A little bit of something off the beaten path tonight, a set of 45s that I've been looking at all season but didn't touch until tonight. Still not sure exactly what these records were for, or even where I got them, much less how I ended up with two copies of one of them... Anyhow, you may be familiar with the Seeburg corporation, for many years a competitor of both Wurlitzer in the jukebox industry and Muzak in the background music industry. I've shared out their music before, both from a
sampler LP given to customers in the sixties and from 10" 16-2/3 RPM
records designed to be played on their BGM machines, but never from 45s! So these are a little unique. The arrangements sound very familiar on some of these tracks, but I don't think they're the same performances, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of you comes back and says this is the same music as something else from somewhere else. So if you come up with any connections, please let me know. And if you hear anything off with the sound, at least one of these sides I noticed was pressed off-center, so I had to manually adjust the location of the record on the platter to get it to spin properly. My ears may not have picked up on that if it's audible on the others. My copies are numbered 55, 65 & 85, so I get the feeling there are more of these out there. If you've got anything to contribute, please let me know, I'd love to hear the whole set. This is
Seeburg Christmas Music Album (Seeburg 3x 7" 45 RPM 55/55X, 65/65X, 85/85X, Mono, 1957). I'm basing that date of 1957 off of the
matrix numbers, HO8H-00XX, where the first H means RCA Victor mastered these in 1957. And before you ask, I don't know what the DS and AS designations mean. Any ideas?
1. The First Noel
2. Sleigh Ride
3. We Three Kings
4. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
5. Hark The Herald Angels Sing
6. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
7. Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem
8. Twelve Days Of Christmas
9. O Come All Ye Faithful
10. Winter Wonderland
11. Medley-God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Good King Wenceslaus
12. O Holy Night
Zippyshare
Once again, if you're leaving me a comment, thanks! Here's a secret link to the Seeburg LP I mentioned. It's a mono copy, but it sounds good. I bought a stereo copy at one point, but I can't seem to put my fingers on it in the collection. Perhaps I have too many records...
ReplyDeletehttp://www102.zippyshare.com/v/e4Qr5uvR/file.html
Thank you, Sir.
ReplyDeleteI'm no expert on these, but I think these were transcriptions for radio station use. I have other Seeburg transcriptions but none of these Christmas items.
ReplyDeleteNo idea what DS and AS are!
Buster, I don't know if they were meant for radio. Maybe. There's no publishing or arrangement credits. I'm leaning towards something they could put in the jukeboxes at Christmas time. They didn't have to pay royalties on the records. But what do I know? Just a guess.
ReplyDeleteThey could be for jukes, true, but I think it may be for other purposes.
ReplyDeleteThere's no publishing credits because the contents are designed to be rights-free music. That is, you pay a fee up front and you get a catalog of music you can use without further cost.
Now, this could be for various uses - radio, industrial film, etc. The music could be used as a bed under voice-over, for example. Or as background coming in from a break for local TV. Or like Muzak, it may have been used in a retail or business setting to soothe the customers or employees.
Pretty sure it's the Christmas variant of this series BGM series.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.45cat.com/label/seeburg-background-music-library
And they seem to have their own strange two letter codes...
Found a 5/5X on Discogs.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.discogs.com/Unknown-Artist-Christmas-Music-Album/release/8707238
For Christmas next year I hope I get a fully transistorized and unique Seeburg "1000", to sustain a buying atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, though, it would be very interesting to see those special high-capacity records with 40 tunes each.
Thanks for these records. Oh, and the Champagne Music really was great.
Thank you for another post Christmas gift!
ReplyDeleteListening to all 26 tracks now. It does take me back to a gentler time in my life. Even in the 70s, I can remember this type of music being played overhead during the Christmas season. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteNew link for 2018!
ReplyDeletehttps://mega.nz/#!hAdmySiT!ixj0b6zPCWxw0_xw_ftb0URfN9yOiwqNQyzobWr2_K4