Cowboy Songs, Vol. One (Bing Crosby album)

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Cowboy Songs, Vol. One (Bing Crosby album)
File:Bing Crosby - Cowboy Songs - Vol. 1 (album cover).jpg
Compilation album by Bing Crosby
Released Original 78 album: 1947
Recorded 1935-1939
Genre Popular, Western
Label Decca
Bing Crosby chronology
Victor Herbert Songs
(1947)String Module Error: Match not found1947		 Cowboy Songs,
Vol. One
(1947)		 Selections from Welcome Stranger
(1947)Selections from Welcome Stranger1947

Cowboy Songs, Vol. One is a compilation album of phonograph records by Bing Crosby released in 1947 featuring songs with western themes. This was one of ten 78rpm albums featuring Crosby that were issued in 1947 to capitalize on his enormous popularity at that time. He had enjoyed unprecedented fame during the 1940s with his discography showing six No. 1 hits in 1944 alone. His films such as Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary's were huge successes as were the Road films he made with Bob Hope. On radio, his Kraft Music Hall and Philco Radio Time shows were very popular. Decca Records built on this by issuing a number of 78rpm album sets, some featuring freshly recorded material and others utilizing Crosby's back catalog.

Background

Crosby had recorded cowboy songs for the first time in 1933 and he had a huge hit with "The Last Round-Up" that year on the Brunswick label. He recorded Home on the Range for the first time then also. Commenting on these early recordings, the writer Gary Giddins said "…it anticipated the golden age of gentle-voiced singing cowboys and the Irish sentiment of John Ford westerns that followed on their heels."[1] Moving on to the Decca label, Crosby had huge hits with "I’m an Old Cowhand", "Empty Saddles" and "Mexicali Rose". He also charted with "My Little Buckaroo" and "There’s a Gold Mine in the Sky".

Crosby researcher Fred Reynolds discussed one of the songs in his book.[2] “"I'm an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)" had been used in the film “Rhythm on the Range” when it had been a musical high spot in a campfire scene which had the whole cast clapping and stomping. The commercial recording was the first recording by Crosby of a song by Johnny Mercer and it proved to be the right occasion, the right singer and the right orchestra for a hit of spectacular dimensions that eventually sold over a million. Forget that procession of long-homed cattle moving in a haze of dust hustled by lasso-waving cowboys in gritty frontier tradition. From the brief but boisterous introduction the listener knows that a special treat is in store. Bing sings the first verse happily indicating that he could hardly be considered a representative of the old west; in fact he "never saw a cow", doesn't know how to rope a steer and has no intention of ever doing so. That, however, doesn't deter him from "yippi-hiing" with all the bandsmen joining in. The band then takes over for two verses, first instrumentally, with trumpet lead, and then vocally to proclaim that they, too, are "old cowhands" who have come to town to hear the band. Bing sings the next verse and following the first line Fud Livingston, Charleston-born, calls out in a rich southern accent, "Oh yes sir, Mr Bing" to which Crosby half turning from the microphone (indicating that the interruption was spontaneous) banters "Too hot for you, Uncle Fud?" and continues the song without hesitation or pause. It is the essence of the joyous spirit of the recording. Jimmy Dorsey (clt) leads the band in a short, bright interlude, Bing sings a final stanza and the bandsmen exemplify the general abandon by singing a "yippi-hi" coda and everyone has joined in the fun of an exuberant performance. Crosby points the lyrics with all his considerable skill and some superb lines while his tempo and melody changes are charged with an inherent, simmering jazz feeling. The band, so obviously in buoyant mood, matches Bing all the way and the only verdict on this recording can be a triple-tie - Bing, the band and Johnny Mercer.”

Also, Gary Giddins considered Bing's recording of “Mexicali Rose” in his biography of Crosby[3] saying: “Bing sang "Mexicali Rose" for four months on the air before making a record that infused it with the vivid and wistful melancholy he had used to transform so many commonplace and even trite songs (“Home on the Range," "Black Moonlight"). He made the song resonate as a quasi-western hymn for the last days of the Depression. Autry reclaimed it a year later in a movie of the same name, but in his or anyone else's hands, it was merely a sentimental love song. Bing's interpretation produced a frisson, an eerily palpable suggestion of what the times sounded and felt like. We tend to recall 1938 with the images of swing - stomping feet and flying skirts. "Mexicali Rose" renders the flip side, far from the ballrooms, where the night is black, inert. And full of longing. The force of his reading transcends the lyric and its southwestern setting."

Decca issued several 78 albums of Crosby's cowboy songs and the first appeared in 1939 and was soon followed by Under Western Skies in 1941. Sensing that there was still an appetite for these songs, Decca followed up with this album in 1947 and a year later with Cowboy Songs, Volume 2 (see below).

