Saturday, December 18, 2010

Ring Those Bells 2

If you liked that last album with the hand bells, you'll like this one to, because it's more of the same.  What makes this one more interesting is that it's one of the very first albums to come out on Audio Fidelity, one of the great labels of the fifties and sixties.  This one predates the invention of the stereo record, so it's mono, and that may help explain why it's so hard to find today.  There wasn't much call for monophonic music on an audiophile oriented label like Audio Fidelity, so it was never reissued.  Many of the releases on Audio Fidelity are staples of the used bins at thrift stores, but I'd never seen this one before.  My front cover looks like you see it above, but it's a somewhat unique gatefold cover that opens from the center of the back side.  (I've seen and shared something similar here.).  When I found a copy on eBay while researching this, their copy didn't look like mine, and it took me a while to figure it out.  Their inside is my outside.  So I don't know which way is correct.  On mine, the outside looks like this:
And the inside looks like this:
If mine's been folded inside out, it's been like that for a long time.  I didn't want to force it back the other way, and it really didn't want to go.  So take your pick of what you want to call the inside and outside, front or back.  The music here is similar to that last handbell record I shared, only it's mono, and a bit more sedate.  You can download it for the music or as an historical curio from one of the great, yet gone, labels.  This is The Berkshire Bell Ringers-Berkshire Bell Ringers (Audio Fidelity AFLP 1804, Mono, 1956).

1. O Come All Ye Faithful
2. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
3. Cantique De Noel (O Holy Night)
4. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
5. Joy To The World
6. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
7. Hark The Herald Angels Sing
8. Silent Night
9. First Noel
10. I Wonder As I Wander
11. We Three Kings
12. Carol Of The Bells
13. Rise Up Shepherds And Foller
14. Good King Wencelas (It says 'Wencelas' on both the labels and the sleeve...)

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