Write a Review
Critic's Review
William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
This two-CD, two-and-a-quarter-hour set presents songs from the first 13 feature films in which Bing Crosby appeared, starting with The King of Jazz, in which he was part of a trio that sang with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra, and following to his major box office success as a star with Paramount Pictures. During this period, Crosby made separate commercial recordings of many of the songs he sang in his films, and producer Geoff Milne has in most cases used those recordings here, usually falling back on the actual soundtrack recordings only for songs Crosby did not record in the studio. As a result, the chart-topping versions of such songs as "Out of Nowhere," "Just One More Chance," "Dinah," "Please," "Love in Bloom," "June in January," "Soon" and "It's Easy to Remember" are included, along with many other popular Crosby tracks originally released on Brunswick and Decca Records. The soundtrack recordings, which comprise 11 of the 46 tracks, are sonically improved and provide an interesting addendum to the more familiar studio material. The combination of the two sources makes for an excellent compilation of Crosby's early film-related recordings.
