THE BING CROSBY NEWS ARCHIVE
This is a one stop place to find news and stories about the greatest singer of all-time, Bing Crosby. From his days with Paul Whiteman to his final performances in 1977, we will examine this remarkable entertainer's life and times!
Monday, April 5, 2021
FLASHBACK: 1977
Monday, March 22, 2021
GUEST REVIEWER: THE ROAD TO RIO
Here is the return of Bruce Kogan as a guest review for one of the best Road movies ever released...
Another journey with Bob, Bing, and Dotty, this time the boys are escaping the law and a couple of shotgun wielding fathers in Bing's case. They stowaway on a boat bound for Rio De Janeiro and they meet damsel in distress Dotty with her "aunt" Gale Sondergaard and her two henchmen Frank Faylen and Joseph Vitale. Dragon lady Gale has been hypnotizing Dottie to force her into a marriage so that her inheritance can be swindled.
The Road pictures always had a usual pattern of songs. A ballad for Crosby, a ballad for Lamour, and some patter songs for Crosby and Hope. Crosby sings one of his nicest ballads with But Beautiful. Hope and Crosby do Appalachicola, Fla and Dottie does an unforgettable version of Experience accompanied by Hope playing a bubble blowing trumpet.
Bing Crosby's most frequent singing partners were the Andrews Sisters on record. They did enough material to fill more than three of those old fashioned vinyl LPs. But their only appearance in a movie with Bing is here and they sing You Don't Have To Know The Language with him as an extra treat.
Monday, March 8, 2021
BING'S DISCOGRAPHY: August 8, 1934
Here is a new feature where I spotlight an aspect of Bing's vast record career. This time around I am spotlighting August 8, 1934 - which marked Bing's first sessions with the newly created Decca label...
Date: 8 August 1934
Location: 5505 Melrose Avenue. Hollywood, Los Angeles, CalifLabel: DECCA (US)
a. DLA6-A I Love You Truly - 3:04(Carrie Jacobs Bond)
Bing Crosby (voc), Georgie Stoll and his Orchestra (orc)
JONZO (UK) CDJZCD-15 — THE CHRONOLOGICAL BING CROSBY VOLUME 15 (1997)
AVID (UK) CDAMSC 633 — BING CROSBY - YOU AND THE NIGHT AND THE MUSIC (1998)
b. DLA6-B I Love You Truly - 3:07(Carrie Jacobs Bond)
Bing Crosby (voc), Georgie Stoll and his Orchestra (orc)
ASV - LIVING ERA (UK) CDCD AJA 5043 — BING CROSBY - HERE LIES LOVE (1990)
JONZO (UK) CDJZCD-15 — THE CHRONOLOGICAL BING CROSBY VOLUME 15 (1997)
c. DLA7-A Just A Wearyin' For You - 3:13(Frank Stanton, Carrie Jacobs Bond)
Bing Crosby (voc), Georgie Stoll and his Orchestra (orc)
JONZO (UK) CDJZCD-15 — THE CHRONOLOGICAL BING CROSBY VOLUME 15 (1997)
d. DLA7-B Just A Wearyin' For You - 3:16(Frank Stanton, Carrie Jacobs Bond)
Bing Crosby (voc), Georgie Stoll and his Orchestra (orc)
ASV - LIVING ERA (UK) CDCD AJA 5043 — BING CROSBY - HERE LIES LOVE (1990)
JONZO (UK) CDJZCD-15 — THE CHRONOLOGICAL BING CROSBY VOLUME 15 (1997)
e. DLA8-A Let Me Call You Sweetheart - 3:11(Beth Slater Whitson, Leo Friedman)
Bing Crosby (voc), Georgie Stoll and his Orchestra (orc), Joe Sullivan (pno)
ASV - LIVING ERA (UK) CDCD AJA 5043 — BING CROSBY - HERE LIES LOVE (1990)
AVID (UK) CDAVC 535 — THE IMMORTAL BING CROSBY (1994)
JONZO (UK) CDJZCD-15 — THE CHRONOLOGICAL BING CROSBY VOLUME 15 (1997)
f. DLA6-B Let Me Call You Sweetheart - 3:04(Beth Slater Whitson, Leo Friedman)
Bing Crosby (voc), Georgie Stoll and his Orchestra (orc), Joe Sullivan (pno)
SEPIA (UK) CDSEPIA 1296 — BING CROSBY - GOOD AND RARE VOLUME 3 (2016)
g. DLA9-A Someday Sweetheart - 3:13(John C Spikes, Benjamin Spikes)
Bing Crosby (voc), Georgie Stoll and his Orchestra (orc), Joe Sullivan (pno)
ABC RECORDS (Aus) CD836 172-2 — BING CROSBY IN DIGITAL STEREO 1927 to 1934 (1986)
BBC (UK) CDCD 648 — BING CROSBY - THE CLASSIC YEARS IN DIGITAL STEREO 1927-1934 (1987)
CONIFER (UK) CDCDHD 123 — BING CROSBY - REMEMBERING 1927-34 (1989)
ASV - LIVING ERA (UK) CDCD AJA 5043 — BING CROSBY - HERE LIES LOVE (1990)
MCA/DECCA/GRP (US) CDGRP 16032 / also GRD 603 — BING CROSBY AND SOME JAZZ FRIENDS (1991)
