BING'S DISCOGRAPHY: JULY 27, 1940

It is just amazing how many records Bing Crosby made. It is amazing to me because Bing was more than just a recording star. He made movies and radio shows - which take up a lot of time. Here is what Bing was recording for Decca on July 27, 1940...

Date: 7/27/40
Location: Los Angeles, Calif
Label: DECCA (US)

Bing Crosby (voc), John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra (orc)
a. DLA2072-A Legend Of Old California (Johnny Mercer, Harry Warren) - 3:03

HALLMARK (UK) CD306722 — BING SINGS COUNTRY (1997)

b. DLA2073-A Please (Leo Robin, Ralph Rainger) - 3:02
HMV (UK) CD5389522 — ALL TIME GREATS: BING CROSBY - Disc 2 (2019)
MARKS & SPENCER (UK) CDMS 4811 — BING CROSBY - THE COLLECTION (1999)
MCA (UK) CDDMCTV 3 — BING CROSBY - 20 GOLDEN GREATS (1990)
READER'S DIGEST CDRDCD 921 — THE VERY BEST OF BING CROSBY (CD1 - It's Easy to Remember) (1995)
READER'S DIGEST CDRB7-029-3 — BING CROSBY - HIS GREATEST HITS AND FINEST PERFORMANCES (disc 3) (1997)

c. DLA2074-A You Are The One (Carroll Carroll, John Scott Trotter) - 2:45
AVID (UK) CDAMSC 633 — BING CROSBY - YOU AND THE NIGHT AND THE MUSIC (1998)

d. DLA2075-A Prairieland Lullaby (Frank Loesser, Victor Young) - 3:05
HALLMARK (UK) CD306722 — BING SINGS COUNTRY (1997)
JASMINE (UK) CDJASMCD 3557 — BING CROSBY - COWBOY COUNTRY CROSBY STYLE (2003)

THE ROAD TO RIO: A 1948 REVIEW

Here is a review of the latest Road trip at the time - The Road To Rio. This was published in the NY Times on February 19, 1948...

With Bing Crosby and Bob Hope on the tramp again in "Road to Rio," recklessly scattering jokes and rescuing perennial girl friend Dorothy Lamour from dangerous hypnotic trances, there's fun to be had at the Paramount. Maybe this is not the funniest picture ever made; maybe it is not even quite as rewarding as some of those earlier journeys, but there are patches in this crazy quilt that are as good and, perhaps, even better than anything the boys have done before. 

They are traversing more of a rollercoaster highway than usual this time and so there are some tedious uphill pulls when the huffing and puffing is excessive and the results negligible. However, when they reach the top "Road to Rio" is irresistible.Hope reluctantly doing a highwire bicycle act and wrecking a carnival in the process, or being unceremoniously hung up as a side of ham in a ship's refrigerator, or blowing musical bubbles out of a trumpet in a Rio de Janeiro night club may sound silly in cold print, but it's the kind of stuff that gets laughs on the screen. 

And, naturally, Crosby, the smoothest straight man in the business today, is in there all the time getting situations started and feeding jokes to his pal when he doesn't actually steal the play by adding a snapper to a snapper.This mad caper is climaxed by a wild round of excitement at an ultra-lavish wedding party, when the boys bravely move in to rescue the dazed Miss Lamour from being duped into marriage by swindlers posing as friends. If this synopsis sounds sketchy, it's only because the story doesn't matter anyway. For the script merely serves as a means for getting a pair of impecunious musicians driven out of one state after another by irate husbands and boy friends until they are cornered, forced to stowaway on a Rio bound steamer and meet up with a beautiful senorita and her problems. All that matters really is that "Road to Rio" is fairly well loaded with laughs...

AUDIO ASPIRIN: AT MY TIME OF LIFE

AT MY TIME OF LIFE

At My Time of Life is a 1976 vinyl album recorded by Bing  for United Artists, mostly at Chappells Studios in London in February 1975. He was accompanied by Pete Moore and his Orchestra.

The songs from the album were included on a 3-CD set called Bing Crosby – The Complete United Artists Sessions issued by EMI Records (7243 59808 2 4) in 1997. This included several previously unreleased alternate takes and studio chat.

In January 1974, Crosby was seriously ill and after two weeks of tests, he underwent three and a half hours of major surgery. Two-fifths of his left lung and an abscess the size of a small orange were removed. The tumor was a rare fungus called nocardia. There were concerns initially that he would not be able to sing again and his recuperation took many months. Record producer, Ken Barnes, later heard that Bing was thinking of recording again and he quickly presented his credentials and eventually met Crosby on September 9, 1974 at the singer’s home. Arrangements were soon made for two albums to be made in London. Bing flew to London on February 18, 1975 and that afternoon visited the Chappells recording studio. He was shown the vocal booth where he would be singing but said that he did not want to work in that way. He wanted to be with the band and said, “I didn’t come seven thousand miles to sing to a pane of glass.” This worried sound engineer John Timperley who was concerned about separation problems because of the large orchestra which was to be used. Crosby was adamant however and, in the event, he successfully overcame the problems of recording in front of a full orchestra.

Over a period of eight days, Crosby, in six sessions, recorded twenty five tracks. Eleven of the tracks were issued on an LP called That's What Life Is All About. Thirteen, with the addition of the title song to be recorded in 1976, were issued on this album and the final recording was included with eleven others made in 1976 and issued on an LP called Beautiful Memories.

The UK magazine The Gramophone reviewed the album saying: "The arrival for review of “At My Time of Life” by Bing Crosby coincided with his outstanding triumph at the London Palladium heading a bill shared by members of his family and Rosemary Clooney…Crosby brings his special brand of affable authority to all fourteen numbers, aided and embellished by Pete Moore’s arrangements and orchestrations which incorporate some deft modern touches without jeopardizing the essential nostalgia of much of this material. The sympathetic and totally aware production work of Ken Barnes also asserts itself in a practical but unobtrusive fashion, and this album is a genuine piece of popular music history of inestimable value...

SOURCE

VIDEO: BING CROSBY - THE HOLLYWOOD YEARS episode 29