Reception

Billboard reviewed the album saying, inter alia: “Another anthology of Bing Crosby, this time packaging eight of his cuttings of Western songs of early vintage but still standing up for the most part to the test of time… Bing in 10-gallon hat and riding a broncho makes for the album cover design with an accompanying booklet on the folk music.”[4]

Track listing

The songs were featured on a 4-disc, 78 rpm album set, Decca Album A-514.[5]

Disc 1: (25000)

  1. "Home on the Range", recorded June 13, 1939 with Victor Young and His Orchestra
  2. "When the Bloom Is on the Sage", (Nat Vincent / Fred Howard) recorded December 12, 1938 with John Scott Trotter’s Frying Pan Five and The Foursome.[6]

Disc 2: (25001)

  1. "I'm an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)", recorded July 17, 1936 with Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra.
  2. “There’s a Gold Mine in the Sky", (Charles Kenny, Nick Kenny), recorded November 12, 1937 with Eddie Dunstedter at the organ.[6]

Disc 3: (25002)

  1. “Mexicali Rose", recorded July 11, 1938 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra.
  2. "Silver on the Sage", (Ralph Rainger / Leo Robin) recorded July 11, 1938 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra.[6]

Disc 4: (25003)

  1. “Take Me Back to My Boots and Saddle", (Teddy Powell / Walter Samuels / Leonard Whitcup) recorded November 12, 1935 with Victor Young and His Orchestra
  2. "My Little Buckaroo", (M. K. Jerome / Jack Scholl) recorded March 8, 1937 with Victor Young and His Orchestra[6]

LP issue

Following the advent of the 33⅓ rpm vinyl LP (for "long-play") format developed by Columbia Records and marketed in 1948, Decca entered in the market enthusiastically and issued no less twenty 10” vinyl LPs by Crosby alone in the years 1949-1950. The 1950 10" LP album issue Decca DL 5107 consisted entirely of Decca A-514 on a 10" vinyl LP.[7]

Further release

All of the songs on the album were included in the Decca 12” LP “Home on the Range” issued in 1956 with catalog number DL8210.[8]

Cowboy Songs, Vol. Two (Bing Crosby album)
File:Cowboy Songs (Bing Crosby album) - Vol. 2 (album cover).jpg
Compilation album by Bing Crosby
Released Original 78 album: 1948
Recorded 1936, 1940-1941
Genre Popular, Western
Label Decca Records
Bing Crosby chronology
Bing Crosby Sings the Song Hits from Broadway Shows
(1948)String Module Error: Match not found1948		 Cowboy Songs,
Vol. two
(1948)		 Auld Lang Syne
(1948)Auld Lang Syne1948

Cowboy Songs, Vol. Two (Bing Crosby album)

This is another compilation album of phonograph records by Bing Crosby released in 1948 as a follow up to Cowboy Songs, Vol. One featuring more songs with western themes such as "Empty Saddles" and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds".

Background

Gary Giddins considered some of the recordings on this album in his book[3] saying: "The most impressive of his new cowboy songs (including "We’ll Rest at the End of the Trail," "A Roundup Lullaby," "Empty Saddles") was "Twilight on the Trail," a lament introduced that year by Fuzzy Knight in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine and sung by Bing as though it were an old western hymn. That’s how it may have sounded to President Roosevelt, who declared it his favorite song after "Home on the Range"; Mrs. Roosevelt requested Bing’s record for the Roosevelt Library."

Track listing

These previously issued songs were featured on a 4-disc, 78 rpm album set, Decca Album A-658.[9]

Disc 1: (25345)

  1. "Tumbling Tumbleweeds", recorded February 9, 1940 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra
  2. "The Singing Hills", (Dick Sanford / Mack David / Sammy Mysels), recorded February 25, 1940 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra[6]

Disc 2: (25346)

  1. "Empty Saddles", recorded July 14, 1936 with Victor Young and His Orchestra.
  2. "Roundup Lullaby", (Gertrude Ross / Charles Badger Clark) recorded July 14, 1936 with Victor Young and His Orchestra.[6]

Disc 3: (25347)

  1. "Twilight on the Trail", (Louis Alter / Sidney D. Mitchell) recorded March 24, 1936 with Victor Young and His Orchestra.
  2. "We'll Rest at the End of the Trail", (Curt Poulton / Fred Rose) recorded March 24, 1936 with Victor Young and His Orchestra.[6]

Disc 4: (25020)

  1. "Clementine", recorded June 14, 1941 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra
  2. "The Old Oaken Bucket", recorded June 14, 1941 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra[6]

LP track listing

The 1951 10" LP album issue[10] Decca DL 5129 consisted entirely of Decca A-658 on a 10" LP.[11]

Further release

All of the songs on the album were included in the Decca 12” LP “Twilight on the Trail” issued in 1956 with catalog number DL8365.[12]

References

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