Off-Season

I have it on good authority that in the off-season, Santa enjoys hanging out at air shows.  No word on whether he's trading those reindeer in on a Blue Angel-powered sleigh, but perhaps.

Christmas And A Half 2012-Part 4

And that brings us to the final little bit of my Christmas And A Half Celebration, the last 18 tracks to bring us up to 78, all from 78s, both 10" and 12".  What's left here in my playlist?  Lots of flipsides to things I've already shared, but still plenty of good stuff that I'm happy to share.  Here we go...

61. Boogie Woogie Santa Claus-Patti Page With Orchestra Under The Direction Of Jack Rael.  OK, so shoot me, I shouldn't be sharing this one from 1950, but here it is.  Enjoy!

62. Happy Little Songs-Skip To My Lou, Polly Wolly Doodle, Arkansas Traveler, Jingle Bells-Mark Warnow And His Hit Parade Orchestra.  Only a little bit of Christmas on this one from 1945, the flip side to the Mark Warnow/Dick Todd I shared back on day 1.

63. Frosty The Snowman-Meadowlarks.  Budget label goodness! They crammed four tracks onto this 10" 78 that I was unable to date, and they're all pretty good.

64. (I'm Gettin') Nuttin' For Christmas-Ricky Zahnd & The Blue Jeaners With Tony Mottola Orchestra.  Are they all flip sides today?  Not quite, but close.  This one is from 1955's glut of covers of this hit for Barry Gordon.

65. I Wanna Do Something For Santa Claus-Johnny Bond.  Yes, the flip of the 1950 record from Bond that I shared earlier.  Another great track.

66. It's Christmas Time Again-Peggy Lee With Orchestra And Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires.  Yes, another one I shouldn't share, this time from 1953, but at least it's not a b-side.

67. A Letter To Santa-Bill Cook.  Also a flipside, also from 1950.  Ditto.

68. Little Merrie Christmas-Kathryn King With Savoy Orchestra.  Another flip, are you tired of them yet, this time I couldn't put a date on it.

69. The Night Before Christmas-Basil Rathbone With The Robert Mitchell Boychoir.  Another b-side from 1939, by Sherlock Holmes.

70. Santa Claus Tells About His Toy Shop-Gilbert Girard.  Another b-side, not by Buck Rogers in the 25th century, but a different Gil Girard in 1918.

71. Santa Got Stuck In The Chimney-Jimmy Boyd Accompanied By Norman Luboff.  Is this the B-side to one I've already shared, or another record altogether from Jimmy?  I'm too lazy to look. 1953 for this one.

72. Silent Night, Holy Night-Frances Langford With Eddie Dunstedter At The Organ.  Another flip from Frances the talking mule.  No, wait, that's not right.  Sorry, I'm being irreverent.  This is from 1938.

73. Snowflakes-Guy Lombardo And Evelyn Knight And The Royal Canadians.  I've since found this one on 45, so you may hear that version come Christmas and you can compare the two.  This is a rare one in today's playlist in that it's not the flip side of something I've already shared.  And it's from 1951, FYI.

74. Story Of The Magi-Carmel Quinn & Kevin Shanahan With Jimmy Carroll's Orchestra And Chorus.  This track is credited as being written by Felix and Boudleaux Bryant!  Who'd a thunk it!  I shared out the flip side of this 1954 record earlier this week.

75. 'Twas The Night Before Christmas-Art Carney.  Yes, another flipside and a really great oughta-be Christmas classic.  From 1954.

76. White Christmas-The Ravens.  Third flipside in a row, and another really great track going all the way back to 1948!

77. You're All I Want For Christmas-Hugo Winterhalter And His Orchestra And Choir.  I thought I'd shared all of Hugo Winterhalter's Christmas discography until I stumbled across this 78 from 1949 that predates his work at RCA Victor, ABC-Paramount, and, um, Time or Movietone or wherever it is, I'm drawing a blank...  Good stuff.

78. White Christmas-Gorden Jenkins And His Orchestra-Guest Vocalist Bob Carroll.  Yes, the second version of White Christmas in the playlist, sorry.  I bought this 1949 record at a little junk store in Saluda, NC, just out of frame in the picture I shared yesterday.

