Bing Crosby – The Emperor Waltz

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Bing Crosby – The Emperor Waltz
Selections from The Emperor Waltz (album cover).jpg
Studio album by Bing Crosby
Released Original 78 album: 1948
Recorded January / March 1947
Genre Popular
Length11:52
Label Decca Records
Bing Crosby chronology
Selections from Showboat
(1947)		Bing Crosby – The Emperor Waltz
(1948)		 St. Valentine's Day
(1948)

Bing Crosby – The Emperor Waltz is an album of phonograph records by Bing Crosby of songs featured in his film The Emperor Waltz .

Bing Crosby American singer and actor

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. The first multimedia star, Crosby was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1931 to 1954. His early career coincided with recording innovations that allowed him to develop an intimate singing style that influenced many male singers who followed him, including Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Dick Haymes, and Dean Martin. Yank magazine said that he was "the person who had done the most for the morale of overseas servicemen" during World War II. In 1948, American polls declared him the "most admired man alive", ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII. Also in 1948, Music Digest estimated that his recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music.

<i>The Emperor Waltz</i> 1948 film by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder

The Emperor Waltz is a 1948 American musical film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Bing Crosby and Joan Fontaine. Written by Wilder and Charles Brackett, the film is about a brash American gramophone salesman in Austria at the turn of the twentieth century who tries to convince Emperor Franz Joseph to buy a gramophone so the product will gain favor with the Austrian people. The Emperor Waltz was inspired by a real-life incident involving Franz Joseph I of Austria. Filmed on location in Jasper National Park in Canada, the film premiered in London, Los Angeles, and New York in the spring of 1948, and was officially released in the United States July 2, 1948. In 1949, the film received Academy Award nominations for Best Costume Design and Best Music, as well as a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for Best Written American Musical.

Contents

Background

This was not a soundtrack recording as Crosby recorded the songs separately some months after completing the film in September 1946. A song called "Get Yourself a Phonograph" had been recorded for the film but was eventually omitted. Crosby had previously recorded "I Kiss Your Hand, Madame" on May 24, 1929 [1] with a trio giving support but this time he has the benefit of a full orchestral backing. The song "The Kiss in Your Eyes" was adapted from a slow waltz called "Im Chambre séparée" ("Separate Rooms") written by Richard Heuberger. "Friendly Mountains" was arranged by Joseph J. Lilley based on original Swiss airs and the music for "Emperor Waltz" was written by Johann Strauss the younger in 1888. [2] Johnny Burke wrote the lyrics for the last three mentioned tunes.

Richard Heuberger Austrian composer

Richard Franz Joseph Heuberger was an Austrian composer of operas and operettas, a music critic, and teacher.

Joseph J. Lilley (1913–1971) was an American composer. He was nominated at the 32nd Academy Awards for Li'l Abner in Best Musical Score.

Kaiser-Walzer waltz by Johann Strauss Jr.

Kaiser-Walzer, Op. 437 is a waltz composed by Johann Strauss II in 1889. The waltz was originally titled Hand in Hand and was intended as a toast made in August of that year by Emperor of Austria Franz Joseph I on the occasion of his visit to the German Emperor Wilhelm II where it was symbolic as a 'toast of friendship' extended by Austria-Hungary to the German Empire.

Reception

The album reached the No. 2 spot in the Billboard best-selling popular record albums chart on August 7, 1948. It was 9th in the year's top-selling popular record albums listing. [3]

<i>Billboard</i> (magazine) American music magazine

Billboard is an American entertainment media brand owned by the Billboard-Hollywood Reporter Media Group, a division of Eldridge Industries. It publishes pieces involving news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style, and is also known for its music charts, including the Hot 100 and Billboard 200, tracking the most popular songs and albums in different genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates several TV shows.

Track listing

These songs were featured on a 2-disc, 78 rpm album set, Decca Album No. A-620. [4]

Side / TitleWriter(s)Recording datePerformed withTime
Disc 1 (24204):
A. "Friendly Mountains" Johnny Burke March 17, 1947 Victor Young and His Orchestra 3:04
B. "The Kiss in Your Eyes" Richard Heuberger, Johnny Burke January 17, 1947 Victor Young and His Orchestra 3:01
Disc 2 (24170):
A. "I Kiss Your Hand, Madame" Sam M. Lewis, Joe Young, Ralph Erwin January 17, 1947 Victor Young and His Orchestra 3:09
B. "Emperor Waltz" Johann Strauss, Johnny Burke March 17, 1947 Victor Young and His Orchestra 2:38

[5]

LP releases

The songs from A-620 were included in the 10" vinyl LP Top o' the Morning / Emperor Waltz issued by Decca Records in 1950 with catalog No. DL 5272. In 1962, the songs were also included in the Decca 12" LP But Beautiful (DL 4260) in the 15 part Bing's Hollywood series.

<i>Top o the Morning / Emperor Waltz</i> 1950 studio album by Bing Crosby. Ann Blyth

Top o' the Morning / Emperor Waltz is a Decca Records studio album of phonograph records by Bing Crosby of songs from his movies Top o' the Morning and The Emperor Waltz, catalog number DL 5272.

<i>Bings Hollywood vols.1-15</i> 1962 compilation album by Bing Crosby

The Bing’s Hollywood series was a Decca Records 15-album set by Bing Crosby of commercial recordings of songs used in his films from 1934 to 1956. Numbered in order from Decca DL4250 to DL4264, the LPs included "Easy to Remember", "Pennies from Heaven", "Pocket Full of Dreams", "East Side of Heaven", "The Road Begins", "Only Forever", "Holiday Inn", "Swinging on a Star", "Accentuate the Positive", "Blue Skies", "But Beautiful", "Sunshine Cake", "Cool of the Evening", "Zing a Little Zong" and "Anything Goes." In the UK, Brunswick Records issued the set with the numbers BING1 to BING 15. In 1988 MCA Universal began reissuing "Bing's Hollywood" on compact disc, but poor sales abruptly halted the series following the release of "Holiday Inn", "Swinging on a Star" and "Blue Skies."

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References

  1. ↑ Reynolds, Fred. The Crosby Collection 1926-1977 (Part One 1926-1934 ed.). John Joyce. pp. 82–83.
  2. ↑ Reynolds, Fred. The Crosby Collection 1926-1977 (Part Three 1942-50 ed.). John Joyce. pp. 178–182.
  3. ↑ "Billboard". Billboard. January 1, 1949.
  4. ↑ "DISCOGS.COM". discogs.com. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  5. ↑ "A Bing Crosby Discography". A Bing Crosby Discography. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
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