[Dixielandjazz] Bing Crosby reviewed - Too Marvelous For Words

[Robert Ringwald]

Too Marvelous For Words: Bing Crosby Archive Collection Celebrates Johnny Mercer,
"Le Bing"
by Joe Marchese
The Second Disc, November 15, 2013
The two latest releases in the Bing Crosby Archive Collection -- now distributed
by Universal Music -- take the legendary crooner around the world, from the American
South to the streets of Paris, France. Bing Crosby Enterprises has just released
one new anthology, Bing Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook, along with a 60th anniversary
deluxe expanded reissue of the Decca album Le Bing: Song Hits of Paris. In the tradition
of past Archive Collection releases, these discs are packed with rarities and previously
unissued songs from one of the most influential singers of all time.
Savannah, Georgia's favorite son Johnny Mercer was championed by Bing Crosby from
virtually the start of his illustrious career. Crosby gave Mercer his first major
hit in the movies when he sang "I'm an Old Cowhand" in the 1936 film Rhythm on the
Range, but even that wasn't the first time Bing recorded a Mercer composition. The
Johnny Mercer Songbook kicks off with a 1934 radio performance of "P.S. I Love You,"
co-written by Mercer and composer-arranger Gordon Jenkins. It concludes with a 1953
radio take of the same song for which Crosby still evinced great affection. All told,
this new compilation produced by Robert S. Bader includes 22 tracks of prime Mercer
sung by one of his biggest admirers between 1934 and 1955.
A full 14 of these recordings are receiving their first-ever release, while the remaining
eight tracks first appeared on Decca Records. Of the previously unreleased material,
Bing tackles songs co-written with Harold Arlen ("That Old Black Magic"), Hoagy Carmichael
("Lazy Bones," sung in duet with Louis Armstrong), Harry Warren ("Jeepers Creepers"),
Joseph Kosma ("Autumn Leaves") and Paul Lincke ("Glow Worm"). From the Decca catalogue,
Crosby brings his relaxed tones to the Arlen co-writes "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive"
with the Andrews Sisters and "Blues in the Night" and further standards written with
Carmichael ("Skylark") and Harry Warren ("On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe,"
"You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby"). From Mercer's solo songbook, Crosby sings
"Jamboree Jones" (1951) and "Something's Gotta Give" (1955). The songwriter himself
even duets with Bing on a 1940 Decca single of "Mister Meadowlark." Indeed, Bing
Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook could simply be called Bing Sings the Great American
Songbook. Like Crosby himself, Johnny Mercer is still synonymous with American song
itself. Howard E. Green provides new liner notes, and Gene Hobson has remastered
all tracks.
It's fair to say that Bing Crosby had a lifelong love affair with France. As Martin
McQuade recounts in his new liner notes for Le Bing, Crosby was affected by the experience
of entertaining there with the USO, and memorably shot the dramatic film Little Boy
Lost in the European country. Crosby wrote in his 1953 autobiography that "with the
exception of my own, France is my favorite country -- principally for its people
and their individualism." It was in France that Crosby discovered his wife Dixie
had cancer, and it was in France that he spent some time during a family vacation
after her passing. While in Paris on that trip, Crosby recorded what would become
his first-ever original long-playing record.
Le Bing included songs by such renowned French songwriters and artists including
Edith Piaf, Jacqueline Francois and Charles Trenet, but going above and beyond in
his quest for authenticity, the quintessentially American Crosby decided to sing
the songs in their native tongue. Composer-conductor Paul Durand, who had recorded
with Piaf and Francois, was chosen to collaborate with Crosby, and Crosby's usual
musical director John Scott Trotter was also in attendance. The resulting album wasn't
only a milestone as Crosby's first LP, but holds up as one of his most unique. Among
the Trenet songs included is "La Mer," which Bobby Darin later made famous in the
U.S. as "Beyond the Sea." Piaf's immortal "La Vie en Rose" also gets a stylish Crosby
treatment.
The deluxe Le Bing adds 15 tracks (12 previously unreleased) to the original eight-song
LP, almost tripling its length. Outtakes and alternate takes have been appended,
as well as radio broadcast performances of other Gallic favorites and the English
versions of selected tracks which Bing recorded for release on Decca. Among the radio
tracks is a take on Cole Porter's Can-Can showtune "I Love Paris" and a duet with
Jane Morgan on "C'est Si Bon." All songs have been remastered for this reissue by
Gene Hobson.
http://theseconddisc.com/2013/11/15/too-marvelous
-30


-Bob Ringwald K6YBV
www.ringwald.com
916/ 806-9551

Why do shops have signs, “GUIDE DOGS ONLY?: 
The dogs can’t read and their owners are blind.