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''Cowboy Songs, Vol. One'' is a compilation album of phonograph records by Bing Crosby released in 1947 featuring songs with western themes. This was one of ten 78rpm albums featuring Crosby that were issued in 1947 to capitalize on his enormous popularity at that time. He had enjoyed unprecedented fame during the 1940s with his discography showing six No. 1 hits in 1944 alone. His films such as Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary's were huge successes as were the Road films he made with Bob Hope. On radio, his Kraft Music Hall and Philco Radio Time shows were very popular. Decca Records built on this by issuing a number of 78rpm album sets, some featuring freshly recorded material and others utilizing Crosby's back catalog. ==Background== Crosby had recorded cowboy songs for the first time in 1933 and he had a huge hit with "The Last Round-Up" that year on the Brunswick label. He recorded Home on the Range for the first time then also. Commenting on these early recordings, the writer Gary Giddins said "…it anticipated the golden age of gentle-voiced singing cowboys and the Irish sentiment of John Ford westerns that followed on their heels." Moving on to the Decca label, Crosby had huge hits with "I’m an Old Cowhand", "Empty Saddles" and "Mexicali Rose". He also charted with "My Little Buckaroo" and "There’s a Gold Mine in the Sky". Crosby researcher Fred Reynolds discussed one of the songs in his book. “"I'm an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)" had been used in the film “Rhythm on the Range” when it had been a musical high spot in a campfire scene which had the whole cast clapping and stomping. The commercial recording was the first recording by Crosby of a song by Johnny Mercer and it proved to be the right occasion, the right singer and the right orchestra for a hit of spectacular dimensions that eventually sold over a million. Forget that procession of long-homed cattle moving in a haze of dust hustled by lasso-waving cowboys in gritty frontier tradition. From the brief but boisterous introduction the listener knows that a special treat is in store. Bing sings the first verse happily indicating that he could hardly be considered a representative of the old west; in fact he "never saw a cow", doesn't know how to rope a steer and has no intention of ever doing so. That, however, doesn't deter him from "yippi-hiing" with all the bandsmen joining in. The band then takes over for two verses, first instrumentally, with trumpet lead, and then vocally to proclaim that they, too, are "old cowhands" who have come to town to hear the band. Bing sings the next verse and following the first line Fud Livingston, Charleston-born, calls out in a rich southern accent, "Oh yes sir, Mr Bing" to which Crosby half turning from the microphone (indicating that the interruption was spontaneous) banters "Too hot for you, Uncle Fud?" and continues the song without hesitation or pause. It is the essence of the joyous spirit of the recording. Jimmy Dorsey (clt) leads the band in a short, bright interlude, Bing sings a final stanza and the bandsmen exemplify the general abandon by singing a "yippi-hi" coda and everyone has joined in the fun of an exuberant performance. Crosby points the lyrics with all his considerable skill and some superb lines while his tempo and melody changes are charged with an inherent, simmering jazz feeling. The band, so obviously in buoyant mood, matches Bing all the way and the only verdict on this recording can be a triple-tie - Bing, the band and Johnny Mercer.” Also, Gary Giddins considered Bing's recording of “Mexicali Rose” in his biography of Crosby saying: “Bing sang "Mexicali Rose" for four months on the air before making a record that infused it with the vivid and wistful melancholy he had used to transform so many commonplace and even trite songs (“Home on the Range," "Black Moonlight"). He made the song resonate as a quasi-western hymn for the last days of the Depression. Autry reclaimed it a year later in a movie of the same name, but in his or anyone else's hands, it was merely a sentimental love song. Bing's interpretation produced a frisson, an eerily palpable suggestion of what the times sounded and felt like. We tend to recall 1938 with the images of swing - stomping feet and flying skirts. "Mexicali Rose" renders the flip side, far from the ballrooms, where the night is black, inert. And full of longing. The force of his reading transcends the lyric and its southwestern setting." Decca issued several 78 albums of Crosby's cowboy songs and the first appeared in 1939 and was soon followed by Under Western Skies in 1941. Sensing that there was still an appetite for these songs, Decca followed up with this album in 1947 and a year later with Cowboy Songs, Volume 2 (see below). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cowboy Songs, Vol. One (Bing Crosby album)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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