Two army buddies (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) team up after the war and become a successful song-and-dance act. While on a skiing holiday the pair stage a benefit to save an inn run by their old commander, who is beset by financial difficulties resulting from a lack of snow. The title song, `White Christmas', was actually written 12 years earlier for the film `Holiday Inn' and was already a Christmas standard in 1954.

Two army buddies (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) team up after the war and become a successful song-and-dance act. While on a skiing holiday the pair stage a benefit to save an inn run by their old commander, who is beset by financial difficulties resulting from a lack of snow. The title song, `White Christmas', was actually written 12 years earlier for the film `Holiday Inn' and was already a Christmas standard in 1954.

Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby) and Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire) are a successful song and dance double act until Jim decides to retire and become a gentleman farmer following Ted's seduction of his girlfriend. Jim fails as a farmer, but decides to convert his property to an inn that is only open on public holidays. He also finds happiness with the lovely Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds) - that is, until Ted shows up! Packed with Irving Berlin songs, including 'Let's Say It With Firecrackers' and 'Easter Parade'. This is also the film which introduced 'White Christmas', a song that won an Oscar and spawned the movie with the same title in 1954.

Collection of five musicals from the 1940s and '50s. 'Annie Get Your Gun' (1950) stars Betty Hutton as backwoods sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Plucked out of obscurity by Buffalo Bill (Louis Calhern), the rough-edged Annie is groomed for a leading role in Bill's world famous Wild West show. However, Annie has a rival in the form of rifleman Frank Butler (Howard Keel), a man she soon falls in love with. Songs include 'Anything You Can Do' and 'There's No Business Like Show Business'. In 'Easter Parade' (1948) Fred Astaire plays one half of a dance team who is ditched by his partner. Deciding he can make a star out of anyone he wants, he chooses a lowly chorus girl (Judy Garland) as his new partner. Songs include 'A Couple of Swells', 'Stepping Out With My Baby' and 'Shaking the Blues Away'. In 'Calamity Jane' (1953) Doris Day stars as the famous frontierswoman, who would rather hit targets than chase men - until she falls for 'Wild Bill' Hickok (Keel). However, he would rather shoot Indians than chase after a tomboy like Calamity Jane. Songs include 'The Black Hills of Dakota' and the Oscar-winning 'Secret Love'. 'High Society' (1956), based on 'The Philadelphia Story' play by Philip Barry, stars Grace Kelly as socialite Tracy Lord who, even as she prepares for her second marriage, still has obvious feelings for her ex-husband (Bing Crosby). She also strikes up a friendship with a reporter (Frank Sinatra), who has been sent to cover her society wedding. Songs include 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' and the famous Crosby/Sinatra duet 'Well, Did You Evah'. 'Meet Me in S.Louis' (1944) follows Esther Smith (Garland), a young woman from St. Louis who falls in love with the boy next door. The film is set in 1904, when the city hosted the World's Fair. Songs include 'Meet Me in St. Louis', 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' and 'The Trolley Song'.

Disney's eleventh animated feature includes two separate stories. First, Basil Rathbone narrates the tale of 'The Wind in the Willows', in which the foolish Mr Toad tries the patience of his friends Badger, Ratty and Mole through his obsession with motor cars. Next, Bing Crosby tells the tale of 'Sleepy Hollow', in which nervous teacher Ichabod Crane's budding romance with the lovely Katrina is threatened when he sights the ghostly horseman who reputedly haunts the town.

Reissued to coincide with the paperback publication of the definitive Bing biography by Gary Giddins, here is "a collection of anecdotes and reminiscences that is as warm and witty as any Crosby performance. [Bing] could have surely become a full-time writer had his schedule not been taken up with being one of the great entertainers of the century." -Will Friedwald