There, is that it?  Good, my fingers are tired.  Here's the link, don't forget to come back in July!  ;)

MediaFire

Gas Girl

I don't often shoot people pictures, especially of folks I don't know, but I recently came across this shot of a girl I saw at Sun-N-Fun in Lakeland earlier this year.  Clearly, she was worthy of a picture and didn't seem to mind.  Her job was to fuel the airplanes on the flightline, and she stayed busy since for the week of Sun-N-Fun, Lakeland Linder Regional airport is the busiest in the world.  And she wasn't just for show, either, her and her associate were driving around in the big Shell Oil truck, pulling hoses, hopping on wings, doing whatever it took to get those pilots their fuel.  Look close at the shot above and you'll see that she's assisting the pilot as he puts fresh fuel into his historic Corsair.  She wasn't just smiling for me, either, there were easily a dozen people shooting her like she was a pinup girl posing with the classic warbird.  I but she gets really nice tips from those happy pilots!
 

Saluda Grade

While I'm in the mood for some posting, here's a sign from Saluda, North Carolina, marking the steepest standard gauge mainline railway in the country.  Lots of disclaimers there, but the biggest one they left off is the fact that this stretch of rail hasn't been used in years and years, and would probably need some work before it could be used again.  Saluda is at the top end of the grade, and the other end is in Tryon, the small town where my dad grew up.  We were visiting a couple months ago prior to my grandmother's funeral.

Christmas And A Half 2012-Part 3

Yep, another batch of Christmas goodies from shellac, comin' right up.  Just gonna take me a minute here to cut and paste the titles, then upload the ZIP file...

41. Andy Gump's Holiday Greetings-Sydney Smith.  Weird little spoken word thing here.  I guess Andy Gump was a fairly well-known comic character at the time.  Look it up. This one came in a picture sleeve that folded out and had some stuff inside, it has somehow survived since 1923!  I gotta get a good scanner...

42. Blue Christmas-Russ Morgan And His Orchestra-Vocal Chorus By Russ Morgan & The Morganaires.  Yes, I think I shared this out from 45 once, but it was scratchy.  If it was good then, it's still good now.  Actually, listening to this now, the vocals are a bit scratchy. Sorry...  Russ recorded this back in 1949.

43. Christmas Story-Doris Day With Chorus And Orchestral Accompaniment.  I'm sure all of Doris Day's Christmas music has been anthologized elsewhere, but I was trying to pick the most interesting things I had from a very limited collection of 78s.  So some of these things are generally available, but I wanted you to hear them as they originally sounded, this one from 1950, some 62 years ago.

44. Gingerbread Boy (Original Version Of An Old Folk-Tale)-Georgene Faulkner.  An interesting tale, but not strictly Christmas.  I had to put it in here because it's been floating around since 1914!

45. From Every Spire On Christmas Eve-Jimmy Blades-Chimes, And Charles Smart-Organ.  You know I have to sneak in the occasional organ & chime record, don't you.  Here it is, the first, but probably not the last.  This one goes back to 1953.

46. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing-Richard Jordan, Pipe Organ-Vocal Refrain By Mixed Quartette.  Ha! Right away I jump into an organ track!  This one goes back to 1936.

47. Holy Night-Charles Harrison, Tenor, Orchestra Accompaniment.  Whoops, I skipped over this one the first time I went through and wrote all these little bits and bobs.  I must not have had anything interesting to say about it.  I still don't.  Never did find a date for it, either.

48. I Want Eddie Fisher For Christmas-Betty Johnson With Jimmy Leyden-Conductor.  Yes, they had novelty songs back in 1954.  Plenty of 'em, in fact.  So enjoy this.

49. If You Knock On Any Door On Christmas Day-Primo Scala And His Banjo And Accordion Orchestra With The Keynotes.  The flip side of a record I already shared, and a track that I'd not heard before.  Great little tune from 19 and 49.

50. Jingle Bells-Leo Watson With The Vic Dickenson Quintet. A 1946 take on this perennial classic that doesn't mention Christmas anywhere in the lyrics, yet Christmas wouldn't be the same without it.

51. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!-Woody Herman And His Orchestra-Vocal Chorus By Woody Herman.  Where am I, I'm losing my place here...  Oh, Woody Herman from 1946...  I'm running out of slightly witty things to say...  :(

52. Merry Christmas-Polka-Frank Gallagher With The Dana Serenaders And Orchestra.  Hooray, still more polka!  I need to make a collection of all these polka Christmas songs.  This one is from 1948.

53. Nuttin' For Christmas-The Fontane Sisters With Billy Vaughn's Orchestra.  Not the best rip or the best version of this Christmas bad-boy classic from 1955, but here it is anyway.

54. Santa And The Doodle-Li-Boop-Art Carney.  Ah-ha!  The great sidekick of The Great One!  And what a great single.  This is the rarely heard flip side, but it's still great.  Art released this in 1954.

55. Silent Night -The Ravens. Closest I've got to old R&B Christmas music on 78.  It's smoooooth...  From 1948, the year my dad was born.

56. Sleigh Bell Serenade-Bing Crosby With Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires And Orchestra Directed By John Scott Trotter.  Yep, a Christmas song from Der Bingle that hasn't been heard a million times.  If you really like this, you can find it elsewhere at a higher quality, but this is the way it was heard way back in 1952 on the old console in the living room.

57. Something Barked On Christmas Morning-Ricky Zahnd & The Blue Jeaners With Tony Mottola Orchestra.  I had a request for this 1955 track many years ago, and here it is.  If you're lucky, you'll get the flip side tomorrow.

58. Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year-Johnnie Johnston With Paul Weston And His Orchestra.  OK, not really Christmas at all, but I don't have too many of these old shellac discs to work with.  for every Christmas 78 I run across, I probably find 5 Christmas 45s, 50 LPs and maybe 100 CDs.  The odds are stacked against me, but I try.  Anyone wishing to contribute some old records to the cause is welcome to contact me right here.  :)  Oh, this is from 1944, right in the heart of the war years.

59. White Christmas-Charlie Spivak And His Orchestra-Vocal Chorus By Garry Stevens.  An early (1942) version of what was already a Bing Crosby classic.  Of course, as big a hit as it was, every orchestra and bandleader in the country had to issue a version of it to try and get some small piece of the pie.

60. You're All I Want For Christmas-Frank Gallagher With The Dana Serenaders And Orchestra. Bringing up the rear tonight is yet another track from 1948.  What can I say?  This should be a polka record, but it's not.  Funny, that.  Didn't I just share the flipside of this one above?  I've got to put more time into the selection of these tracks...

And there you have it.  Here's a linky-link for you.

MediaFire

Come back tomorrow for the conclusion of 78 Christmas 78's!

Alvin!

I shot this guy in the backyard where I stayed in Atlanta on a recent trip.  I really wish chipmunks weren't so skittish, though.  This guy took off soon as he noticed me taking his picture.  Somebody should domesticate this critters, who wouldn't want to keep a gerbil with racing stripes and a big fluffy tail!

Christmas And A Half 2012-Part 2

First off, a big Thank You to all the nice folks who've already downloaded part 1 of my little Christmas And A Half treat, and a double big thank you to those who have commented.  It's always nice to hear from the people I'm doing this for, especially since I've been posting so infrequently since Christmas.  Good to know that somebody out there is still paying attention.  So, what have I got for you today?  Hopefully, more of the same great stuff you got yesterday.  Let's take a peek...

21. Ave Maria (Schubert, Op. 52, No. 6) (Text From "Lady Of The Lake")-Charles Kullman (Tenor) With Orchestra.  This may not be the best track in this collection, but I gotta share it anyway.  The more, the merrier, right?  No date on this one, I'm afraid.

22. Good King Wenceslas-Nelson Eddy With Orchestra Conducted By Robert Armbruster.  I don't find too many versions of this story of the good King Wenceslas, so this one is a treat.  I couldn't find a date for this one, but I must not have been looking in the right place.  Columbia Masterworks is too mainstream of a label not to have an extensive discography out there somewhere.

