Le Bing is a 1953 (see 1953 in music) album by Bing Crosby. It was Crosby's first studio vinyl long-playing album, and was released by his longtime label Decca Records as catalogue No. DL 5499. Le Bing is a concept album where all the songs are sung in French.
Crosby recorded the album in Paris on May 16, 1953, during an extended visit to Europe that spring. He had filmed parts of the movie Little Boy Lost in France the previous year.[1] The orchestrations were by Paul Durand, a French arranger who also worked with Édith Piaf, among others.
Two songs - "Embrasse-Moi Bien" and "Mademoiselle de Paris" - were recorded separately in English at the May 16 session but weren't released on Le Bing. All 10 tracks were released by Sepia Records on the 2010 CD Through the Years: Volume Five (1953). In 2013, the entire album (including the two previously mentioned tracks sung in English) was re-issued on CD by Bing Crosby Enterprises and distributed by Universal Music as a 60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition.[2] This contained many additional radio tracks with a French theme.
In 1958, after Crosby had left Decca, the label issued a compilation album titled Bing in Paris, subtitled "Bing Crosby Sings the French Hits." Unlike Le Bing, some songs on Bing in Paris are sung in English.
Track listing
SIDE ONE
- "Mademoiselle de Paris" (Paul Durand, Henri Contet) - 3.11
- "Embrasse-moi bien" (André Grassi) - 3.35
- "Mon Cœur est un Violon" (Maria Laparcerie) - 2.58
- "La Vie en rose" (Louiguy, Édith Piaf) - 2.54
SIDE TWO
- "La Seine" (Guy Lafarge, Flavien Monod) - 2.38
- "Au bord de l'eau" (Paul Durand, Henri Contet) - 2.22
- "La Mer" (Charles Trenet) - 3.37
- "Tu ne peux pas te figurer" (Paul Misraki) - 3.00
Reception
Billboard magazine called it "very nice," saying: "This set could move very well."[3]
Record producer, Ken Barnes, wrote: "According to the discographical information, this remarkable album was recorded in a single day. The orchestrations and conducting are uncredited (although it sounds like John Scott Trotter’s work). Unfortunately, the string sound is a little thin and the intonation of the violins is somewhat insecure on one or two tracks - notably on ’Embrasse-moi bien’. But the same can never be said of Mr Crosby whose pitching is unerringly accurate throughout all eight titles. Of his French accent, Bing remarked at the time that any complaints should be sent ‘to the back door of the United Nations’."[4]
Personnel
References
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Albums |
- Music of Hawaii (1939)
- Victor Herbert Melodies, Vol. One (1939)
- Patriotic Songs for Children (1939)
- Cowboy Songs (1939)
- Victor Herbert Melodies, Vol. Two (1939)
- George Gershwin Songs, Vol. One (1939)
- Ballad for Americans (1940)
- Favorite Hawaiian Songs (1940)
- Christmas Music (1940)
- Star Dust (1940)
- Hawaii Calls (1941)
- Small Fry (1941)
- Crosbyana (1941)
- Under Western Skies (1941)
- Song Hits from Holiday Inn (w/ Fred Astaire) (1942)
- Merry Christmas (1945)
- Selections from Going My Way (1945)
- Selections from The Bells of St. Mary's (1946)
- Don't Fence Me In (1946)
- The Happy Prince (1946)
- Selections from Road to Utopia (1946)
- Stephen Foster Songs (1946)
- What We So Proudly Hail (1946)
- Favorite Hawaiian Songs, Vol. One (1946)
- Favorite Hawaiian Songs, Vol. Two (1946)
- Blue Skies (w/ Fred Astaire) (1946)
- Jerome Kern Songs (1946)
- St. Patrick's Day (1947)
- Victor Herbert Songs (1947)
- Cowboy Songs, Vol. One (1947)
- Selections from Welcome Stranger (1947)
- Our Common Heritage (1947)
- El Bingo (1947)
- The Small One (1947)
- The Man Without a Country (1947)
- Drifting and Dreaming (1947)
- Blue of the Night (1948)
- Selections from Showboat (1948)
- The Emperor Waltz (1948)
- St. Valentine's Day (1948)
- Bing Crosby Sings with Al Jolson, Bob Hope, Dick Haymes and the Andrews Sisters (1948)
- Selections from Road to Rio (1948)
- Bing Crosby Sings with Judy Garland, Mary Martin, Johnny Mercer (1948)
- Bing Crosby Sings with Lionel Hampton, Eddie Heywood, Louis Jordan (1948)
- Cowboy Songs, Vol. Two (1948)
- Auld Lang Syne (1948)
- A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court (1949)
- Bing Crosby Sings Songs By George Gershwin (1949)
- South Pacific (1949)
- Christmas Greetings (1949)
- Ichabod - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949)
- Top o' the Morning / Emperor Waltz (1949)
- Songs from Mr. Music (1950)
- Go West Young Man (1950)
- Le Bing: Song Hits of Paris (1953)
- Some Fine Old Chestnuts (1954)
- Selections from White Christmas (1954)
- Bing: A Musical Autobiography (1954)
- High Tor (1956)
- A Christmas Sing with Bing around the World (1956)
- High Society (w/ Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly, and Louis Armstrong) (1956)
- Songs I Wish I Had Sung the First Time Around (1956)
- Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings (1956)
- Bing with a Beat (1957)
- A Christmas Story (1957)
- Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1957)
- Never Be Afraid (1957)
- Jack B. Nimble – A Mother Goose Fantasy (1957)
- New Tricks (1957)
- Fancy Meeting You Here ( w/ Rosemary Clooney) (1958)
- How the West Was Won (1959)
- Bing & Satchmo (w/ Louis Armstrong) (1960)
- 101 Gang Songs (1960)
- Holiday in Europe (1960)
- The Road to Hong Kong (1962)
- On the Happy Side (1962)
- On the Sentimental Side (1962)
- I Wish You a Merry Christmas (1962)
- Reprise Musical Repertory Theatre (1963)
- Return to Paradise Islands (1963)
- Bing Crosby Sings the Great Country Hits (1963)
- America, I Hear You Singing (w/ Frank Sinatra and Fred Waring) (1964)
- 12 Songs of Christmas (w/ Frank Sinatra and Fred Waring) (1964)
- That Travelin' Two-Beat (w/ Rosemary Clooney) (1965)
- Bing 'n' Basie (w/ Count Basie) (1972)
- A Couple of Song and Dance Men (w/ Fred Astaire) (1975)
- Seasons (1977)
- Bing Crosby: The Voice of Christmas (1998)
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