Hugo's The Boss, Part One
Continuing on with great stuff that isn't on CD, here's an excellent set of Christmas tunes from Hugo Winterhalter that I first shared out last year. I think I wondered then about the inclusion of two tracks that didn't seem very Christmassy, "Swingin' On A Star" and "Second Star On The Right". Well, I think I have the answer now. During the past year, I stumbled upon the 10" LP shown below. It's also titled Christmas Magic (RCA Victor LPM 3132), it's also by Hugo Winterhalter, and it's got all the tracks from this release, save the two oddballs in question. So my suspicion is that RCA wanted to re-release this older record on 12" for the budget Camden line, but they wanted to fill up the vinyl. Unable to find any other actual Christmas tracks, they stuck in what they had, which was a couple of tracks with the word 'star' in the title. Sound reasonable? Then that's the story I'm going to stick to. Anyhow, this is really, really good music, so download it without delay. Here's Hugo Winterhalter And His Orchestra And Chorus-Christmas Magic (RCA Camden CAL-449, 1958). Stay tuned for some bonus tracks!
Ernie,
ReplyDeleteBoth "Second Star on the Right" and "Swinging on a Star" have been hijacked for countless Christmas albums--and both work in this context. So I don't think you have to apologize for their inclusion on Mr. Winterhalter's senational album. Look how "When You Wish Upan A Star" has become a Christmas standard. Thanks for all your postings. And I think you should not neglect the McGuire Sisters album in its entirety.