Christmas With And Without
Bear with me a little bit, I'm going to try to keep all this straight. My share tonight is Christmas With Arthur Godfrey And All The Little Godfreys. Problem is, that's not just a single album. First I had the one shown above. I've had it for years but it was all scratched up and wouldn't play. Then I found another one that I could play and I recorded it. Then while searching for The McGuire Sisters Christmas LP, a search came back with this LP. Well, not exactly this LP. Look close at the LP cover shown below, and you'll seed that there is an extra Christmas ornament on the wreath, and sure enough, who's in that ornament but the McGuire Sisters! So I tracked down another copy of the LP, and there are the McGuire girls performing Frosty The Snowman. Reading up a little on Mr. Godfrey, I see that he wasn't the easiest guy in the world to get along with, so maybe he got in a tif with the McGuires, and removed their song from his album. So, what you're going to download is my original rip of the McGuire-less LP, with an added track in there of just the McGuire Sisters song. So you'll see that there are two track 7's. Now, did you follow all that? But what about the green cover down at the bottom of this post? Well, that's a 3x7" EP version of the album that I was recording just for kicks to see if I could get cleaner copies. (I didn't get cleaner copies. In fact, some of the songs from the EP have skips in them. I throw them in there just so you can see they are actually shorter, I don't expect you to actually listen to them.) It turns out that the EP version has edited versions of several songs. And you though collecting Beatle records was complicated! Just for the search engines, the other artists on these albums include Julius La Rosa, Janette Davis, Frank Parker, Marion Marlowe, The Mariners, Lu Ann Simms and Haleloke Kajauolopua.
So here are your download links: Christmas With Arthur Godfrey And All The Little Godfreys (Columbia 12" LP, CL 540, 1953) or Christmas With Arthur Godfrey And All The Little Godfreys (Columbia 3x 7" 45 RPM EP, B-348, 1953). And just to confuse matters more, I spotted the EP set in a little box today (mine is a multi-sleeve envelope type format), as well as three different single 45s. Did I mention that after all that, the music on here is surprisingly good. No wonder this guy was on TV for so long.
Stand by for more, much less complicated, Arthur Godfrey!
Update: This one is out on CD now, although it's a little hard to tell. There's a collection on the Jasmine label that includes all the songs from this LP, plus all the songs from the McGuire Sisters Christmas LP. Not sure how they got stuck on there, but who am I to question how such things work. You can order this from Amazon via this link.
Ernie, what's strange about this is, that with the McGuire Sisters Frosty The Snowman, it actually is 19 "Christmas Favorites", not 18.
ReplyDeleteI'm now wondering if the McGuire Sisters were indeed added later but they didn't want to change the cover or title because if they were dropped, then there should have been 19 from the beginning.
Ah, good point, but I thought about that. One of the tracks is a medley on the McGuire Sisters version (The Mariners-Deck The Halls/God Rest Ye). So I think they count that as one track on the McGuire version, and two tracks on the McGuire-less version. The had to change the artwork anyway, replacing the McGuire sisters with solo pictures of Frank and Marion. I still think the McGuire Sisters got yanked later, perhaps when they left Godfrey and started thie rlong association with Lawrence Welk.
ReplyDeleteI have the same album also, with the McGuire sisters, and like yours it's too scratchy to listen to but I do anyway. I re-recorded it on tape to preserve the 331/3 album. I'm desperately trying to find a clear or new copy of this album on c.d. somewhere, but no success. Your website is my first encounter that comes close to my search. I'm 61yrs. old now as of Dec. 29, I grew up watching Artur Godfrey on t.v. and still love to play this album every Christmas, hearing the scratches and all. What a wonderful time we all had every Christmas with this album along with my sister and brother also. I think some serious thought and planning should go into resurrecting this album with todays technology, into a new, clear cut version on c.d.
ReplyDeleteOn the first LP (Red)that has the McGuire Sisters (Frosty The Snowman), I have that exact album pictured , but it is on 78's and has 4 records, and the song by them is on record C348-2.Hope this helps.I relly enjoyed the music.
ReplyDeleteI have this same exact 4 record set and its in really good condition and all records in the jackets and the box. Looks like no scratches. I was wondering if your interested in purchasing these. If interested, please email me.
ReplyDeletejust noticed that the wreath on the album cover has different people than mine. I have more people showing on the cover? Don't know if that means anythingor not? Email if your interested.
ReplyDeleteYeah, there have been a couple more versions of this that have popped up since my original post. And it's available on CD, so I'm pretty much set. Thanks for the comment, though.
ReplyDeleteWould very much like to download the COLUMBIA 540 COPY. Any chance you could restore the link?
ReplyDeleteThanks so much!
Kind regards, Rob
I have an excellent, near mint, copy of the COLUMBIA 540, which I sent out to have it Professionally Converted to CD. It sounds much better than the Officially Released version (which has some Peaking/Distortion on some of the songs - Hi Notes). Mine sounds like it was released on CD, it's that good, in fact, awesome. Also, FYI, the songs on the 33-1/3 LP are longer versions than on the 45's & 78's. I don't know if this music has copyright issues or not, but I could make a copy, or upload it somewhere to download it to. I love this album, & would like to share it with others. Any ideas on how to do that ???. HRP.
ReplyDeleteIf it's on CD, and this one is, sharing it around these parts is off-limits. That's why I'm not sharing my copy. And yes, as I noted, the LP did have longer versions than the 45. I never played my 78s, so I couldn't tell you which ones those were.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of crummy CD transfers out there, but someone owns the rights to those, and I'm not going to cross them and their lawyers...
Hey, no problem, I know after so many years, that some old music & there copyrights expire, I just offered, that's all, & by the way, I bought the 2CD set when it came out in 2007 on the Jasmine Records label (I hope Jasmine Records is paying royalties to the proper people) & compared it to my (NOT CRAPPY) Professional Transfer, & my copy sounds 10 times better than the Jasmine Records release, which has a lot of distortion, especially on the Hi-Notes. This is just personal observation on my part, so please don't take offense to my offer or comments. Anyway, Great Site, to all, Happy Hollidays !!! from HRP
ReplyDeleteI have the Godfrey album on 78 rpm records. I used some software to convert the tracks to reasonable sounding stuff. I grew up with this album as my father bought the album for our family to enjoy. It is nice to be able to preserve the original. The 78 rpm version does have the McGuire sisters "Frosty" on it! Many of my Christmas memories are associated with this album.
ReplyDeleteMy dad used to play this album every christmas..... I´d like very much to have it on digital but couldn´t find the download links on the post, please help and merry christmas
ReplyDelete