23. Ave Maria-Elizabeth Wheeler.  Sure enough, I've put the same song in here twice.  Only took me two days to screw that up.  Don't worry, I'll do it again soon enough, I'm sure.  There are only so many Christmas songs out there, so repeating them isn't hard to do.

24. Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers-Majestic Dance Orchestra.  I think this is one of those early orchestras that existed just for the purpose of recording product.  Not that it's not a good recording, but I can't imagine them going on nationwide tours or anything.  And when I say early, I mean 1922, that's early!

25. Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town-American Novelty Orchestra.  Same deal with this one, probably strictly a recording outfit.  I wish I knew more about the early days of recording, can anyone recommend a good book?  I know a little bit about acoustic versus electric, and how they used to record into multiple horns, making a dozen records at a time, playing the same music over and over to make large quantities of records, that's just crazy!  Oh, 1934 on this one, we're getting a little later...

26. Adeste Fideles (O, Come, All Ye Faithful)-Frances Langford With Eddie Dunstedter At The Organ.  Yep, that's right, blog favorite Eddie Dunstedter on the organ, years and years before his three great Christmas records.  I think this one hails from 1938.

27. Silent Night, Holy Night-Kate Smith, Orchestra Under Direction Of Jack Miller.  Yes, Kate smith had some Christmas music back in here early days.  She later recorded full Christmas albums for Tops and RCA, but this is from 1940, well before any of that.

28. When Winter Comes (Cuando Llega el Invierno)-Swing And Sway With Sammy Kaye-Vocal Refrain By Tommy Ryan.  I love finding songs I've never heard before, and I've discovered plenty of them from these old 78s.  This one wasn't something I was familiar with prior to putting the needle on the record.  Sammy Kaye recorded this way back in '41, and he kept making records up the early 70s, I believe.  Now that's a career anyone could be proud of.

29. White Christmas-Freddy Martin And His Orchestra-Vocal Refrain By Clyde Rogers.  One of the most popular of all Christmas songs, I think I've got more versions of this on 78 than any other song.  This came out just as America was marking it's first full year in WWII in 1942.  I can't imagine it was easy to get into the spirit of the season in those days...

30. When You Trim Your Christmas Tree-Les Brown And His Orchestra, Vocal Chorus By Jack Haskell.  Another great track that I was previously unfamiliar with, this time from post-war 1946.

31. Jingle Bells-Slam Stewart Quintet.  Of all the tracks I'm sharing this one had me the most excited and it was the hardest to get some music out of.  The first few times I tried it, all I got was noise.  I don't recall exactly what I finally did different to get some music out of that background noise, but hopefully you can make out something like early (1946) jazz in there now.

32. What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?-Kay Kyser And His Orchestra-Vocal Chorus By Harry Babbitt And The Campus Kids.  Ah, Kay Kyser.  I used to think that Harry Babbitt and Ish Kabibble were names I'd learned from an old cartoon or something.  I later found out that I'd had a copy of Three Little Fishies as a young child, and listened to it a lot.  So I have a soft spot for Kay Kyser and his merry band of misfits.  This is from 1947, a couple years before the beginning of the vinyl era.

33. The Skaters Waltz-Continental Musette Orchestra.  No idea who these guys were, and if it weren't from 1948, I'd assume it was another effort by those recording-only bands of the early years.  Perhaps it's an early budget label recording that's since been endlessly recycled?

34. Baby, It's Cold Outside-Dinah Shore And Buddy Clark, Orchestra Under The Direction Of Ted Dale.  I'm pretty sure I've shared this out before during Christmas in July, both in it's full version and an edited version that removes the sound effects intro.  But here it is from it's original 78 recording from 1949.  I recently picked up a CD of some of Buddy Clark's big hits and really enjoyed it.   I guess I should have paid more attention when Buster tried to tell me what a good singer he was.

35. Christmas In Heaven-Bill Cook.  Oh why oh why does Firefox keep locking up on me?  I must be doing too many things at once...  Let's see, Bill Cook.  No idea who he was.  This record dates to 1950, that's about all I know about it.  Hmmm, every time I try to get to Google, the browser locks up.  So I can't look anything up...

