Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings [Original recording remastered]

Bing Crosby | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 13, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 1956
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B000050JAH
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #102,423 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

CROSBY BING BING SINGS WHILST BREGMAN SWINGS

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BING'S BRILLIANT TAKE ON SINATRA'S SWING, September 10, 2005

By 

Jasper (New England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings (Audio CD)

Buddy Bregman takes the Frank Sinatra/Nelson Riddle "swingin'" approach on this disc, introducing Bing Crosby into a totally unfamiliar environment, and in the process creates something truly wonderful. Of course Frank Sinatra blazed this hyper-swinging sound on his brilliant, conceptualized albums with Nelson Riddle and Billy May. Buddy Bregman, a friend of one of Bing's sons, convinced Bing to try out this format, and even got some Sinatra sidemen in the band, including Sinatra's most notable reedman, the great trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison. Buddy had recently finished working with Ella Fitzgerald on one of her songbook projects, and although he was young, that experience spoke well of him. Of course Bing had originally inspired Francis, and almost every other singer, with his relaxed, jazzy microphone crooning in the late 20s and 30s, and was especially important for having incorporated the rhythmically relaxed jazz style into ballad singing. As we know, Frank went on to become his own master, innovating the emotionally thematic LP, the unbroken melodic line (which he claimed to have learned from Tommy Dorsey), the canonization of the great composers and their songs (Frank began reaching back in an age when a song had a shelf-life of a few months), and musically topnotch productions which he closely oversaw, using the best songs, best arrangers, best musicians, best engineers, etc. Frank's style, aside form being jazz infused, had little in common with Crosby's, unlike singers such as Perry Como who were strictly in the Crosby mold (though wonderful nonetheless). Frank's rhythmic approach was his own conception, and was utterly different than Bing's. What Frank got from Bing, aside from the singer-as-the-star model, was the initial "crooning" sensibility, wherein the singer didn't howl and emote, but rather sung softly into the microphone in a highly intimate style.

In any case, Bing (a good friend of Sinatra's) was more like a friendly uncle by the time of this LP, and famously spent more time thinking about golfing than anything musical (we Crosby fanatics will be first to admit this) having decades earlier established his brilliance and offered his innovations. Bing was happy to go into the studio early in the morning and charmingly knock out whatever material some producer asked him to, with little or no personal input, then get on with his golf game. Maybe this is a good thing, because Bing would not have come up with this album on his own. Buddy Bregman convinced a reluctant Bing to try it ("Will they be able to hear me over those horns?"), and Bing went in and knocked out the songs in a day or two, and he knocked 'em dead. Direct hit, Bing style. Great band, good arrangements, truly excellent songs, and PHENOMENAL Crosby singing (he does not ape Sinatra at all, he merely places himself in the Sinatra musical universe) make for something thrilling and unique in the Crosby legacy.

This is my favorite Bing LP, and his most swinging one of all. The colorful swing-band sounds come blazing out of the speakers and demand attention, whilst Bing remains supremely relaxed and in control, like a cool river running through a teeming jungle, expertly handling whatever shocks (there are a few) Bregman's arrangements throw at him. It's sometimes as if Bing is happily sipping lemonade in a hammock during an air assault...utterly unflappable!

I think that this disc is a great start for Bing beginners, and is a great way to initiate people into Bing's music, as it will almost instantly demolish any preconceived notions that listeners may hold about the man's artistry. Sound quality is fantastic as well.

Highly, highly recommended.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's About Time!, February 14, 2001

By 

Alan Breck (Jersey City, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings (Audio CD)

Finally Bing Crosby's great album of standards has been issued on CD in an affordale pressing. Here Crosby sings an impressive grouping of tunes by Rogers and Hart, the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, and other masters of the American Popular Song. All are set to the aggressive swing arrangements of Buddy Bregman- arranger of Ella Fitzgerald's "Cole Porter Songbook" and other notable Verve albums of the 1950s. Crosby's easygoing swing style contrasts nicely with Bregman's brassy orchestration, and harks back to his early Jazz work. Each and every track is worthwhile. Why this wasn't reissued earlier is one of the great mysteries of our time.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't be better, July 6, 2001

By 

Vincent T. Lynch "vtl" (Colorado Springs, Colorado) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings (Audio CD)

One couldn't ask for more than this CD offers, except perhaps that it had come along in the age of stereo. The selections are top notch, the arrangement reminiscent of Riddle with Sinatra, and Bing in top form.