On The Second Day Of Christmas, Sorta

Well, it's taken a while, but I think I have a computer again. The old hard drive is toast, it can't even make it through a CHKDSK scan, but I managed to copy most of my old stuff off f it first. I haven't had to dig into a backup copy for anything yet, but I'm sure there are some missing files here and there.  It's taking a while to start over with the OS, though, finding all the software I had installed, learning how I had things configured before the loss.  But I'll get there.  In the meantime, I need to get caught back up for The Twelve Days of Christmas!  Today is what, the fifth day, and I'm making my second post?  I've got a ways to go.  Anyhow, this is a nice little piece from Decca that they licensed from Deutsche Grammophon, a strategy with which they had a great deal of success.  There's good music here, some familiar, some not so familiar, but you'll enjoy it.  This is Hans Carste And His Orchestra With Organ And Bells-Noël Noël-A Musical Christmas (Decca DL 78809, Stereo, 1958).

1. Silent Night
2. Adeste Fideles (Oh Come, All Ye Faithful)
3. Come Hither Ye Children
4. O Tannenbaum
5. The Snow Falls Quietly
6. See, The Conquering Hero Comes
7. White Christmas
8. O Thou Cheerful One
9. The First Noel
10. Lo How A Rose E'er Blooming
11. Winter Wonderland
12. From Heaven Above To Earth I Come

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Soft Drive

Well, in what may be considered good timing by some, my hard drive has developed a bit of an itch.  I spent most of last night trying to back up my data, but it's taking a long time to do anything.  No idea when I'll get things fixed up, but I'm optimistic it'll be by this weekend.  Stay tuned for more Christmas music.  Maybe.

Before Christmas Sneaks Away

Before the day gets away from me, here's another secret share. I don't want to say who this is, or who provides the music, or what company released it, but I can say that Family Circle magazine was involved.  Stories like this aren't every popular with my readers, so I didn't rush to get this out any earlier, but I'm sure that it will find it's target audience somehow.  Just try to keep it on the down-low.  Readers with long memories might remember a secret share from last year that was very popular (Oddly enough, this came out in the same year). Those folks might benefit from scanning down through the comments over there...

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Merry Christmas...And Thanks!

I just wanted to make a special post to thank all of the people who stopped by and enjoyed the blog this season!  Thank you to everyone who left a comment and told me the story about the first time they heard such-and-such a record, or they how they were able to hear music that they hadn't heard in 40 or 50 years.  Thank you also to everyone who sent me a personal email.  Sorry I couldn't reply to all of them, and sorry I couldn't repost whatever you were looking for, some things just need to stay gone.  I hope you all had a great time.

PS-No thanks to this guy for reposting lots of my stuff, even stuff I just shared out this year, mostly with no credit whatsoever.  Most of the other stuff he's posting that I didn't share came from many of my friends in the community and their sites.  That's not cool, man, not cool at all.

On The First Day Of Christmas

Years ago, this was a favorite share over at Cheerful Earful, but after Inkydog closed his place up, I decided to rip my copy of it and share it with you. Problem is, mine is a mono copy. So, until I manage to dig up a stereo copy somewhere, you're going to have to listen to this with only one ear. For those of you are hanging around now that Christmas is almost at an end, I'm going to try to keep going until the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas, which I believe ends at Epiphany.  So stay tuned, and lets see if I can make it until then.  I've still got plenty of goodies in the bin, all recorded, I just need to finish up the art and get 'em posted.  But I'm a lot lazier than you might think.  But for tonight, I've got this one all ready to go.  Please be my guest and download Hugo And Luigi And Their Children's Chorus-The Sound Of Children At Christmas (RCA Victor LPM-2254, Mono, 1960).

1. Medley: We Wish You A Merry Christmas; The First Noël
2. Silver Bells
3. The Twelve Days Of Christmas
4. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
5. Medley: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing; Good King Wenceslas; God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
6. The Sleigh
7. The Little Drummer Boy
8. Medley: Deck The Halls; Adeste Fideles
9. Winter Wonderland
10. White Christmas
11. Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
12. Medley: Silent Night; Jingle Bells

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Mary Christmas

For this Christmas Day, I wanted to give you a little more down to earth. So here's Sister Mary Arlene-Christmas In Song By A Sister Of St. Dominic (St. Dominic, Amityville, LI, NY, Adrian Associates LP-102, Mono).  Her name didn't show up on the original above, but I found a later re-issue that outed her (bottom).

1. Adeste Fideles
2. Silver Bells
3. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
4. Winter Wonderland
5. Villancico Yaucano
6. Puer Natus In Bethlehem (A Boy Is Born In Bethlehem)
7. Resonet In Laudibus
8. Silent Night (Noche De Paz)
9. Christmas Was Meant For Children
10. Alegria, Alegria, Alegria
11. White Christmas
12. O Holy Night

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Merry Christmas to everyone out there!