36. Jingle Bells Boogie-Johnny Bond.  Oh, yeah, now we're talking!  A little bit hillbilly, but it rocks.  Does that make it rockabilly?  Not quite, but it's good stuff.  I could live on this stuff come Christmastime, no problem.  This is from 1950, so I wonder if it exists on nice-sounding vinyl somewhere, or perhaps a nice master tape in a vault?  Hmmmm...

37. The Sleigh-Mitch Miller And His Orchestra & Chorus.  Good ol' Mitch.  He's much maligned today, but he was a visionary in his day.  This track is also from 1950, and I don't think it showed up on any of his Christmas releases.  I like it, and it's something I've never heard before.

38. The Merry Christmas Polka-Frankie Yankovic And His Yanks.  Another Christmas polka!  Yeah!  How can you go wrong?  This one is from 1951, so it's firmly in the vinyl era, but I've got it on shellac and you're getting it from said shellac!

39. Christmas In America-Hal Hopper And The Voices Of The Valley.  From 1952, that's about all I can tell you about this one.  Anybody got any info?

40. Santa's Coming-Carmel Quinn With Jimmy Carroll's Orchestra And Children's Chorus.  Carmel Quinn is from the stable of artists that made Arthur Godfrey such a hit back in his day.  And there are a few more Christmas records from that stable somewhere around here.  I'll have to look and see what I can share.  This one is from 1954.

Look at me, I'm getting smarter.  I exported the playlist out of iTunes so I didn't have to retype everything.  Now if I can streamline the process so I don't have to do all sorts of extraneous formatting...  Of course, that just means I type more and longer pithy comments for you to ignore as you download the free music.  Live and learn.  Oh, you're probably looking for the download link.  Here ya go, enjoy!

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(If you missed part one somehow, try here. )

Moo!

Best Regards, Debby

As some of you may know, Florida has been getting pummeled for the better part of a week now by a poorly organized, slow-moving tropical system that was eventually named Debby.  We've gotten well over a foot of rain now, and while it seems to be letting up now, it's by no means over.  All that water has to go somewhere, and while much of it's been absorbed into the ground, a lot of it is standing around.  And for whatever reason, it's making a lot of birds very happy.  For the past two days, I've driven past a cow pasture near my house and there have been a couple of flocks of roseate spoonbills roaming around.  I don't see these guys very much, and sightings are very unpredictable, so when I saw a large number of them right near the road, I turned around, found a spot to park, grabbed the long lens, braved the flooded sidewalk and went shooting.  But being very shy birds, soon as the saw me they hightailed it for the far-off corner of the pasture.  But I got a couple of decent shots of them on the wing, heading away from me.  The one above is yesterday, the one below from just an hour or so ago.  The rain was nice enough to let up long enough for me to get some shots, but it's rained a bit since then.


Also of interest in the same field was a pair of tricolored herons, one a bit younger than the other, I think.  That's the mostly brown one above, and the darker one below I think is the older one.  Most of the ones I see around are darker, so I think that's the mature plumage.  It's the time of year where the babies are finally starting to turn their final adult colors, so that's why I think the one at the top is still slightly different colors, he's just a teenager.  Anyhow, both these guys had staked out a spot on the edge of the pasture where the water was flowing over the normally dry sidewalk, looking to see what hapless creatures were being swept up in the floodwaters, then eating them.  They were pretty mad at me because I was hanging out and trying to shoot them while they were working, and they eventually flew off in protest.  But I got some good pictures first.

Oh, and then there was this. I saw a disturbance out in the shallow water that I couldn't quite identify.  I finally spotted some fins and a tail, so I knew it was a fish and not a gator, but I still couldn't tell exactly what kind of fish.  They (I could tell it was three of something from the trails it was leaving on the surface) eventually got close enough to me that I could see down into the water, and it looked to be three garfish!  I would lot have expected that, but there they were, swimming around in the four or so inches of water covering this part of the pasture.  I'm pretty sure I could have grabbed them if I'd wanted to, but they have some nasty teeth in those big jaws.

