Saturday, October 14, marked 40 years since the passing of one of America’s legendary vocalists, Bing Crosby.  The famed crooner could fairly be recognized as the father of pop singing, treating the microphone and the studio of essential components of his art, and bringing intimacy to the form.  On December 8, Bing Crosby Enterprises will team with UMe for new two titles in the Bing Crosby Archive Collection.  New Tricks: 60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition and Among My Souvenirs: More Treasures from the Crosby Archive are both being released with the cooperation of the late singer’s family, including wife Kathryn and son Harry.

1957’s New Tricks, originally released on Decca, featured Crosby accompanied by Buddy Cole and His Trio.  Its new deluxe reissue follows other 1950s Decca titles previously revisited in the Archive series: Le Bing: Song Hits of Paris (1953), Some Fine Old Chestnuts (1954), and Songs I Wish I’d Sung the First Time Around (1956).  The original 12-song program featured a host of familiar standards including “You’re Driving Me Crazy,” “Georgia on My Mind,” “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,” and “When I Take My Sugar to Tea.”  For this reissue, an additional twelve tracks have been added, nine of which are previously unreleased.  Among the bonus cuts are renditions of film classics “Gigi” and “Tammy,” and two duets with Bing’s son Lindsay Crosby (1938-1989), including one on Frank Loesser’s “Big D” from his score to The Most Happy Fella.  New Tricks has been newly remastered from the original tapes.

Among My Souvenirs: More Treasures from the Crosby Archive follows the 2010 release of So Rare: Treasures from the Crosby Archive.  Compiled by historian and Crosby archivist Robert S. Bader, this collection spans the period of 1932 to 1977 for a full portrait of the man and his art.  Outtakes, live recordings, and radio and television performances all feature on this anthology, including many songs not previously released in any format by Crosby.  The word “treasures” is most apt here, as this release features some recently-discovered concert recordings from 1956, a track from Crosby’s final American concert in 1977, and a lively medley with Diana Ross and The Supremes of four songs from Lerner and Loewe’s Paint Your Wagon.  The latter is from the soundtrack to 1968’s The Bing Crosby Special, on which The Supremes also duetted with Crosby and Jose Feliciano on a then-current hits medley.  Perhaps that fun performance will surface on a future collection!

These two very special releases for an enduring artist arrive from Bing Crosby Enterprises and UMe on December 8, as Crosby’s Christmas music lights up the annual holiday airwaves.  Look for them at the links below!

Bing Crosby, New Tricks: 60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Decca DL 8575, 1957 – reissued Bing Crosby Enterprises/UMe, 2017) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. Alabamy Bound
2. When I Take My Sugar to Tea
3. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
4. Georgia on My Mind
5. I’m Confessin’ (That I Love You)
6. If I Could Be With You
7. Avalon
8. Chinatown, My Chinatown
9. You’re Driving Me Crazy
10. On the Alamo
11. Chicago
12. Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise
13. Rain
14. Church Bells
15. I’ll Remember Today
16. My How the Time Goes By
17. Chee Chee-oo Chee (Sang the Little Bird)
18. Surprise
19. All the Time
20. Gigi
21. Tammy
22. Big D (with Lindsay Crosby) (Take 2)
23. Allegheny Moon (with Lindsay Crosby)
24. More Than You Know

Tracks 13-24 are bonus tracks; discography TBD

Bing Crosby, Among My Souvenirs: More Treasures from the Crosby Archive (Bing Crosby Enterprises/UMe, 2017) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1:

1. Please
2. I’m Getting Sentimental Over You
3. The Day You Came Along
4. Bing & Jack Oakie at Paramount
5. Boo Boo Boo
6. Roll Along Prairie Moon
7. I’ve Been Floating Down the Old Green River
8. Hello Hawaii
9. When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
10. You Forgot Your Gloves
11. A Horse That Knows the Way Back Home
12. She Is the Sunshine of Virginia
13. What Do You Do in the Infantry?
14. Good Morning Mr. Zip Zip Zip
15. I’ve Told Every Little Star
16. Oh, But I Do
17. Minute Maid Radio Jingle (Extended Version)
18. Alabamy Bound (with Lindsay Crosby)

CD 2:

1. Be My Life’s Companion
2. Undecided
3. Please Mr. Sun
4. Moonlight and Roses (with Bob Crosby)
5. Tell Me Why
6. Dream a Little Dream of Me
7. Eternally
8. True Love (Live at Fall River)
9. In a Little Spanish Town (Live at Fall River)
10. I’m Confessin’ (That I Love You) (Live at Fall River)
11. Big D (with Lindsay Crosby) (Take 1)
12. Old Cape Cod
13. The NATO Song
14. Among My Souvenirs
15. I Left My Heart in San Francisco
16. Paint Your Wagon Medley: I’m on My Way/I Talk to the Trees/I Still See Elisa/They Call the Wind Maria (with Diana Ross and The Supremes)
17. Send in the Clowns (Live at Concord Pavilion)