Bargain Audio CDs & Priceless Collection (series)

My Favorite Love Songs

by Bing Crosby

Product Description:

Out of print on cassette on MCA (20971)-D03.

Somewhere between his early-'30s Brunswick milestones and the familiar pipe-and-slippers persona finally established in the '40s by the enormous success of "White Christmas," Bing Crosby managed to record a great number of masterfully performed standards for his new label, Decca Records. In fact, one could claim that the period from the mid- to late-'30s saw Crosby's purest singing, matured past the hot and occasionally rough style of his first hits. For one thing, the orchestral backing provided by Decca is itself smoother, with classier arrangements than those previously provided by the likes of Guy Lombardo.

All of which can be sampled on this delightful little budget collection of well-wrought "love" songs. Just compare the version of "Temptation" here to the first hit version recorded just five years earlier. While the undeniably fascinating 1932 "Temptation" somewhat sounds as if the emotionally reserved Crosby were force-fitting himself into a faux-Valentino "great lover" mode, the voice here is both more musically confident and gentler, drawing on a great reserve of tenderness to make the point. Bonus: a graceful duet with the young Judy Garland on Jerome Kern's masterpiece "The Way You Look Tonight."