Christmas And A Half 2012-Part 1

Good day, and welcome to the midpoint between last Christmas and the next, or as we like to call it, Christmas And A Half!  It also happens to be my birthday, but you don't have to get me anything, I've got presents for you!  It's a little project I started last year but never got very far along with, and I'm still not really where I want to be with it, but the time is right to start rolling it out.  I've been ripping music from Christmas 78s for over a year now, and I want to share them with you.  Today is part one of what I think will be four parts, for a total of 78 tracks from 78!  The part I haven't finished yet is the label scans, but someday I'll get the right sized scanner and be able to put faces to these great songs.  Now, a little background.  I ripped all of these myself from my humble collection, some of them sound good, some of them sound like a roaring fire.  Sometime back I finally got a record player that would spin at 78 RPM, as well as the correct sized needle.  I never did get the proper amplifier though, so I had to fix that in Audacity.  I also decided that I didn't like the sound I was getting at 78 RPM, so I recorded everything at 33 and fixed that in Audacity, too.  I recorded both L and R channels, then used ClickRepair to combine the channels and remove lots of clicks and pops.  In some cases, I have a hard time telling the difference between the 78 copy and a 45, but in other cases, well, don't say I didn't warn you...  So, what's in this first part?  Let's take a look...

1. Christmas Medley by American Radio Warblers With Preston Sellers At The Organ.  Yes, that's right, it's a flock of birds singing along to Christmas carols!  Oh, how I wish I had more of this.  (Arthur C. Barnett-Exclusive Distributor 10" 78 RPM DB-C8-3236 & 3237)  No year on this one, I'm afraid.  But perhaps someone can do better research than I and fill us in.  I found a couple references to the radio show that featured this chicks, but nothing about this record.

2. Star Of The East by Ballard & Wheeler, Tenor & Baritone with Orchestra Accompaniment.  This one, to me, sounds like old 78s should sound.  Not good, not bad, all treble, no bass. (Silvertone (Sears-Roebuck) 10" 78 RPM 5129)  Again, no year, but surely this showed up in an old Sears & Roebuck catalog somewhere.

3. Let's Put Christmas Back Into Christmas by Don Moreland with Eddie Ballantine's Orchestra and Choir.  You though putting Christ back into Christmas was a modern sentiment?  Hardly.  This one has to be from sometime in the early fifties, but I think you can find earlier examples without looking too hard. (Jay 10" 78 RPM E2-QB-5855/5856)  I just noticed a big volume jump between the last track and this one.  Sorry about that.

4. I Want A Puppy In My Stocking by Kathryn King With Savoy Orchestra.  I seem to recall this one had a picture sleeve, I really need to get a new scanner... (Prevue 10"78 RPM 1111-78 "Compliments Of Vigilant Insurance Specialists")  This one was a giveaway at some point, I wish they gave away stuff like this these days.

5. Santa Claus Polka by Lennon Bros. With Don Shaw Orchestra.  I was a little unclear on this one, are these guys related to the Lennon Sisters?  I think so.  I know that the male children of The Lennon Sisters are in a group, and members of that group sang backup at the Roger Waters concert I went to a couple weeks ago.  How's that for bringing full circle?  (Zodiac 1212)

6. The Night Before Christmas by Cora Mel Patton.  Finally, one with a date.  1914, so this one was recorded 98 years ago!  Wow!!  (Victor 12" 78 RPM 35418)  Is this the first spoken word I've put in here.  With sound effects!

7. Santa Claus Gives Away His Toys by Gilbert Girard.  Apparently, he made many records like this, some Christmas, some not, and they were hugely popular in the day.  What day was that?  This one dates to 1918!  (Victor 12" 78 RPM 35679 "Descriptive Specialty With Imitations")  Note that reindeer don't all have their correct names...

8. Hark The Herald Angels Sing by Columbia Stellar Quartette With Orchestra Accompaniment.  Another early one, this time from 1919.  I'm just amazed that I'm able to get sound out of something that old.  (Columbia 10" 78 RPM A2788)

9. Jingle Bells by Criterion Male Quartet With Orchestra.  I think the very oldest Christmas audio recording is a version of Jingle Bells.  Or maybe it was the oldest made, but it doesn't exist anymore.  I need to research these things better.  This one is from 1923.  (Gennett 10" 78 RPM 5267 (Division of The Starr Piano Co. Richmond, Ind.))

10. Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers by Paul Whiteman And His Orchestra.  This one is also from 1923.  I'm sure Lee will enjoy seeing some Paul Whiteman on the sleighlist, but I'm sure he's already got this track. (Victor 10" 78 RPM 19007)

11. Little Jesus by Basil Rathbone With The Robert Mitchell Boychoir.  Yes, that's right, Sherlock Holmes himself.  Now if I could just find Benedict Cumberbatch doing the same track, I could die happy.  (Columbia Masterworks 12" 78 RPM 7407-M)  Oh, this one seems to be from 1939.

12. All Around The Christmas Tree by Raymond Scott And His New Orchestra, Vocal Chorus By Clyde Burke.  Yes, that's right, _the_ Raymond Scott does a Christmas song!  This hails from 1940, and unfortunately, it's not very good, which is probably why you've never heard it. (Columbia 10" 78 RPM 35864)

13.  All Around The Xmas Tree by Mark Warnow-Dick Todd, Hit Parade Orchestra And Chorus.  Just a little confusion here between this and the previous track.  Mark Warnow was Raymond Scott's brother-in-law, and the two titles are very similar, but they aren't the same track.  This one came out few years later in 1945.  (Sonora 10" 78 RPM 3000)

14. Sleigh Ride In July by The Three Suns, Vocal by Artie Dunn.  Look, it's another vaguely Christmas song by The Three Suns!  I couldn't resist when I discovered this one.  The Three Suns Christmas catalog has been a little project of mine for years, so this excites me no end.  This one is also from 1945, right at the end of the war. (Majestic 10" 78 RPM 7122).  I'm a little surprised this has never popped up on any of the Suns' budget reissues of their Majestic material.  Leastways, I've never seen it anywhere other than this 78.

15. The Jingle Bell Polka by The Modernaires Featuring Hal Dickinson-Orchestra Under The Direction Of Lou Bring.  And Christmas polka is a big hit in my book!  When is this one?  1947.  (Columbia 10" 78 RPM 37980)

16. The Mistletoe Kiss by Art Mooney And His Orchestra, Vocal By The Art Mooney Choir.  I'd heard this song by Russ Morgan, but never by anyone else.  I guess that's what happens when you limit yourself to music pressed on vinyl and skip all the stuff on shellac.  This is from 1949, the very first year of commercial vinyl. (MGM 10" 78 RPM 10522)

17.  Snowy White Snow And Jingle Bells by Primo Scala And His Banjo And Accordion Orchestra With The Keynotes.  I'd never heard of Primo Scala, but now I'll know to keep my ears open for his stuff.  And I'd never heard anyone other than Vaughn Monroe do this song.  I think Primo was a bigger artist in the UK than here in the US.  This one hails from 1949, same as the last. (London 10" 78 RPM 495)

18.  Looks Like A Cold, Cold Winter by Tommy Tucker And His Orchestra, Vocal By Don Brown, Sally Sweetland And Group.  Some of these old 78s try to cram so much info onto a little tiny label...  We're up to 1950 here. (MGM 10" 78 RPM 10824)

19. I Said A Prayer For Santa Claus by Jimmy Boyd Accompanied By Norman Luboff.  I'm sure you've heard other stuff by Jimmy Boyd, but this is one of his more obscure Christmas tunes.  This is from 1953, so I'm sure with a little hunting I could find it on vinyl. (Columbia 10" 78 RPM 40080)

20. Where Did My Snowman Go? by Molly Bee, Music By Van Alexander.  Last but not least, here is little-remembered child star Molly Bee.  I don't think I've ever seen anything by her other than two Christmas singles, but I'm sure I'll be corrected.  This last track is from 1954, really close to the end of the 78 era. (Capitol 10" 78 RPM CAS-3192)

There, that's the first 20 of 78 tracks.  I may get another group up tonight, or it may take me from here to the end of June, we'll see.  The music's all recorded, I just need to create the MP3's and write up my pithy comments.  Happy Christmas and a Half!

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