Bing Crosby With Ella Fitzgerald & Peggy Lee Featuring Fred Astaire (Disc 1)

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Bing Crosby With Ella Fitzgerald & Peggy Lee Featuring Fred Astaire (Disc 1) album cover
Album Information

Total Tracks: 25   Total Length: 75:42

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Neal Pollack

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"The World's Greatest Living Writer," eMusic Soundtracks/Other columnist Neal Pollack is the author of the cult classic The Neal Pollack Antholog...more »

04.22.11
Ella Fitzgerald And Bing Crosby, Bing Crosby With Ella Fitzgerald & Peggy Lee Featuring Fred Astaire (Disc 1)
2000 | Label: Avid Records / The Orchard

Two classic vocalists who sound great together. The disc is heavy on Christmas songs, and there are a couple of medleys, but mostly it's a priceless combination of styles.

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What's with the hiss?

nummy

I have this recording - only it sounds cleaner than the tracks here, which have a distracting hiss. It's a great collection, with Lee and Fitzgerald providing a much-needed foil to Crosby's languid shtick (which I like in small doses, but is grating to me over the course of an entire album), but I think a better, clearer version of this can be found elsewhere. Same goes for the Peggy disc that's also on emusic.

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Nice Compilation

NIC

Very Sweet tracks and some of the classics...

They Say All Music Guide

Bing Crosby With Ella Fitzgerald & Peggy Lee Featuring Fred Astaire is a two-disc import release from Avid. The set is an excellent pairing of four legendary performers. A total of 61 songs make up the duet collection, including a ton of famous material like the seasonal hits “Silver Bells” and “White Christmas,” as well as standards like “For Sentimental Reasons” and “Someone to Watch Over Me.” The first disc is completely Bing and Ella, while the second disc (unmarked on early versions) is largely Bing and Peggy Lee, with Fred Astaire guesting on 11 of the songs. Disc one has a heavy does of Christmas songs, which is great if that is what you expect. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is a hilarious gem. Any collection that offers this many quality tracks (some are live radio performances) is appreciated. Some may debate that one disc is better than the other (or that Ella duets better with Bing than Peggy) or that there are too many holiday tunes here. But a record that can inspire opinionated response is valuable. Some may even argue that adding Astaire (without any dance steps) to an album is like adding, well, not a lot. Those tracks, however, are actually fun comedic songs, including a cover of “Top Hat, White Tie and Tails” from Top Hat and a breathtaking “Kamehameha Day.” Bing Crosby With Ella Fitzgerald & Peggy Lee is both a definitive collection of these joint performances and a spring board to other releases. Who could ask for anything more? – JT Griffith

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