EMI (Australia) CD1572742 — BING CROSBY - 16 CLASSIC PERFORMANCES (1992)
CHARLY-AFFINITY (UK) CDCD AFS 1022 — THE JAZZIN' BING CROSBY, 1927-1940 Disc 2 (1992)
EPM MUSIQUE CD983002 — BING CROSBY GREATEST HITS 1934 - 1943 (disc 1) (1994)
JONZO (UK) CDJZCD-15 — THE CHRONOLOGICAL BING CROSBY VOLUME 15 (1997)
CASTLE PULSE CDPBXCD 471/2 — BING CROSBY - THE CENTENARY COLLECTION (disc 2) (2003)
METRONOME CDMET CD 2025 — CROSBY CLASSICS - 24 HITS 1931-40 - Classic Years in Digital Stereo (2003)
UNIVERSAL INTERNATIONAL (Japan) CDUCCC 3032 — BING CROSBY WITH JAZZ FRIENDS (2004)
h. DLA6-B Someday Sweetheart - 3:13(John C Spikes, Benjamin Spikes)
Bing Crosby (voc), Georgie Stoll and his Orchestra (orc), Joe Sullivan (pno)
SEPIA (UK) CDSEPIA 1192 — BING CROSBY - THROUGH THE YEARS Volume 10 (2012)
Monday, February 22, 2021
BING AND BANANA ICE CREAM
Monday, February 8, 2021
Monday, January 25, 2021
BING ON FILM: RHYTHM ON THE RIVER - PART TWO
Author Gary Giddins in his second Bing biography “Swinging On A Star-The War Years” seems to enjoy Rhythm On The River, and remarks how the film was a turning point for Bing as an actor in the 1940s. More of Bing’s personality was rolled into his characters. Gary wrote that the movie began as a treatment written in Germany by Billy Wilder (Wilder was an admirer of Bing and directed him in 1948’s The Emperor Waltz). However, Wilder was crushed when Bing brought in his gag writer Barney Dean to punch up the script. In the end, even though Wilder got credit on Rhythm On The River, in later years he denied that he deserved even a writing credit on the film.
I feel the film is pretty much perfect, but there is one scene that bothers me. On Bing’s radio show he is always ribbing his bandleader John Scott Trotter about his weight. In the film, he meets John Scott Trotter in the song publishing office. Although he supposedly just met this famous bandleader, he starts making fun of the bandleader’s weight. If he had just met Trotter, he certainly would not make fun of him. It is a minor scene in the film, but one that has always bothered me. The pairing of Bing with Mary Martin was wonderful. They would appear together in one other film – 1941’s Birth Of The Blues, and they were supposed to make 1942’s Holiday Inn together until Mary got pregnant and had to withdraw from the film. They would go on to appear in numerous radio shows and television specials together. Rhythm On The River is often the forgotten movie in Bing’s filmography, but it is a fun movie to watch. Oscar Levant’s scene stealing moments alone are worth it! Add in a great supporting cast and the genius of Bing Crosby, and you have a wonderful movie...
Friday, January 8, 2021
BING ON FILM: RHYTHM ON THE RIVER - PART ONE
The movie starts out with a successful Broadway songwriter (played brilliantly by Basil Rathbone) talking with his assistant (also played brilliantly by Oscar Levant) about how he had writer’s block and could not write his own songs anymore. For awhile he had been using ghost writers, because since the love of his life “died” he had been unable to write songs. Oscar Levant in his abrasive way reminds Rathbone that his love did not “die”. She ran out on Rathbone, got married, and just “got fat”. Rathbone uses this as an excuse not to write as well as to make others feel sorry for him. Bing Crosby is the melody ghost writer for Rathbone, who has little ambition to be a songwriter. Bing just wants to run a catfish boat. When Rathbone’s ghost lyricist writer dies, Basil finds a fan letter that an upcoming poet (Mary Martin) has written him, and he gets her to write lyrics for him. He has a deadline in three weeks to write the score for his next musical. Bing had completed the music, but Mary Martin was having trouble writing the lyrics. In her boarding house a band had taken up residence (a band led by Wingy Manone), and all they played was the “Tiger Rag”. So, Basil not thinking, sends Mary Martin up to Bing’s uncle’s inn to relax. Guess who is also there but Bing himself!
