Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings

A reviewer for Variety wrote, "Bing Crosby's first wax trip away from Decca in more than 20 years is a happy musical excursion...Altogether it is quite a musical package - muscular and tender, driving and romantic, pulsating and lyrical. For Bing Crosby, the artist, it is a somewhat different testament to add to the many already on record and, as you will hear, an ingeniously varied and durable one."[3]

Billboard liked it, too, saying, "This is Bing's first album on Verve, and he draws support from a modern, swinging group of musicians. – The package contains a list of great tunes which Bing never recorded before; reason enough to make this attractive to the faithful. Tunes include 'Mountain Greenery', 'Blue Room', 'Have You Met Miss Jones', and other great ones, most dating from the golden age of show music. Bregman orchestrated the songs brightly, and Bing sings them with his casual charm and technical perfection."[4]

In its review Time magazine said, "After 22 years of making records for Decca — plus a few before even Decca latched onto him — Bing Crosby steps out with a handful of oldies on a new label, proves himself virtually indestructible. It is only when he tries to swing too high that he begins to sound his age (52)."

Record producer Ken Barnes, wrote, "This popular album has been re-issued many times on various labels over the years. As an example of Crosby's art it is something of an enigma. On the one hand the choice of songs is impeccable – beautifully written standards like 'They All Laughed,' 'The Song Is You,' 'Have You Met Miss Jones', and 'September in the Rain' and Bing's singing, for the most part, is exemplary. But, on the other hand, it is very difficult to accept Buddy Bregman seriously as a reliable orchestral accompanist. His writing can be reasonably tasteful on tracks like 'They All Laughed,' 'Mountain Greenery', and 'The Blue Room', but his brass scoring is ham–fisted and bitterly distracting in 'Cheek to Cheek' and 'I've Got Five Dollars'. And one wonders how Bing ever managed to stay on pitch in the middle of 'Heat Wave' where Bregman has the orchestra playing suspect chords. Despite all these faults, it was refreshing at the time to hear Crosby with a modern-sounding orchestra and while this album is no match for Sinatra's 'Songs for Swingin' Lovers' classic LP, it was a step – albeit a hesitant one – in the right direction."[5]

Conrad Gozzo, Pete Candoli, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Maynard Ferguson (trumpets); Francis Howard, George Ulyate, Milt Bernhardt, George Roberts (trombones); Bud Shank, Maurice Stein, Ted Nash, Bob Cooper, Chuck Gentry (saxophones); Paul Smith (piano); Barney Kessel (guitar); Joe Mondragon (bass); Alvin Stoller (drums).[6]