Thanks to Will Friedwald for drawing my attention to this lovely miniature: Bing Crosby with guitarist Perry Botkin and an unidentified pianist working through what was a new James V. Monaco-Jimmy Van Heusen song, I’VE GOT A POCKETFUL OF DREAMS, with charm and swinging ease.
Dating this recording would be difficult, but I suggest early 1938, because the film it was written for opened in August. Its delightful informality — Bing jokes about Boris Morros, the film’s musical director — says that it was not a commercial recording but a demonstration of the new song, possibly for studio executives. Whatever the details, it’s delightful: Bing is at his cheerful best, his voice itself a thing of beauty, while Botkin provides a rich but light orchestral background, evoking Dick McDonough as well as Bing’s dear friend Eddie Lang. The pianist sticks to the melody but his accompaniment is fine, and the “Yes!” at the very end is the way I feel about this performance:
Please play this for anyone who suggests that once the Twenties were over, Crosby had no credibility as a jazz singer.
Postscript: About an hour after I’d posted it, a respected jazz critic who shall remain nameless wrote this to me:
I find this recording quite stiff. It sounds like everybody is sight reading the guitar. Solo is doll, the piano accompaniment is clunky and Bing, especially when he sings the word pocketful, sounds corny. This is certainly the worst recording. I can remember hearing of being. Nothing like the energetic jazzy of his earlier recordings, or the smooth suave delivery heard in his later recordings.
Well. You can’t please everyone, I guess.
May your happiness increase!
JAZZ LIVES 
I find this recording quite stiff. It sounds like everybody is sight reading the guitar. Solo is doll, the piano accompaniment is clunky and Bing, especially when he sings the word pocketful, sounds corny. This is certainly the worst recording. I can remember hearing of being. Nothing like the energetic jazzy of his earlier recordings, or the smooth suave delivery heard in his later recordings.
So sorry you do not hear it as I do!
We all have our own perspectives. Dialogue is good –
To my ears, Bing sounds relaxed and rhythmically supple. I say, a very musical performance fro, all invilved.
Pardon my typos. I meant to write, ” I say, a very musical performance from, all involved.
I like it, though it’s probably a first or second reading of the tune. Bing’s rhythmic feel and originality show up delightfully after the solos when he spreads “pocketful” over a quarter note triplet and has all kinds of fun with the bridge.
Cool to hear the evolution of this tune. Bing was certainly swinging that out chorus! I also love the versions by Barbara Lea & June Christy…this is a fun one to sing!