UMe Launches Career-Spanning Bing Crosby Catalog Campaign with Remastered Albums and New Collections to Be Released March 19

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Universal Music Enterprises is pleased to announce details for the first meticulously remastered and annotated Bing Crosby releases under its recently announced worldwide agreement with HLC Properties, LTD, the administrator for the Bing Crosby estate. On March 19, ten career-spanning Bing Crosby titles will be released, including four classic albums, expanded with rare studio and radio recordings, as well as five newly-compiled collections of rare studio recordings and radio sessions, and an album only recently discovered in the Crosby archive, recorded in 1962 but never issued. A newly-compiled collection of Crosby’s radio sessions with Rosemary Clooney will be released on April 9.

“In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree”

A Southern Memoir, originally released in 1975, only in the UK, is one of the most requested gems in the Crosby canon. The Dixie-inspired album of 13 songs has been expanded for a Deluxe Edition, adding previously unreleased alternate versions of “On the Alamo,” “Alabamy Bound,” “Stars Fell on Alabama,” “Swanee,” and “Sleepy Time Down South,” as well as a never-before-released private recording from the album sessions, “Bing’s South Texas Quail Hunting Medley.”

Bing In Dixieland is a 23-song collection, which finds Crosby paired with a series of small Dixieland combos. At the album’s core is a 14-song 1956 session recorded for Crosby’s daily CBS radio show with Buddy Cole and His Dixieland Orchestra. TIME magazine described Bing’s CBS radio recordings as “a master’s lucid readings of the American songbook.” The album features guest appearances by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong and His All-Stars.

Bing On Broadway collects 19 rare recordings of Crosby’s inimitable interpretations of show tunes from legendary stage productions including “South Pacific,” “The Pajama Game,” “Damn Yankees,” “Can-Can,” “Anything Goes,” “My Fair Lady,” and many others.

Bing Sings The Great American Songbook is a 20-track collection of high fidelity recordings of Crosby singing standards recorded during his 1954-’57 CBS Radio sessions, accompanied by Buddy Cole & His Trio, who provide an intimate jazz setting for Crosby’s vocals. Among the collection’s classics are “Manhattan,” “S’ Wonderful,” Ol’ Man River,” “Button Up Your Overcoat,” and “That Old Black Magic.”

Bing Sings The Sinatra Songbook is an 18-song collection of Crosby’s take on songs made famous by Ol’ Blue Eyes, including a Crosby/Sinatra duet on the medley “Among My Souvenirs”/”September Song”/”As Time Goes By.” Other standouts include Crosby’s versions of “Young At Heart,” “Witchcraft,” “All The Way,” and “You Go To My Head.” A recent remix of “Summer Wind” and the CD debut of “South of the Border” (from the Songs I Love album) round out the set, which includes a liner notes essay by noted pianist/vocalist Michael Feinstein.

El Señor Bing is a 1960 album Crosby recorded for his own Project Records label. Crosby is accompanied by the Billy May Orchestra for the album’s original songs, and the expanded Deluxe Edition adds a markedly different mono mix of the original album, as well as six bonus tracks from his 1950s CBS Radio sessions with Buddy Cole & His Trio.

On The Sentimental Side, recorded by Crosby in 1962, is a collection of popular songs that was long rumored to exist, but was never released. The original album is comprised of medleys with many of Crosby’s favorites from as early as his boyhood, including “My Bonnie”/“The Band Played On,” “All Alone”/“In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree,” and “Beautiful Dreamer”/“The Last Rose of Summer.” The Deluxe Edition also adds five bonus tracks recorded with Buddy Cole during Crosby’s 1950s radio shows.

Return To Paradise Islands is a collection of Hawaiian favorites Crosby recorded in 1963 for Frank Sinatra’s Reprise label. For the Deluxe Edition, a new stereo mix of the album has been created from the original session tapes. The Nelson Riddle Orchestra accompanies Crosby for most of the album. The expanded edition adds a brief session outtake of “Return to Paradise,” plus five previously unissued Hawaiian tracks recorded in 1961.

Seasons, released in 1977, was Crosby’s final studio album. The 12-song album’s Deluxe Edition adds 13 bonus tracks, including Crosby’s very last recordings, made at a BBC session three days prior to his death, as well as five poems he recorded for fan clubs which were never distributed.

So Rare: Treasures From The Crosby Archive is a career-spanning 2-CD collection, which has been carefully compiled by Crosby archivist Robert S. Bader. Culled from Crosby’s personal archive, 26 of the set’s 34 tracks make their release debuts on this collection, making it a true find for Crosby fans. Gems include Crosby’s first solo radio performance from 1931, rare private recordings, and previously unknown outtakes, as well as the first-ever compilation release of several rare singles, many of which are newly mixed in stereo for the first time.

To be released April 9, Bing & Rosie: The Crosby-Clooney Radio Sessions is a 2-CD collection of 59 recordings taken from the original master tapes of Crosby and Clooney’s 1952-1961 radio sessions (“The Bing Crosby Show for General Electric,” “The Ford Road Show,” and “The Crosby-Clooney Show”), complete with charming studio banter and audio fidelity that rivals their commercial recordings. The set includes duets, medleys, and re-takes, all accompanied by the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and Buddy Cole & His Trio.