Sing Along

Odd concept here... Instead of people singing along to a normal piano, it's people singing along to a player piano! So does that make it the karaoke of it's day? I mean, canned music is canned music, right? Well, this does have the advantage of vocal arrangements by Mr. Dick Hyman, so that's a good thing.  But still, a player piano?  And to make it even odder, an instrument more closely associated with an earlier century was 'programmed' with a tune from just a few years earlier, The Chipmunk Song.  Bet you never thought you'd hear that coming from a player piano!  (It's questions like that that keep me up at night.)  So here, you go, please download The Piano Rolls And Voices-All Time Christmas Hits (RCA Victor LSP-4000 (Vocal Arrangements By Dick Hyman), Stereo, 1968).

1. Winter Wonderland
2. Silver Bells
3. It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas
4. Sleighride
5. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)
6. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
7. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
8. The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)
9. All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth
10. Frosty The Snow Man
11. White Christmas

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O Happy Day

From the guy that brought you the famous version of O Happy Day, here's a little bit of gospel Christmas.I don't know too much about this, but it's from pretty late in the game (1985), so I was a little surprised when I didn't see it available.  There seems to be some other Christmas music available from Mr. Hawkins, but not this one.  I'm sure if I'm wrong, someone will let me know.  So if you're still with me this close to Christmas, please download Edwin Hawkins-The Edwin Hawkins Christmas Album (Birthright LS 5904, Stereo, 1985).

1. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
2. Night Medley: Away In A Manger; Silent Night; O Holy Night
3. The First Noel
4. White Christmas
5. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
6. Follow The Star
7. Joy To The World
8. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
9. The Christmas Song
10. O Come All Ye Faithful
11. Emanuel

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Paul The Second

And now, the LP that made me think Paul Mickelson albums weren't going to be all that exciting.  That's because this one isn't all that exciting.  It came out two years before that one I shared earlier, and it's all bells.  It's also very long, so I suppose it has that going for it.  This is Paul Mickelson Playing The Symphonic Carillon And Vibraharp-Christmas Bells (RCA Victor LPM-1115, Mono, 1955).

1.  I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day
2. While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
3. Jesu, Bambino
4. Joy To The World
5. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
6. O Come, O Come Emmanuel
7. Good King Wenceslas
8. I Wonder As I Wander
9. Away In A Manger
10. Hark, The Herald Angels Sing
11. The First Noel
12. It Came Upon The Midnight Clear
13. Silent Night
14. As With Gladness Men Of Old
15. There's A Song In The Air
16. O Christmas Tree
17. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
18. Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming
19. Deck The Halls
20. Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne
21. Angels, From The Realms Of Glory
22. O Come, All Ye Faithful
23. We Three Kings Of Orient Are
24. Gloria In Excelsis Deo
25. O Holy Night

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Oh, I found three slightly different back covers for this one, and I stuck them all in the download.  I'll assume the one without all the advertisements for other records is the original, but the two with the ads, I've no idea of the order those came in.  Maybe if you date the records shown...

Paul The First

Some surprisingly spry and sprite songs here from a man best know as an organist. Or at least best known to me that way. I put this record on the turntable not expecting too much, but came away quite surprised. I need to quit judging things by the cover or by what else I've seen them do, and just listen to the record. There's lots to enjoy here, so I'll let you get to it.  This is Paul Mickelson Orchestra And Choir-The Best Of Christmas (RCA Victor LPM-1517, Mono, 1957).

1. Festival Of Carols: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing; The First Noel; Carol Of The Bells; It Came Upon The Midnight Clear; Joy To The World
2. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
3. We Three Kings
4. Christmas Candle
5. Gloria In Excelsis Deo (Angels We Have Heard On High)
6. O Holy Night (Cantique De Noel)
7. Fantasy Of The Sleigh Bells: Jingle Bells; Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer; Sleigh Ride
8. Away In A Manger
9. Deck The Halls
10. White Christmas
11. Silent Night
12. O Come, All Ye Faithful

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Christmas In Tijuana!

What a great Christmas record! For the past few weeks, I've been listening to Christmas music pretty much non-stop, and several times a track from this record has popped up and I've had to stop to see who and what it was.  That doesn't happen too often, as I'm either familiar with what's playing or it's yet another straight version of Silent Night.  But this one has a couple of unique songs, and unique takes on others.  It's not exactly new to the sharity community, though, I think The King even shared it out a few years back, but I finally found a copy of my own so I'm sharing it with you this morning!  It's not really credited to anybody, but it's a product of the notorious George Garabedian, so I'm crediting it to him and his players.  For a little bit of holiday just south of the border, please download The George Garabedian Players-Phillips 66 Presents Tijuana Christmas (Mark 56 546, Stereo, 1968).  There's also a part two that I don't have.  I should add that to the want list.

1. Jingle Bells
2. Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers
3. Christmas Sleigh Bells
4. Let It Snow, Let It Snow
5. Tijuana Christmas
6. White Christmas
7. Santa Claus, Santa Claus
8. Sleigh Ride
9. Winter Wonderland
10. Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem/It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
11. Adeste Fidelis/Silent Night

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PS-Just when I was starting to get a little smug about getting a share up every single day of the Christmas season, I come home last night to no cable. I spent two hours on the phone with Comcast to no avail. Thankfully, t was back up this morning, but too late for a perfect season. We'll see what I can get up today, but I really do need to do some Christmas shopping...