Christmas In July 2017 Day 33
Here we go again, keeping the ball rolling on into August. More great tracks for you tonight, I'm not scrapping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Let's see what's in the pile for the evening.
1. My Favorite Things (From "The Sound Of Music") as performed by Enoch Light And The Brass Menagerie, from the self-titled LP Enoch Light And The Brass Menagerie (Project 3 PR/5036SD (Promotion Copy Not For Sale), Stereo, 1969). Enoch really does a number on this staid old workhorse.
2. A Merry Peal, more handbells from The Arbutus United Methodist Church Chancel Ringers and their LP Listen! (DFH Recording Co. DFH 114, Stereo, 1978). I don't know why I like 'em, but I like 'em.
3. I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm, a stereo re-recording of the classic hit by Les Brown And His Band Of Renown, taken from the LP The Les Brown Story (Capitol ST 1174, Stereo, 1959). I'm glad that some of the big band leaders got to record some of their songs in hi-fi and stereo, but then when they started doing the same thing with pop hits, that got kinda out of hand.
4. In Dulci Jubilo by The Hamilton College Mens' Choir With Brass And Organ-John L. Baldwin And Stephen Bonta, Directors from The Heavens Are Telling-Great Sacred Music (Connoisseur Society CS 2056, Stereo, 1973). Not sure if this is homemade music or not. It's not bad.
5. Hallelujah Chorus by 101 Strings, Recorded Under The Direction Of D.L. Miller from the album Themes And Songs Of American Holidays (Alshire S-5056, Stereo, 1967). Is this the only version of this I've shared this year? Usually I have a few church choirs doing it, but I can't think of any others off the top of my head.
6. Go Tell It On The Mountain by Monsignor Russell H. Davis from Songs For The Seasons (Fleetwood BMC5075, Stereo). Now this one is homemade. Most of the songs are by the St. Paul's Boys Choir, but I guess the head guy got to put a song or two on the LP.
7. Doll Dance by Jack Fina from Kitten On The Keys (Dot DLP 25268, Stereo, 1960). Nice piano version, if you like that ricky-tick, honky-tonk piano style.
8. Bugler's Holiday by Arthur Fiedler And The Boston Pops from Evening At Pops (Polydor PD5032, Stereo, 1972). Another tune written by Leroy Anderson, in case you didn't know.
9. Ave Maria (Schubert) by Franck Pourcel E Sua Grande Orquestra from Páginas Célebres (EMI/Odeon (Brazil) SC 12001, Stereo, 1973). How do I come up with a record from Brazil?
10. Angels We Have Heard On High by The Robert Shaw Chorale from the demo LP Admiral Dual Channel Stereophonic High Fidelity Demonstration Record (Admiral R322-17R (The Musical Selections On This Record Are From The RCA Victor Catalog), Stereo, 1958). Buy a new stereophonic record player, get a fancy demo record to play on it!
11. Winter Evening by Alexandrov Song And Dance Ensemble Conducted By Boris Alexandrov from The Red Army In Hi Fi (Artia ALP 101, Mono, 1960). More Ruskies.
12. Song Of The Virgin Mary as performed on the music box by George And Madeline Brown from The Story Of The Music Box (Caedmon 10" 33 RPM w/ Book CB-2, Mono, 1952). Another album from which I grabbed a lot of tracks.
13. Snowballs by Silver Burdett Records from Making Music Your Own-Kindergarten Record IV (Silver Burdett Records 75 180 4, Mono, 1966). Kiddie music...
14. Sleigh Ride by Ethel Smith from Galloping Fingers (Decca DL 8456, Mono, 1957). I need to start sharing this song out more, I've still got a lot of different versions in the pile.
15. The March Of The Siamese Children by Mr. Apache himself, Jorgen Ingmann, from the album called, interestingly enough, Apache (Atco 33-130, Mono, 1961). Not really anything to do with Christmas, but I liked it.
