Little Ralphie
Perhaps one of the greatest choral Christmas records that I've ever had the pleasure of sharing is staring you right in the face above. There is so much good music on this record that RCA had to issue it twice. The first time it came out, it was by The Ralph Hunter Choir as the record you see above. Couple years later, RCA decided it was so good it needed to come out again, so they released it as Living Voices Sing Christmas Music (RCA Camden CAS 725, Stereo, 1962). That cover is the one way down at the bottom of this post. I first shared this record in 2005, sourced from a beat-up Australian pressing of the record. Some of the tracks were so bad that I had to take them from a copy of the Living Voices version, which doesn't really matter since they are exactly the same. Last year I finally managed to track down a copy of the original record in great shape, so I recorded that one and shared it. And that's the share that I'm resharing with you this morning. If you ain't got it already, you'd better hurry up and download The Ralph Hunter Choir-Christmas Surprises From The Ralph Hunter Choir (RCA Victor LSP-2063, Stereo, 1959) before it's all downloaded out.
1. Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town
2. Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers
3. Jingle Bells
4. Winter Wonderland
5. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)
6. White Christmas
7. Wassail Song
8. Carol Medley: Joy To The World; God Rest ye Merry, Gentlemen; Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
9. The First Noel
10. Indian Christmas Carol
11. Latin Lullaby (Cancion De Cuna)
12. Silent Night
Awesome! The "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" is like Ravel's ultra-bizarre "L'enfant et les Sortileges". Just how I like it! Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this wonderful album, I'm enjoying it immensely!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ernie! Ralph hunter is THE definitive Christmas record form my childhood.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this AMAZING album. It's one I've been searching for years, and I only identified it by the cover. My favorite track is the Latin Lullaby: "Sleep my little one, sleep my little pumpkin head / If you do not sleep, the coyote eat you." Very Christmassy!
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you, thank you! This is one of the family favorite old Christmas albums that has gotten lost over the years. I just spent an hour doing an internet search on "the coyote eat me", the only lyrics we remember from one of my sister's fav carols from childhood. After many dead-ends I found you, and now we have the music again! We have/had the Living Voices version of this album.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas!