Children Sounding

My final share of 2016 is this record which I alluded to back before the season started, but in stereo!  I shared out a copy of this in mono back in 2012, and I've always been deeply sad and depressed that I didn't have a stereo copy.  Well, I've had a stereo sleeve for years, but not the actual vinyl.  Now I have the vinyl, and I assure you, it's in better shape than the sleeve you see above.  I think it came out quite nice.  Well, the music is nice, that sleeve is looking rough and my photoshop work didn't do it many favors (Her hair is supposed to be red, not brunette...).  Anyhow, Happy New Year to you, and please enjoy Hugo & Luigi With Their Children's Chorus-The Sound Of Children At Christmas (RCA Victor LSP-2254, Stereo, 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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More Boxed Music

Just in case you needed still more music box Christmas songs, here is the second album of music recorded from the collection of Rita Ford.  I don't think I had ever seen this one before yesterday, or at least I hadn't seen this cover, the original.  I think it may have seen reissues over the years with different covers, but this is the one that came out way back in 1962.  For some reason, they decided that the main Columbia label was too good for a collection of music box melodies, so this time around they put the music out on their 'budget' arm, Epic. Not the worst thing that could happen, I suppose, at least the music got out there.  This is Music Box Wonderland-Christmas With Rita Ford's Music Boxes (Epic BN 26022, Stereo, 1962). Don't forget the two other albums of music box melodies shared earlier in the year, here and here.

1. Silent Night, Holy Night
2. Adeste Fideles
3. O Tannenbaum
4. Each Year The Christ Child Is Reborn
5. Non Danket Alle Gott
6. Nazareth
7. Old Hundred
8. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
9. Christmas Lights
10. Ihr Kinderlein Kommet
11. The Holy City
12. O Sanctissima
13. Monastery Bells
14. Ora Pro Nobis
15. Star Of Bethlehem

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Simply The Best

OK, this 45 just came in the mail today, and it's immediately moved to the top of the list for the year.  Even though Christmas is long gone and New Year's is almost here, you'll be playing this one for a while to come.  Or stick it in a safe place and save it for next year, but you'll regret not listening to it sooner.  I had no idea this record existed until a couple weeks ago when I happened to see it pop up as an also-available item at the bottom of an eBay search.  At first I thought it was a single from his Christmas album, but a second glance told me that it wasn't.  This was in fact a one-off single release, the sort of thing that gets my blood pumping.  And when I put it on the turntable this evening, I knew I had something great.  I've never seen this single before, never seen it shared, never heard it on anybody's compilation, but it's really good.  Download it and you'll see!  This is Earl Grant-Swingin' Christmas b/w Christmas Card (Decca 7" 45 RPM 9-31022, Mono, 1959).

1. Swingin' Christmas
2. Christmas Card

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More From Red Vinyl

I know the color of the vinyl doesn't make the music any better, but it sure does look cooler when it's spinning round and round on the turntable.  Someone should invent an illuminated turntable that throws light up through the vinyl from below.  You could probably do that easily with LEDs these days, they don't throw off a lot of heat.  Hmmm, I wonder if anyone has already done that, perhaps I shouldn't have said anything.  Don't steal my idea!  Anyhow, got another great organ LP for you tonight, this time including vibraphone and guitar!  I think this one is pretty good, some of you will get a big kick out of it.  It features a couple of tracks that don't show up on your organ LPs very often, Christmas In Killarney & Merry Christmas Polka (though the label doesn't say the polka part, that's the song...).  Looking at the list of about a thousand other LPs by Paul Carson on the back of the jacket, there's another Christmas LP out there, though with some overlap of this one.  Something else to track down.  For your almost-New Year's listening pleasure, this is Paul Carson-Music For Christmas (Alma Records C-1854, Red Vinyl, Mono).

1. Silent Night! Holy Night!
2. Green Sleeves
3. Good King Wenceslas
4. We Three Kings
5. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
6. Jesu Bambino
7. Winter Wonderland
8. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
9. White Christmas
10. Jingle Bells
11. Christmas In Killarney
12. Let It Snow
13. Merry Christmas

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Look closely at those notes on the label.  It's hard to see, but they have the letters of his name on them.  I thought it was a neat little touch.

Another Muzak

Since I brought you some music from Seeburg last night, I only felt it was fair to give equal time to Muzak tonight.  Twice before I've brought you music from the infamous Muzak corporation, first in 2005, then again in 2008, and as far as I know, this is the only other Muzak Christmas album out there in the free world.  (Somebody, please pull another album out of your hat and prove me wrong!)  I've only recently acquired this one, but I've seen it shared out here and there before, now I'm giving you a copy of my personal record.  Just the thing for those dingy industrial work spaces or brightly lit shopping centers, this is Muzak-Joy And Peace To You (Muzak MU 1977, Stereo).  Not sure of the date on this one.  I'd guess 1977, but that would be too easy.  Hmmm, Discogs says 1977.

1. I'll Be Home For Christmas
2. Home For The Holidays
3. Christmas Song
4. White Christmas
5. Silver Bells
6. Here Comes Santa Claus
7. Winter Wonderland
8. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
9. We Three Kings Of Orient
10. O, Holy Night
11. The First Noel
12. O, Come All Ye Faithful
13. Joy To The World!

