Bing Crosby - Dancing and Reminiscing

And then there is Bing. Like The Osmonds, I've been a fan of Bing from an early age. I remember sitting in front of the TV in the days before cable watching the Hope-Crosby Road pictures. I also remember at that young age walking home from school through the open field behind our house during a snow shower trying to sing like Bing.

My Grandmother gave me this album on cassette when I was in my early 20s and I played it a lot. This is not the old time radio Bing. This is the late 50s Dixieland/big band jazz Bing with his voice in top form and his delivery relaxed and his sense of humor in full view. Gal pal Rosemary Clooney is featured on three songs.

I eventually combined this tape with a few other tapes by Bing that I had with every song on this tape and my faves from the others mixed in. I gave this tape to a friend to enjoy, I still had the songs plus others on one tape so I was happy. When recordable CDs appeared I longed to recreate this tape but my friend lost the original in a house move so I didn't have the tracklist. Once I was on the internet I tried for a long time to find info on this album and I finally found what I was looking for. I had the albums these songs are from so now I could finally hear this in its original form. Comfort food for the soul.

Side One

01 Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella
02 I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter
03 I Can't Get Started*
04 Exactly Like You
05 Down Among the Sheltering Palms
06 You Came A Long Way From St Louis*

Side Two

01 Some Sunny Day
02 Whispering
03 Brazil*
04 Mack the Knife
05 Dream a Little Dream of Me
06 Last Night on the Backporch

* with Rosemary Clooney

Reality Notes

I had been searching and searching for info on this album for as long as I have had access to the internet and it had eluded my google-fu for all that time. A few weeks ago I had a realization as to its source and within a few clicks, there it was. I had assumed that it was a Time-Life release so that is where I concentrated my efforts. I had forgotten the name of the album so I couldn't search by that. I had a memory flashback when I recalled that My grandparents were subscribers to Reader's Digest and sure enough I found it among those.

I used to think that this was a radio show broadcast or something similar but later found that this is a compilation of two albums that were released close together in the late 50s, namely Bing With A Beat (1957) and Fancy Meeting You Here (1958) which was a duet album with Rosemary Clooney. The bulk of the songs came from the former with three songs from the latter. The two albums have a similar production style so the songs blend well with each other. Both albums are great on their own but if you're unfamiliar with the original Croz and are looking for a place to start, this gets my highest recommendation.

Not many people are aware of Bing's contributions to the recording industry. Like George Martin and The Beatles that followed, Bing was at the forefront of pushing recording technology forward. He was there in the early days releasing his first album with Paul Whiteman and his orchestra in 1927. His first record under his name was released in 1937 which was a compilation of previously released singles. In 1940 he released his first album of all new material. His last album was released in 1977 shortly after his passing. Between 1937 and 1966 he released at least one album per year, usually three or more, and only missed releasing product in the years '67, '69, '73 and '74. He was a busy man. Between albums he made movies, did radio shows and TV specials.

Der Bingle passed in 1977 right around the same time we lost Elvis and Marc Bolan.

The cover is the original cover. I could have made a new one but it would have turned out much the same.