At My Time of Life

Studio album by Bing Crosby

Released

June, 1976

Recorded

February, 1975

Genre

Vocal

Length

45:00

Label

United Artists (UAS-29956)

Producer

Ken Barnes

Bing Crosby chronology

Tom Sawyer
(1975)

At My Time of Life
(1976)

Bing Crosby Live at the London Palladium
(1976)

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Allmusic

At My Time of Life is a 1976 vinyl album recorded by Bing Crosby for United Artists, mostly at Chappells Studios in London in February 1975. He was accompanied by Pete Moore and his Orchestra.

The songs from the album were included on a 3-CD set called “Bing Crosby – The Complete United Artists Sessions” issued by EMI Records (7243 59808 2 4) in 1997. This included several previously unreleased alternate takes and studio chat.

In January 1974, Crosby was seriously ill and after two weeks of tests, he underwent three and a half hours of major surgery. Two-fifths of his left lung and an abscess the size of a small orange were removed. The tumor was a rare fungus called nocardia. There were concerns initially that he would not be able to sing again and his recuperation took many months. Record producer, Ken Barnes, later heard that Bing was thinking of recording again and he quickly presented his credentials and eventually met Crosby on September 9, 1974 at the singer’s home. Arrangements were soon made for two albums to be made in London. Bing flew to London on February 18, 1975 and that afternoon visited the Chappells recording studio. He was shown the vocal booth where he would be singing but said that he did not want to work in that way. He wanted to be with the band and said, “I didn’t come seven thousand miles to sing to a pane of glass.” This worried sound engineer John Timperley who was concerned about separation problems because of the large orchestra which was to be used. Crosby was adamant however and, in the event, he successfully overcame the problems of recording in front of a full orchestra.

Over a period of eight days, Crosby, in six sessions, recorded twenty five tracks. Eleven of the tracks were issued on an LP called That's What Life Is All About. Thirteen, with the addition of the title song to be recorded in 1976, were issued on this album and the final recording was included with eleven others made in 1976 and issued on an LP called Beautiful Memories.

Full details are not given but the 3-CD set “Bing Crosby – The Complete United Artists Sessions” mentions the following:

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Wikipedia