Bing Crosby - Fancy Meeting You Here (1958) and similar items

Catalog Number: LPM-1854 Condition Details: Vinyl plays with occasional light-crackles (play-graded). Cover has a few creases near edges; light-scuffing and surface impressions (front/back); slight discoloration with darker discoloration spots on back. Inner-sleeve is original (RCA ads); seams partially split. Spine is mostly easy-to-read with mild-wear. Shelf-wear along top/bottom-edge and corners. Split near right of top-edge and center of bottom-edge. Opening is crisp with signs of light use and divots. (Not a cut-out.) Tracks: Fancy Meeting You Here On A Slow Boat To China I Can't Get Started Hindustan It Happened In Monterey You Came A Long Way From St. Louis Love Won't Let You Get Away How About You Brazil Isle Of Capri Say "Si Si" (Para Vigo Me Voy) Calcutta Love Won't Let You Get Away About The Record: Fancy Meeting You Here is an album of duets by Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney, arranged by Billy May, who also conducted the orchestra. The album was originally issued in both mono and stereo, catalog numbers LPM/LSP 1854. Fancy Meeting You Here is an early example of a concept album, the 13 songs combining romance and travel with songwriters Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen contributing introductory and concluding versions of Love Won't Let You Get Away as well as a new tune called Fancy Meeting You Here. Cahn wrote special lyrics to standards like How About You? and I Can't Get Started that reflected the late 1950s and the personalities of the two stars. Billy May conducted, and contributed his usual bouncy and lively arrangements. All of that served as a setting for the always enjoyable interaction between Crosby and Clooney. In 1969, the album was reissued on the budget RCA Camden label under the title Rendezvous with a truncated and re-sequenced track listing and different cover artwork. This reissue destroyed the concept of the original album, and the abridgment, which omitted the first version of Love Won't Let You Get Away as well as "Calcutta" and Isle of Capri, further voided the concept. Following the death of Bing Crosby in October 1977, the 1958 RCA Victor stereo LP was reissued with its original title and artwork with the catalog number AFL1-1854.