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Another Seeburg

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

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Ernie's New Wantlist

I've been promising to update the wantlist for a while now, and I guess since the worst of the sharity season is up, I'll go ahead and work on that.  As before, this list is a work in progress.  I'm always adding names to it, always finding things on here, changing my mind, etc.  And as before, I'm usually looking for a hard copy of things, since I've probably already got it on MP3, but you never know.  Just drop me a line or leave a comment about anything you may or may not see here, I'm happy to answer any and all inquiries, though it may take me a bit.

Jimmy McGriff-Christmastime (MLP-1888, his other, almost unknown Christmas LP on the Jell label.)
Jo Stafford-The Joyful Season (ST 2166, the stereo version. I have a mono copy of the vinyl.)
June Christy-This Time Of Year (Believe it or not, I don't have this on vinyl...)
The Quinto Sisters-Any of their non-LP singles, please
Burl Ives-Christmas At The White House (The version with the narration, please!) Got it!
Reginald Foort-Christmas In Your Heart (United Artists UAS-5057, the stereo version!)
Krastel Pie-Christmas Dreams b/w Get Out Of Town (Super K 7" 45 RPM SK 98) 
A Midnight Christmas Mess Volume 3 (I scored the other two already!)
Spike Jones-Socko The Smallest Snowball/A Barnyard Christmas (RCA Victor Single)
Akira Ishikawa-Drum Christmas Drum (Longshot, but maybe...)
Any other Japanese Christmas LPs you might have laying around.  Anything Asian in fact.  Just curious to see if something cool turns up.
Bob McGrath-Several Japanese Christmas Singles (From his pre-Sesame Street days.)
Paul Anka-Christmas In Japan (Single from Japan, but appears to have seen limited release in the States as well.)
Any of the Mexican entries in the Goodyear Tire Christmas comps.  I have two of them, want to run the series! (And Firestone, I guess.  Found volume 3 in that series recently, it's completely different from the US version.)
The Statesmen-White Christmas b/w Santa Claus Song (Would love a hard copy, but I haven't even heard it. Odd that a southern gospel group would record a secular Christmas single like this.)  

Tommy & Dick (The Smothers Brothers)-The Christmas Bunny (1969) (This one doesn't even show up at Discogs, but it does exist. Maybe you have a copy? Spiro T. Agnew had one!

That's a start.  Please, drop me a line before you spend any money on any of these.  I'm cheap and I may have found a copy already.  Thanks for reading! If you really wanna see a long list, have a look at my wantlist over at Discogs!

Detective Ernie

First, Happy Boxing Day to you!  Second, I meant to get this out during the season, but I forgot about it, and probably wouldn't have had time to do it anyway, so here it is today, the second day of Christmas.  Perhaps I'll be inspired to go all the way to day 12, perhaps not.  I guess we'll have to wait and see.  Anyhow, I have a little bit of a treat and something extra for you today.  The album you see above is the original issue of Larry Welk's second Christmas album from 1957.  Put away any prejudice you may have against Lawrence Welk and his champagne music you may have from watching his TV show with your grandparents back in the 70's, this ain't that.  This is the sound of Christmas in the fifties!  Fun stuff!  When this album first came out, it had the tracklisting you see below and detailed out on the back cover.  But at some point it changed, and they never changed the back cover!  The only way to tell the difference other than listening to the vinyl was to look at the label.  And while I still don't know why they made the change, I think I know when!  This album was re-released in fake stereo not too long after it's initial release. and I think that's when they made the change.  The original cover featured the catalog number in the upper left corner, but the reissued cover features it in the lower left.  It was moved to allow the Stereo banner to go across the top on the stereo copies without having the mono catalog number displayed.  I've put a detail of the second mono cover down at the bottom, and you can make out where they had to airbrush out the original number since I guess they couldn't find the original photo.  So that's the when, but why?  I have no idea.  Pretty much every copy I've ever seen in the second version, even a budget retitled reissue on Pickwick.  Seems like history just forgot about it, but not me!  For your listening pleasure tonight, I present the original record, with the original, instrumental track 4 medley, and as a bonus, I'm throwing in the later track 4 vocal medley, sourced from a nice mono copy without all the echo that got added later.  Aren't you excited?  I wish I could remember where I first heard about this replaced track, but it's escaped me.  Credit where credit is due, I believe.  So if you're still with me after all that, this is Lawrence Welk And His Champagne Music-Jingle Bells (Coral CRL 57186, Mono, 1957), with bonus track!  Dig it!

1. Jingle Bells
2. Let's Have An Old-Fashioned Christmas
3. The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You)
4. Christmas Carols: Deck The Halls; Good King Wenceslas; The First Noel; God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen; Come All Ye Faithful; Hark! The Herald Angels Sing; It Came Upon The Midnight Clear; Joy To The World; Oh, Little Town Of Bethlehem; Silent Night
5. Santa Claus Is Here Again
6. Sleigh Ride
7. The Christmas Waltz
8. Santa From Santa Fe
9. Silver Bells
10. Ring Those Christmas Bells
11. Merry Christmas From Our House To Your House

And the replacement medley:

4. Christmas Carols (Come All Ye Faithful-Deck The Halls-Good King Wenceslas-God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen-The First Noel-Hark! The Herald Angels Sing-It Came Upon A Midnight Clear-Joy To The World-Little Town Of Bethlehem-Silent Night)

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