Bing Crosby: Bing In Dixieland

1 At the Jazz Band Ball - 2:18 2 Sometimes I'm Happy - 3 Muskrat Ramble - 2:19 4 Way Down Yonder in New Orleans - 1:50 5 Strike Up the Band - 6 That's A-Plenty - 2:00 7 My Baby Just Cares For Me - 8 I'd Climb The Highest Mountain - 9 Smiles - 10 Just Around The Corner - 11 The Banjo's Back In Town - 12 When My Baby Smiles At Me - 13 The Object of My Affection - 2:59 14 I Got Rhythm - 15 Margie - 16 Yes Sir! That's My Baby - 17 Oh, How I Laugh When I Think How I Cried About You - 18 Everybody Loves My Baby - 19 Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea - 20 Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue - 21 Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me - 22 Memphis Blues [*] - 3:06 23 Now You Has Jazz [*] - 3:40

Bing Crosby was as familiar and fluent with Dixieland as any other big-time vocalist of the 1940s and '50s, since he slightly predated most of his crooning brethren and sang plenty of Dixieland as a youngster -- even though his influence came more from Al Jolson than Buddy Bolden. Regardless of whose lap he was on when he learned "Swanee," his radio show of the mid-'50s included plenty of Dixieland, mostly recorded with a band led by Buddy Cole but sometimes a larger group led by the estimable John Scott Trotter. The Bing in Dixieland compilation focuses almost entirely on these radio-show recordings, but the material is sparkling and bright -- mostly because Crosby always prerecorded his radio shows in a studio, making them sound more polished than most. Highlights include "At the Jazz Band Ball," "Muskrat Ramble," and "That's A-Plenty," plus as bonus tracks, a pair of duets with two other all-timers: Louis Armstrong ("Now You Has Jazz") and Ella Fitzgerald ("Memphis Blues"). ~ John Bush, Rovi

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