Sunday Bingle

Recorded in '57, between the sublime High Society soundtrack and Fancy Meeting You Here (both previously Foamfeatured), Bing With A Beat is another prime Bingleburger, and hold the cheese. Bing wasn't averse to cheese in his albums, unfortunately, and you have to dig hard in his prodigious output to find one free of cod-Irish sentimentality, hula hokeyness and other sadly dated sappiness. To his eternal credit, he never took himself seriously as an artist, but the downside of that is he invested as much artistic intent into an album as he did a round of golf, and albums that qualify as works of art do so by accident.

Hi guys!

Bing With A Beat does. There's a consistency of quality and artistic coherence (no filler, no stylistic distractions) that results from a focused studio session with a sympathetic band playing the perfect song program. Bob Scobey's band swings like a donkey's nuts (or occasionally a hammock) and Bing is clearly having a blast. You can bet he knew all the musicians by name, and he's listening to every one of them. Everyone involved with this session left the studio with a smile on his face - look at that cover! - and it's one we can share.

(Postscript - another album from the same period, Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings, misses the swing - and the Bing - by a mile, almost driving him from the studio with its carnival float horns and a showboating Buddy Bregman.)