Bing Crosby

My father was quite upset when Bing Crosby died. That was in 1977. My father then was about as old as I am now.

But that’s the nature of this, old music, from the 30s and the 40s, and a few hits from the late 50s to sneak it into this collection.

All tracks come from the box set called Bing! His Legendary Years, 1931 – 1957.

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Bing Crosby:

• Where The Blue Of The Night (Turns To The Gold Of The Day) – Nostalgia for a place that surely never existed. The ideal girl lives there. From 1940.
• I Apologize – Not the Ed Ames song.
• Love Is Just Around The Corner – A falling in love song. From 1934.
• Red Sails In The Sunset – Bring her back to me. How quaint. From 1935.
• Silent Night – Bing sings this song like it was written for him. From 1935. Charted again in December, 1957.
• I’m An Old Cow Hand (From The Rio Grande) – This is, I think, by Gene Autry. I did not look it up. From 1933.
• You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby – I could think of so many people to dedicate this to. Bobby Darin covered it, and so did The Dave Clark Five, whose version took me years to find. From 1938.
• Deep In The Heart Of Texas – From 1942. This is a famous song recorded first by Perry Como. I have a version by Duane Eddy
• When My Dreamboat Comes Home – Covered by Fats Domino. From 1942.
• White Christmas – Perhaps the best selling record of all time. The claim has been made. It was released in 1942, originally in the movie Holiday Inn. Later it was in White Christmas. It charted every December for a while, right up until 1962. There were a few exceptions in the early 50s. There are more versions of this than you can shake a stick at; I like The Beach Boys, The Drifters, Otis Redding, Elvis Presley.
• Moonlight Becomes You – Oh my, what a romantic evening this is about. From 1942. A companion piece, perhaps, to Moondance. You’re all dressed up to go dreaming, he sings…
• Pistol Packin’ Mama – By Al Dexter. This is from 1943. Another of those cowboy songs that Bing seemed to like so much.
• Swingin’ On A Star – A childrens’ song, as far as I can tell. From 1943. It was a hit for Big Dee Irwin and Little Eva in 1963.
• Don’t Fence Me In – Another western song. A hit later for Tommy Edwards. From 1944.
• Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive – Very wholesome. Yuck
• Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ra – An Irish lullaby. From 1944. Van Morrison did this on The Last Waltz.
• McNamara’s Band – Music about music, Irish music in this case, though apart from the accent sported by the members of the chorus, there isn’t much Irish about this. From 1945.
• Alexander’s Ragtime Band – More music about music. From 1947. Johnny Ray also did this.
• Galway Bay – More About Ireland. From 1947.
• Dear Hearts And Gentle People – Perry Como did this also, and it was a hit for The Springfields in 1962. It’s kind of dippy, the people he sings about don’t exist. I bet Bing never lived in a small town…
• Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy – From 1950. A hit for Red Foley.
• Sam’s Song – A happy song about a happy song. I don’t know who Sam is. I’ve known a few Sams in my life. From 1950. Duet with brother Gary.
• Harbour Lights – The Platters put this on the charts in the late 50s. This is from 1950.
• Autumn Leaves – A big hit for Roger Williams in 1955, this version has words, as does the one by Nat King Cole. From 1950.
• In The Cool Cool Cool Of The Evening – Duet with Jane Wyman. From 1951.
• Around The World – Seems to have been from the movie Around The World In Eighty Days. This is from the autumn of 1957, and was a hit also for The Fontane Sisters, for Mantovani, and for Victor Young.
• Softly As In The Morning Sunshine – From 1957.