16. March Of The Flowers by Jose Melis, His Piano And Orchestra from Our Love (Seeco Celebrities CELP-471, Mono, 1961). Don't be misled by the title, it's just Waltz Of The Flowers done with a march tempo.
17. It Happened In Sun Valley by the great Glenn Miller And His Orchestra from his small LP Sun Valley Serenade (RCA Victor 10" 45 RPM LPT 3064, Mono, 1954). A reissue of some songs from the film.
18. Go Where I Send Thee by The Weavers from their LP The Weavers At Carnegie Hall (Vanguard VRS-9010, Mono, 1957). Classic stuff.
19. Dance Of The Sugar-Plum Fairy by French National Symphony Orchestra Conducted By Roger DéSormiere from Nutcracker Suite/Suite From The Swan Lake-Tchaikovsky (Capitol P-8140, Mono, 1954). I've got a lot of Nutcracker songs to burn through, too.
20. Christmas Comes Once A Year by The Brussels Symphony Orchestra-Directed By Fernand Terby from the fairly obscure LP The Music Of Donald O'Connor (Palette MPZ-1021, Mono, 1965). Yes, you read that right, Donald O'Connor wrote this song, as well as the 4 others on this LP, including one side-long suite. According to the story on the sleeve, he wrote this using only the black keys on his piano. And evidently Irving Berlin gave him a fancy piano that featured a lever you could push and make all the black keys sound like the white keys. Not sure what kind of wizardry that is, but they need to do something about all that blatant racism.
And anyhow, that's everything for tonight. Sure to be something in there that's new to you and is worth listening to a second time. Don't forget to come back tomorrow and the next day, still plenty of goodies in the pile.
Zippyshare
I haven't listened to any of these yet but I wanted to highlight the mention of Irving Berlin's piano gift to Donald O'Connor. There is a book called "White Christmas: The Story Of An American Song" by Jody Rosen in which the key-changing-clutch-piano is referred to by Berlin as his "Buick". Irving Berlin himself, one of the most prolific songwriters ever, apparently was only able to play the black keys too. Rosen didn't mention the piano gift to O'Connor.
ReplyDeleteForgot to add: my folks bought a new Admiral stereophonic hi-fi in 1965 and I have a vague recollection of a stereo demonstration album having come with it. Sadly, that album is long gone, but I have the stereo here and I still use it to play my small collection of vinyl, over half of which is Christmas music.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm not mistaken, Berlin could only play in the key of C. The piano allowed him to transpose to other keys.
ReplyDeleteI distinctly remember my father taking me along to buy one of those battleship-sized console stereos when they came out at the end of the 50s. It was a GE, so there was no demo record that came along with it, but I recall being very impressed by the record they played in the department store - it was Perverted Percussion or one of those other Command issues, I think.
I do like that ricky-tick, honky-tonk piano style.
ReplyDeletethe berlin piano story reminds me of one about frank loesser , who composed “baby, it’s cold outside” and a couple of other things. anyway, two of his kids, when they were about 8-10 years old, went to a birthday party. and as kids were apt to do back then, a group of them eventually got around to banging on the piano. and what did they play? what all kids back then played: first, ‘chopsticks’; then a bumpy duet of ‘heart and soul’. one of the loesser kids turns to the group and says “my dad wrote that”. this was met with howls of incredulous derision. “oh yeah, sure he did. sure he did. did he write ‘chopsticks’, too? is he chinese? “ and they started running around the room pulling back their eyebrows and making buck-teeth faces. after that, they learned to keep their father’s compositions to themselves.
ReplyDeleteNever thought about piano keys being racist. Best comment of the season. LOL!
ReplyDeleteThank you as always for the selection, one of which I knew before outside of the Weavers. This is turning out to be the best Christmas in July I think, and I don't care how many days July ultimately ends up having this year. Though jumping on late, I'm here now for the ride.
Oh, also looking forward to hearing how the Waltz of the Flowers sounds as a march.
say, if you liked the story about frank loesser's kids, i know another one about them. but it's not very christmasy. it's a much darker story. in fact, it's about the evil of two loessers.
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Please...
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:-)
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