At first Bing and Mary Martin clash. Mary thinks Bing has absolutely no ambition. Well, she is partially right but discovers Bing writes beautiful melodies. Together, in about two minutes they write a song (Only Forever). Bing begins to fall for Mary, but when he starts to sing a song that Mary thought Basil Rathbone wrote, she thinks Bing is a music thief, and she heads back to New York to confront Rathbone. Bing does the same thing, and they are surprised to find each other both in Rathbone’s office and realizes that Rathbone has been playing them both. He gives them a sob story about his love dying, and again Oscar Levant plainly tells them that she “just got fat”. Bing and Mary have fallen in love now, and they decide to go off on their own as a songwriting team. However, the public thinks that they are stealing from Basil Rathbone because the music sounds so much alike. They go to one song publisher after another. Finally, they go to one last one (played briefly by William Frawley), and he does not want their song but he likes Mary’s singing, and he wants her for nightclub work. At first Mary refuses. Broke, Bing gives Basil the song Only Forever, which he wrote with Mary Martin as security for him to write the score. Being the the type of man Rathbone was in the movie, when his Broadway backers want a sample of the score he is writing, he gives them Only Forever, which was not for him to publish. Bing and Mary confront Basil Rathbone, and Basil decides to do the right thing and although he does not admit to the public that they were his ghost writers, he tells everyone that they are his new proteges. Oscar Levant has a great line when Basil is announcing it and says, “He would stand up at his own funeral to get applause”. The film ends with Bing and Mary being announced as song writers as well as professing their love for each other and plans to marry...
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
BING AND SCOTCH TAPE
Saturday, December 19, 2020
Monday, December 14, 2020
NEW CD: BING CROSBY - CHESTERFIELD RADIO TIME
A companion set to the Philco Radio Time release (SEPIA 1353), the songs on this 2 CD set are from the Chesterfield radio series and largely drawn from hits by other artists. Most are new to CD including duets with Perry Como, Dinah Shore, Fred Astaire, Bob Hope, Patti Page etc...
1. CHESTERFIELD INTRO
2. A COCKEYED OPTIMIST
3. MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE
4. I'VE GOT A LOVELY BUNCH OF COCONUTS
5. MARTA
6. CANDY AND CAKE
7. MUSIC! MUSIC! MUSIC!
8. A DREAM IS A WISH YOUR HEART MAKES with Perry Como
9. DEAR OLD GIRL with Perry Como & Arthur Godfrey
10. I'VE GOT THE WORLD ON A STRING with Mildred Bailey
11. WITH MY EYES WIDE OPEN I'M DREAMING
12. OLD FOLKS AT HOME with Lindsay Crosby
13. IF I KNEW YOU WERE COMIN' I'D'VE BAKED A CAKE with Beatrice Lillie
14. IT ISN'T FAIR
15. THE LAMENT OF HOMER TRACY with Fred Allen
16. NEVERTHELESS
17. A BUSHEL AND A PECK with Dinah Shore
18. THE TENNESSEE WALTZ
19. THE THING with Fred Astaire
20. YOU'RE JUST IN LOVE with Toni Arden
21. THE NIGHT IS YOUNG AND YOU'RE SO BEAUTIFUL
22. WHISPERING HOPE with Dorothy Kirsten
23. CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN?
24. MOCKIN' BIRD HILL with Les Paul & Mary Ford
25. IF
26. WOULD I LOVE YOU?
27. I APOLOGIZE
28. THE ROVING KIND with The Cass County Boys
29. ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI with The Cass County Boys
30. WHEN YOU AND I WERE YOUNG, MAGGIE BLUES with Teresa Brewer
CD2
1. DIANE with Tommy Dorsey
2. COME ON-A MY HOUSE
3. JUST ONE MORE CHANCE
4. OVER A BOTTLE OF WINE
5. NEVER BEFORE
6. SILVER ON THE SAGE
7. JUNE IN JANUARY
8. THE MORNING SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN
9. BECAUSE OF YOU
10. THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR THE SUNRISE
11. DOWN YONDER
12. CHESTERFIELD JINGLE with Bob Hope
13. SLOW POKE
14. IF YOU CATCH A LITTLE COLD with Patti Page
15. SIN
16. CHARMAINE
17. LAZY RIVER with The Mills Brothers
18. PLEASE MR. SUN
19. COME WHAT MAY
20. TELL ME WHY
21. THE BLACKSMITH BLUES
22. WITH A SONG IN MY HEART with Helen O'Connell
23. PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
24. I'LL NEVER BE FREE with Kay Starr
25. I WAITED A LITTLE TOO LONG
26. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN
27. AT LAST
28. I'LL WALK ALONE
29. A-ROUND THE CORNER
30. CHESTERFIELD FINALE