Songs I Wish I Had Sung the First Time Around Songs I Wish I Had Sung the First Time Around Songs I Wish I Had Sung the First Time Around was Bing Crosby's fourth album for Decca and his fifth LP, recorded and originally released in 1956 on vinyl as Decca DL 8352. This was a concept album of sorts, as Bing covered some of his musical rivals' big hits, such as Al Jolson's "April Showers" and Nat King Cole's "Mona Lisa". The jazz historian Will Friedwald wrote that the album "was essentially Crosby's way of acknowledging that he wasn't the only male singer to create hits and standards". Crosby
The Jazz Singer cost for "The Jazz Singer" was $422,000 (approximately US$5.76 million in 2015 dollars)—a large sum, especially for Warner Bros., which rarely spent more than $250,000. It was by no means a record for the studio, however; two features starring John Barrymore had been costlier: "The Sea Beast" (1926), a loose and entirely silent adaptation of "Moby-Dick", at $503,000 and "Don Juan" at $546,000. Nonetheless, the outlay constituted a major gamble in light of the studio's financial straits: while "The Jazz Singer" was in production, Harry Warner stopped taking a salary, pawned jewelry belonging to his wife, and moved his family