Personnel:
Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney (vcl), Buddy Bregman, Billy May (arr, dir), Harry Edison, Pete Candoli (tp), Frank Rosolino, Si Zentner (tb), Bud Shank (as), Buddy Collette (ts), Paul Smith (p), Laurindo Almeida, Barney Kessel, Joe Mondragon (b), Alvin Stoller (d)
Reference: EJA043
Bar code: 8436019580431
This CD compiles two of legendary entertainer Bing Crosbys jazz-oriented albums in their entirety: "Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings" (1956), and "Fancy Meeting You Here" (1958).
The former LP features Buddy Bregmans orchestra, while the latter showcases Crosby in a vocal duo with Rosemary Clooney, accompanied by Billy Mays orchestra. Both LPs feature some of the finest jazz figures of the West Coast, and are among a very limited number of jazz recordings by Crosby, with respect to both material and accompaniment.
Tracklisting:
01. THE SONG IS YOU (3:55)
02. MOUNTAIN GREENERY (3:38)
03. CHEEK TO CHEEK (4:02)
04. DEED I DO (2:51)
05. HEAT WAVE (3:01)
06. BLUE ROOM (2:23)
07. HAVE YOU MET MISS JONES? (2:30)
08. IVE GOT FIVE DOLLARS (3:15)
09. THEY ALL LAUGHED (2:42)
10. NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT (2:36)
11. SEPTEMBER IN THE RAIN (2:58)
12. JEEPERS CREEPERS (2:34)
13. FANCY MEETING YOU HERE (2:31)
14. (ID LIKE TO BE) ON A SLOW BOAT TO CHINA (2:40)
15. I CANT GET STARTED 3:50 16 HINDUSTAN (2:53)
17. IT HAPPENED IN MONTEREY (2:44)
18. YOU CAME A LONG WAY FROM ST. LOUIS (3:06)
19. LOVE WONT LET YOU GET AWAY (2:03)
20. HOW ABOUT YOU (3:14)
21. BRAZIL (3:31)
22. ISLE OF CAPRI (2:40)
23. SAY SI SI (PARA VIGO ME VOY) (2:22)
24. CALCUTTA (2:55)
25. LOVE WONT LET YOU GET AWAY (3:34)
26. MACK THE KNIFE (3:53) (*) Bonus Track
Total time: 78:35 min.
Tracks #1-12 from "Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings" (Verve MGV 2020).
Tracks #13-25 from Bing Crosby-Rosemanry Clooney: "Fancy Meeting You Here" (RCA LSP 1854).
Personnel on "Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings":
Bing Crosby (vcl), Harry Sweets Edison, Pete Candoli (tp), Frank Rosolino (tb), Herb Geller, Bud Shank (as), Bob Cooper, Ted Nash (ts), Paul Smith (p), Barney Kessel (g), Joe Mondragon (b) and Alvin Stoller (d). Buddy Bregman (arr, cond). Recorded in Hollywood, June 11 & 12, 1956.
Personnel on "Fancy Meeting You Here":
Bing Crosby, Rosemanry Clooney (vcl), Pete Candoli, Conrad Gozzo (tp), Si Zentner, Murray McEachern (tb), Ted Nash, Buddy Collette (sax), Buddy Cole (p), Barney Kessel, Laurindo Almeida (g), Joe Mondragon (b) and Alvin Stoller (d). Billy May (arr, cond). Recorded in Hollywood, July 28, and August 7 & 11, 1958.
Bonus track: Bing Crosby with Bob Scobey (tp, ldr) & His Frisco Jazz Band, featuring Ralph Sutton (p), Red Callender (b) and Nick Fatool (d). Recorded in Los Angeles, on February 20, 1957.
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Notes:
-Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings
"In early 1956, Bing Crosby ended the two long-term company affiliations that had defined his career for more than 20 years, leaving his exclusive associations with Paramount Pictures and Decca Records. Thereafter, he made movies and records on a freelance basis. The immediate results were more felicitous for his film work than his recording, as he went to MGM for the successful movie High Society. As a recording artist, in rapid succession he cut the movie soundtrack for Capitol (January-February); a new album for Decca, Songs I Wish I Had Sung (The First Time Around) (April); and a new album for Verve, Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings (June). The third was the least likely. Twenty-five-year-old Buddy Bregman, a friend of Crosby's son Gary, had recently been appointed an A&R executive at the fledgling Verve. His idea for Crosby was to copy the formula of recent Nelson Riddle-arranged Frank Sinatra successes such as Songs for Swingin' Lovers -- take a collection of inter-war standards and give them punchy big-band arrangements. The approach was well-suited to the aggressive Sinatra, who wasn't shy about editing the arrangements himself, but singularly inappropriate to the affable Crosby, who left everything to his arranger/conductor. The 12 songs, none of which Crosby had released commercially before, were great standards from the likes of Kern, Rodgers and Hart, Berlin, and Gershwin, and Crosby turned in typically witty interpretations. But Bregman's repetitive, overly busy arrangements, full of loud, sudden horn blats and splats, forced the singer to compete for attention and occasionally smothered him completely. Crosby was looking for a way back to commercial appeal with this experiment. But the three albums were all released within a period of weeks in August and September, and only the film soundtrack got a fair hearing and became a hit."
William Ruhlmann -All Music Guide
-Fancy Meeting You Here
"Rosemary Clooney's full-length collaboration with Bing Crosby and Billy May should've resulted in an electrifying LP, but unfortunately Fancy Meeting You Here doesn't quite meet the (admittedly high) expectations. A baker's dozen of tourist-themed songs with Crosby as a tagalong duet partner and May as globe-trotting scene-setter, the album does include several great teamings: the rousing title-track opener, a robust "It Happened in Monterey," and some great two-part harmonies on "You Came a Long Way from St. Louis." But for every delightful duet between the energizing, melodic Clooney and the mellow, laid-back Crosby, there are a few clunkers -- "On a Slow Boat to China," "Say Si Si (Para Vigo Me Voy)." May's arrangements are inventive as usual [...] The peaks are delightful, but the few low points are enough to make listeners wish for an uneventful trip through the plains."
John Bush -All Music Guide
