laureatedvd.com

[smithsonian]

As a 16 year old, I was rasied on Rock , punk and hip hop. My perception of music was narrow mostly because all music older that 10 years old or any genre not rock was discounted as awful or "dorky" because of age and percieved coolness. However, during one christmas a few years ago I heard Bing Crosby's version of "I heard the Bells on Christmas Day" and was absolutly floored by the quality of his voice and the way he sang the song. I was totally entranced by his relaxed manner and lushious voice, he exuded talent I had never seen in any of the musical performers of my time, except possibly from my fellow British Columbian, and crooner, Michael Buble.

My gradparents were also glad to be reintroduced to a voice that they had grownup with but had missed since the the mid-sixties, they especially took to your (Ken Barnes) United Artists albums of which they had never heard until now.

To get to my questions, I was wondering if there is any new and recent news about the re-realease of his last album, Seasons and if you are working on any new Bing Crosby CD's or DVD's, because I have greatly enjoyed your other Bing Crosby sets.

Thanks,
A.J. Smith

[Ken Barnes]

Hello A.J.,

Many thanks for getting in touch. I read your message with particular interest because I'm getting more and messages and letters from younger people suuch as yourself who have "discovered" Bing Crosby and it's very heartening because Bing was - and is - one the great originals of popular music.

In regard to "Seasons," I have had literally thousands of requests for this album to be released on CD. And while the people at Universal ( who own the Polydor catalogue ) are keen to issue it, there is a question of ownership that is yet to be resolved. Hopefully, it will be issued as soon as the proper clearance has been obtained.

Do I have any other Crosby projects in the pipeline ? Well, I'm sure you're aware of last year's 3-CD set "Swingin' With Bing" which hit # 1
on the Amazon jazz charts and #6 on their pop charts ( not bad for a $50 album. All those tracks were derived from Bing's radio shows. And more recently we released some more radio material in the 2CD set "Bing Crosby Meets Al Jolson - Their Complete Radio Duets " This too has been enthusiastically received. As for the immediate future, there will be a re-release in the UK on March 6th of the Bing-Fred Astaire album on EMI Gold
Although, if you own the Complete UA Sessions set, you will already have most of these tracks. It will, however, contain some bonus tracks including a "Session Sound Bites" sequence ( Bloopers with Bing and Fred)
that was not on the original album or the Complete UA set. So this will be of interest to collectors.

Once again, thanks for contacting us and I hope this message answers your question.

Good luck
Ken Barnes

[smithsonian]

Thank you very much for answering my question. I am looking forward to ordering "Bing Crosby Meets Al Jolson" and "Swingin' with Bing," they both look excellent, and, from the brief clips, sound excellent too.

Thanks Again,
A.J. Smith