Questions for SH: Mastering "BING CROSBY Sings Christmas Songs" CD...

In addition to being a great source of Der Bingle's Christmas music, the fact that this CD spans three recording medium "eras" (78rpm, 33 1/3 transcriptions, analog tape) has me intrigued about the work you put into compiling and transferring these classic recordings. I've read several old threads about this CD and have found them enlightening. For example, http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=25988 and http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=8534

Being the detail-obsessed new forum member that I am, I have a few more questions:

In another thread from the DCC archive you discuss transferring 78s to analog tape for editing. http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=1254 Did you do this for any of the 78s or transcription recordings for this CD?

Were you able to use true master tapes for all of the 1949-51 recordings?

Did you compile the songs onto analog tape or did you master one at a time into digital?

I realize it's been twenty years, so I hope I'm not taxing your memory here and that I'm not being too nosy about the way you work(ed). Thanks much!

 

And Very Much appreciated, especially in the my household. Thanks!

 

VICTOR YOUNG's other CHRISTMAS DISC

Steve,

Have you ever had a chance to remaster Dickens' Christmas Carol, also a Decca recording, also with a great Victor Young music background (if one can really call any Victor Young music "background"!)?

Ronald Colman was a definitive Scrooge and it's great radio drama, complete with sound effects. I've got the 78s, a re-edited Decca 33RPM version, an electronically reprocessed stereo edited version and a recently restored Deutsch Grammophone (?) reissue CD with some judicious, although subtle, if unnecessary reverb added - also edited. I wonder if they really know that it originally took six 78RPM sides, although it still runs less the a half hour.

You may have run into it, but I really wonder what the chances are the masters still exist. Even though I shamelessly inserted it into this thread I almost know you've never remastered it because it's just never been done with the kind of care for which you are justifiably known.

 

It's claimed on the latest DG release that it's a 1941 recording, although my 78RPM discs (I've got two sets) claim a 1946 date on them.

By the way, Bing is great and your remastering most matches the sound we had on our now-missing Decca mono LPs. Christmas in Kilarney was a favorite in our Irish-American household - Victor Young's arrangement making the strings emulate a bagpipe is priceless!

 

Did Spike Jones play drums on both versions of 'White Christmas'?

 

Just wanted to add my thanks to Steve for this disc. It is absolutely stellar!

 

Being not very knowledgeable about Bing at all, I was wondering if someone could give me a quick rundown of what year each of the tracks on this CD was recorded, just for my curiousity's sake...

 

A gross understatement...what a way to end the comp! Sounds like a few of the participants might have been feeling pretty good , which adds to the festive atmosphere and makes it all the funnier!

ED

 

Ugh! It's such a shame that those historic parts were junked. At least the tapes were available three and a half decades later.

When I asked about that I didn't know if the original master tapes had survived or even been kept. I was hoping they didn't dub those and throw out the originals.

1943's "I'll Be Home For Christmas" also sounds remarkable. I assume it was from one of the early Decca transcription discs?

Thank you for fighting that battle. When first listening to this I kept thinking "Wow, this was twelve months before Pearl Harbor!"

Definitely. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong:

1. White Christmas 1947
2. Silent Night 1947
3. It's Beginning To Look Like Christmas 1951
4. Adestes Fideles 1942
5. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen 1942
6. Faith Of Our Fathers 1942
7. I'll Be Home For Christmas 1943
8. Christmas In Killarney 1951
9. The First Noel 1949
10. You're All I Want For Christmas 1949
11. O Fir Tree Dark 1947
12. Christmas Carols: Deck the Halls/Away in a Manger/I Saw Three Ships 1949
13. Christmas Carols: Good King Wenceslas/We Three Kings/Angels We Have Heard on High 1949
14. The Christmas Song 1947
15. Christmas Greetings To Decca Employees 1940

 

I know it's been mentioned in other threads here, but Crosby was an early supporter of tape recording. I've heard stories of his being instrumental in its development in the post World War II era.

As a collector of his radio programs, I know he was one of the earliest adopters of tape for his broadcasts.

I can't imagine Christmas without his voice and music, which seems as popular as ever.

 

I love Bing Crosby Christmas radio shows.

Several of the Kraft Music Hall shows are out on CD,
and worth seeking out.

I bought the LaserLight box of the KMH, and it sounds sweet.
Cedar NR used but not abused in the set's production.

 

Steve,

I mentioned in another thread that Bing's "Merry Christmas" album was the first record album that I have any memory of...a black label Decca (if I remember correctly)...that got played constantly in our house at Christmas time. I can still see my Dad, with the train platform propped up on one edge, lying underneath it, wiring the track & the lights...Bing's album playing in the background. Other than the usual assortment of kiddie records I had, it was the only "real" record I remember having in the house. (Ooops - no - we had a Lawrence Welk Christmas album too! What can I say-it was the 50's!)

I remember that "Sings Christmas Songs" came out on CD before MCA issued "Merry Christmas" (the following year???). Some of my favorite songs on "Merry Christmas" were the tracks he did with the Andrews Sisters ("Jingle Bells" & "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town"), as well as "Silver Bells" w/Carol Richards. Was there a reason why the Andrews Sisters material could not be used in your project? (I'm guessing it was contractual.) It would have been great to hear your take on those great swing arrangements!

Anyway, I just wanted to say "thank you"...20 years after the fact...for such a great CD! It's obvious how much respect you had for these historical recordings & how much care you took to restore them to the sound we remember from our childhood...and it shows!

Thanks!

Dexter

 

As a member of the International Club Crosby, I can attest that Steve's work on his two Bing Crosby CDs for MCA is much admired by many.

The club, headquartered in England, distributes its own series of CDs called "The Chronological Bing Crosby," which has now issued every existing take of every Crosby recording from 1926 to early 1946. Earlier volumes were mastered by the late John R.T. Davies, and then by Ted Kendall beginning around the late 1930s. Sound quality varies from track to track, but many are from test pressings, some of them breathtakingly clean.

But I can definitely hear what you're saying, Steve, about the quality of Decca shellac. It seems like the series took on a slightly muddy sound around the early-to-mid-1940s, even though the mastering engineer remained the same.