Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Christmas In July 2012-Part 11

The problem with recording my shares too far in advance is that I forget where they came from.  I can't remember the cover of the LP or where I found the record.  Sometimes I'll pull the record down off the shelf where I put them after recording them and try to remember something interesting about it.  Like the Martin Denny track I shared the other day, I wanted to mention the fact that Ferde Grofe wrote the brief liner notes on that one.  But I forgot all about it when I was writing up the track listing.  I do at least try to listen to the tracks again while posting, that way I can remember which ones are good and which ones are, well, not so good.  Have I ever tossed one for not being very good?  No, not really.  Couple of times I've not finished recording one because I really couldn't by any stretch of the imagination relate it back to Christmas, but that's pretty rare.  Anyhow, I'm just blathering on here, and I'm sure you don't care.  Let's get on to the shares for this evening.

1. Skaters' Waltz by the Military Band Organ from the LP Merry Go Round Music For The Young In Heart (Golden Crest CR 3054, Mono, 1959).  Supposedly, there are a bunch of these old music machines at the old car museum right up the road, but I've never been.  I'm not even certain they still have them, but I know they used to because I've found recordings of them.

2. Waltz Of The Flowers From The Nutcracker Suite by The Grand Rapids Youth Symphony-Daniel Kovats, Music Director And Conductor, from the album In Concert-The Grand Rapids Youth Symphony (Abbott SS-18653-01, Mono, 1970).  Some days I don't even look at the back of these school-produced albums, because I think I really don't need another one.  But then I turn them over anyway and find yet another Christmas track I need.

3. Gloucestershire Wassail by Chamber Singers-Robert Summer, Conductor, from that same old LP I've shared tracks from with you so many times before, University Of South Florida Chamber Singers And University Singers (Suncoast Recording Service KM4471, Stereo, 1979).  At least they're pretty good songs, right?

4. Ice Run by Rick Wakeman from the soundtrack to the 1976 Winter Olympics, White Rock (A&M SP-4614, Stereo, 1977).  OK, maybe not the soundtrack to the Games themselves, but at least a soundtrack to the film they released showcasing the games.

5. March of The Dwarfs by Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra Conducted By Earl Bernard Murray from the compilation LP Pomp And Circumstance (Capitol SP 8620, Stereo, 1965).  I first discovered Grieg's March Of The Dwarfs last year, and thought it made an excellent Christmas track, I hope you agree. This is the second track I've found tonight where I made a typo in the MP3 tags.  I need an intern!

6.Put A Little Love In Your Heart by The Mike Curb Congregation and their album Come Together (CoBurt Records CO 1002, Stereo, 1970).  I think this got nudged towards being a Christmas song when Annie Lennox and Al Green covered it on the soundtrack to Scrooged!.  I know the video showed lots of fake snow...

7. Snow Is Falling (From Part 4 "Winter") by The Budapest Children's Choir-Valeria Botka And Dr. Laszlo Czanyi, Directors, from that other frequently excerpted LP, The Budapest Children's Choir At Carnegie Hall (RCA Victor Red Seal LSC-2861, Stereo, 1966).  I like it!

8. Sun Valley Twist, an interesting take by Hap Miller And The Hap Miller Sun Valley Orchestra from the LP It Happened In Sun Valley (Stanal Records S-1010, Stereo, 1964).  Twist to your hearts content!


9. Toyland by Pupi Prado And His Orchestra from the budget LP Cha Cha Cha (Celebrity UTS, Stereo).  Pretty sure this track has shown up more than once around here under various names and artists.  Look for Fred Sateriale and Toyland Cha Cha Cha.  Same performance.  :(


10. We Need A Little Christmas by Skitch Henderson & The Tonight Show Orchestra from the LP Broadway Tonight! Skitch Henderson & The Tonight Show Orchestra Play Music From "Mame" (Columbia CS 9318, Stereo, 1966).  This is a rerun from year's past, this may be the first appearance here in stereo.  Maybe.  Hard to tell, I didn't pay too much attention to that in the old days and didn't differentiate.  I think plenty of those early shares were mono records recorded in stereo.  What did I know?


11. What Child Is This by St. Olaf Lutheran Choir-Conducted By Olaf C. Christiansen from the LP Fifty Golden Years (Mercury SR 60728, Stereo, 1962), another rerun from years gone by.


12. What Month Was Jesus Born In?, a great little song you don't hear too often by Odetta from her LP Odetta At Town Hall (Vanguard VSD-2109, Stereo, 1962).  I remember seeing mention of a Christmas album from Odetta on the back of this LP, I'll have to hunt that down, I don't think I've heard it before.


13. Wintertime by Arthur Lee Harper from his LP Dreams And Images (LHI/ABC S12,000, Produced by Lee Hazlewood, Stereo, 1968).  I think Lee Hazlewood did his best work with Nancy Sinatra, but you may like it.  Oh, almost forgot, the record jacket only identifies him as Arthur, but his other work gives his full name.  I put both in the track tags.


And that's it.  Hope you enjoyed tonight's installment.  It's nice not to have to struggle and record stuff on the same night I'm sharing it.  Now I can record stuff at leisure, or I can go watch River Monsters on TV.  We'll see what wins out.  Here's the link, have fun with it.


MediaFire

Why is the HTML so screwed up in this post? I do not like posting from Chrome!

4 comments:

  1. Just a suggestion ... works for me in other areas so I thought it may help you ... ymmv

    When you record the track "xx Song - Artist.mp3" also create a text file "xx Song - Artist.txt" that has all the info about that track. That way you do it while it's still fresh in your memory and the two files sit together (assuming you sort on name) in your music directory/folder. Same thing applies if you're doing the cover ... "xx Song - Artist.jpg" When it comes time to post all the pieces are there ready to process.

    Hope this helps, or gives you an idea for something else that works for you.

    As always, mondo thanks for the tunes. You have enhanced our Christmas' for years and your "catolog" just keeps on keeping on.

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  2. Thanks, Blue, but you're vastly underestimating my laziness. :)

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  3. Ernie, here's a rip of Odetta's "Christmas Spirituals". I wish I could remember which Sharity blog I picked it up from. At the time, I had no idea how much of this classic Christmas stuff I would end up accumulating.

    http://www.mediafire.com/?xlfm1f4p6oq2u25

    Give it a listen come August or September when you have a chance and decide if the vinyl is worth pursuing.

    Thanks again for all the work you've put into making July merry and bright.

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  4. Thanks, Chris. If it was up for Sharity somewhere, there's probably a better than even chance I found it. But I'll download it and give it a listen. And Christmas vinyl is always worth pursuing. :)

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