing's series for Woodbury Soap, Chesterfield, the Kraft Music Hall, and General Electric and include some gems such as "I Thought about You," "Autumn Leaves," "When the World Was Young," "And the Angels Sing," "Something's Gotta Give," and two fine versions of one of my favorite Mercer songs, "P.S. I Love You," one from 1934 and the other from 1953. This songbook also features some very enjoyable duets with the Andrews Sisters ("Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive"), Louis Armstrong ("Lazy Bones," with Jack Teagarden on trombone), and Mercer himself (their Decca recording of "Mr. Meadowlark"). The beautiful packaging with several pictures, the brief notes by Mercer collector, Howard E. Green, the wealth of unreleased material, and of course, the wonderful songs by Mercer that come alive in Bing's interpretations, make this new offering from Bing Crosby Enterprises a must for Crosby aficionados and appreciators of the Great American Songbook alike. Upon the release of the CD, I published a more in-depth review on the Amazon website, which you can read here.

TRACKS: P.S. I Love You (1934) / I'm an Old Cowhand / Too Marvelous for Words / You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby / Day In, Day Out / I Thought about You / Mister Meadowlark (with Johnny Mercer) / Skylark / Blues in the Night / That Old Black Magic / On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe / Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive (with the Andrews Sisters) / Lazy Bones (with Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden) / Autumn Leaves / In the Cool, Cool. Cool of the Evening / Jamboree Jones / When the World Was You (Ah, the Apple Trees) / Glow Worm / Jeepers Creepers / And the Angels Sing / Something's Gotta Give / P.S. I Love You (1953)

Johnny Mercer and Bing on the radio