Bing Crosby - Golden Greats [3CD Box Set] (2001)
Artist: Bing Crosby
Title: Golden Greats
Year Of Release: 2001
Label: Disky [MP 649972]
Genre: Traditional Pop, Vocal Jazz, Swing, Easy Listening
Quality: 320 kbps / FLAC (tracks+cue, log) / WAV (tracks)
Total Time: 3:39:29
Total Size: 503 mb / 894 mb / 2.16 gb
WebSite: Album Preview
Title: Golden Greats
Year Of Release: 2001
Label: Disky [MP 649972]
Genre: Traditional Pop, Vocal Jazz, Swing, Easy Listening
Quality: 320 kbps / FLAC (tracks+cue, log) / WAV (tracks)
Total Time: 3:39:29
Total Size: 503 mb / 894 mb / 2.16 gb
WebSite: Album Preview
The reason for the plethora of CD reissues of the recordings of vintage recordings artists like Bing Crosby since the 1990s is simple: International copyright lapses after 50 years, putting those artists' catalogs into the public domain, at least in Europe. Each year, more reissues come out on labels that don't have to pay for licensing, their only restriction being that the tracks have to be at least half-a-century old. Thus, this three-CD set, containing 75 Crosby recordings originally issued on Brunswick and Decca Records (and to which Sony and Universal claim ownership in the U.S.), cuts off strictly in 1951, its latest tracks being "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" and the Louis Armstrong duet "Gone Fishin'." Although arbitrary from a musical perspective, this limitation actually works from a commercial standpoint, since, after 20 years as a leading figure in pop music, Crosby faded as a record-seller after 1951, the last year he ranked among the 20 top singles artists in Billboard, managing only one more Top Ten hit, "True Love," in 1956. So, Golden Greats has the potential to contain his most popular work. It is, in fact, a grab bag of material dating back to 1931. Twenty of Crosby's 38 number one hits are included, along with many other popular recordings, and the singer is featured in duets with Bob Hope, the Andrews Sisters, Al Jolson, Connee Boswell, and Judy Garland, among others. The collection is very roughly chronological, so one gets to hear Crosby develop from his early crooning days to his familiar '40s material and on to the era when he was competing uncomfortably with the likes of Frankie Laine on "Mule Train." There are no annotations, however, and the album has a thrown-together feel, with some tracks sonically challenged.
TRACKLIST:
Disc: 1
1. Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)
2. Please
3. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (And Dream Your Troubles Away)
4. Pennies from Heaven
5. Just One More Chance
6. Dinah
7. Thanks
8. Love Thy Neighbor
9. I'm an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)
10. Temptation
11. Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?
12. Sweet and Lonely
13. I Found a Million Dollar Baby (In a Five and Ten Cent Store)
14. Stardust
15. Black Moonlight
16. Sweet Leilani
17. Blue Hawaii
18. Small Fry
19. Too Marvelous for Words
20. Bob White (Whatcha Gonna Swing Tonight?)
21. An Apple for the Teacher
22. Too Romantic
23. You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby
24. The Moon Got in My Eyes
25. The Funny Old Hills
Disc: 2
1. The Road to Morocco
2. Moonlight Becomes You
3. San Fernando Valley
4. Dolores
5. Mister Meadowlark
6. San Antonio Rose
7. Deep in the Heart of Texas
8. You Are My Sunshine
9. I'll Be Seeing You
10. The Waiter and the Porter and the Upstairs Maid
11. Be Honest With Me
12. Yes, Indeed!
13. I Can't Begin to Tell You
14. Trade Winds
15. Swinging on a Star
16. Miss You
17. Walking the Floor Over You
18. Don't Fence Me In
19. Along the Santa Fe Trail
20. Sunday, Monday or Always
21. Put It There Pal
22. If You Please
23. Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby?
24. MacNamara's Band
25. White Christmas
Disc: 3
1. Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive
2. Gone Fishin'
3. Play a Simple Melody
4. It's Been a Long, Long Time
5. Alexander's Ragtime Band
6. Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral (That's an Irish Lullaby)
7. In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening
8. Dear Hearts and Gentle People
9. Far Away Places
10. South America, Take It Away!
11. A Gal in Calico
12. The Whiffenpoof Song
13. Mule Train
14. Sioux City Sue
15. Pistol Packin' Mama
16. Baia
17. Busy Doing Nothin'
18. If I Loved You
19. Galway Bay
20. Sam's Song (The Happy Tune)
21. (Ghost) Riders in the Sky
22. You Belong to My Heart
23. Yah-Ta-Ta, Yah-Ta-Ta (Talk, Talk, Talk)
24. The Bells of St. Mary's
25. Now Is the Hour (Maori Farewell Song)