Holiday Inn - Road To Morocco - Two for tonight

They Say...

Review by William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

The release of soundtrack albums from motion pictures did not become common until the 1950s, and though Bing Crosby sang in his films and recorded studio versions of many of the same songs, the soundtracks to films like Two for Tonight (1935), Holiday Inn (1942), and Road to Morocco (1942) went unreleased on record. The Italian Great Movie Themes label makes up for this lack by combining actual soundtrack excerpts from these films in this CD. Bits of dialogue are heard, the performances are sometimes truncated for dramatic purposes, and the sound is a boxy mono. Crosby and his co-stars can be heard singing some of his biggest hits, however, including "White Christmas," "Be Careful, It's My Heart," and "Moonlight Becomes You." With 17 tracks, Holiday Inn has the lion's share of songs, compared to five each for Road to Morocco and Two for Tonight; it's also the only film here featuring songs that were depicted as onstage performances in the movie itself. The Irving Berlin score has a song for each of the major holidays, including "Let's Start the New Year Right" and "Easter Parade," in addition to "White Christmas." Crosby duets with Marjorie Reynolds and his co-star, Fred Astaire, and there are even instrumentals and a choral number when, onscreen, Astaire is dancing. Crosby is paired with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in Road to Morocco, and the title song is a comic delight, while Lamour gets a solo on "Constantly." The material is all by Crosby's usual songwriting team, James Van Heusen and Johnny Burke. Crosby handles all five vocals in Two for Tonight, which is basically filler, dating back to the 1930s, with material by Harry Revel and Mack Gordon. Crosby did, however, score chart hits with his studio recordings of three songs: "From the Top of Your Head," "Without a Word of Warning," and "I Wish I Were Aladdin." The album will be a welcome addition to the libraries of Crosby collectors.