This is a list of Bing Crosby songs he recorded twice or more during his career, excluding all of the 1954 re-recordings for Bing: A Musical Autobiography.
Christmas songs
Silent Night
Bing's holiday recordings began in 1935, when it was suggested that he record Silent Night and Adeste Fideles for the St. Columban Foreign Missionary Society. In a magazine article, Crosby gave the background to this.
"Late that year (1934), a missionary priest, Father Richard Ranaghan, came into the office of Crosby Enterprises. A member of the St. Columban Missionary Fathers, he had just come from their mission in China with a film showing the work done there. He planned to travel over the United States, showing the film in parish auditoriums to raise funds, and wanted to borrow some sound equipment to record a narration. No problem to this, and in the ensuing discussion, my brother Larry came up with an idea. “Bing,” he suggested, “why don’t you sing a couple ·of songs for the narration sound track?” Who suggested “Silent Night” and “Adeste Fideles” I do not know, only I do know it was not I. Very possibly it was the good padre himself. In any event, the whole incident was just that casual. No special vocal arrangements were worked out, no particular method of styling devised. I just sang the way I sang other songs. That the hymns were a far cry from the romantic ballads and popular tunes I was accustomed to singing and that they might possibly have called for a different approach never occurred to us. The sound track turned out pretty well, and Father was enthusiastic. Then Larry hit upon another bright idea—that we cut some records of “Silent Night” and “Adeste Fideles” from the sound track for Father to take along with him. He figured that some members of the audience might buy them and thus add to the fund. The records sold well, and both sides were played over the radio in several of the towns where the film was shown. Record shops began to get inquiries. Decca, learning of these requests, suggested I cut a master record of the two hymns for them. I sang the songs in exactly the same way, but with fuller orchestral backing. The record had all immediate sale. Letters began to come in, both congratulatory and critical. Not to my knowledge, however, were there ever any complaints from religious groups or from the clergy of any denomination. Most of the protests came from music teachers and music critics. They said that neither my voice nor my styling was suited to such spiritual songs. In answering the letters, I told the simple truth—that I had intended no sacrilege by singing in my usual ballad manner. I added that the record’s sale must have brought those two beautiful songs closer to many people who had not known them too well before. The explanation evidently satisfied the critics, for all but one wrote back friendly and understanding notes…"
Bing arranged for the profits from the record to be donated to charity.
2/21/1935- Crosby made his first recording for St. Columban Foreign Missionary Society. It was released on CD in 1998. 11/13/1935- Crosby made his second recording of the song on DLA 261 and this version charted in December 1935, December 1938 and December 1941. The disc was included in the Decca 78rpm album Christmas Music. 6/8/1942- Crosby made another recording of the song and it was included on Bing's compilation holiday album Merry Christmas 3/19/1947-Crosby made yet another recording of the song (the same day he re-recorded White Christmas) because Decca said that the master recordings for "White Christmas" and "Silent Night" had worn out because they stamped a lot of records. This was released in 1947 and went into the Billboard charts in December of that year. This version appears in all later incarnations of Merry Christmas.
White Christmas
White Christmas by far is Bing's biggest hit and the entire world's, since it has sold over 50 million copies; No song has ever come close to matching it. There are two versions of this song that were recorded in the studio and many outside of that used for TV and radio.