Christmas In July 2018-Day 21
Three weeks in, still going strong, though I do need to get busy and record some more stuff. Only a couple weekends left to crank out some songs. And tonight is a little special because there is a theme! I found a large collection of barbershop records a few months back and I flipped through a couple hundred of them, trying to find Christmas music. And tonight, you get to hear the results of that search!
1. The Bells Of St. Mary's by The Easternaires from their LP Once Over Lightly (RCA Victor LSP-2263, Stereo, 1961). I believe this was the oldest one I found, and it was something on the great RCA label that I hadn't seen before.
2. The Secret Of Christmas makes it's first appearance by The Vocal Majority, a well-known barbershop chorus, from the LP With A Song In Our Hearts (Private Pressing VM-1000, Stereo). Like many of these, this was a multi-artist collection.
3. The Secret Of Christmas appears again, this time by The High Society from On The Road Again (Good Vibrations GV 214, Stereo). I've tried all month to not repeat any songs in the same night, but since it's more barbershop and came from the same collection, I'll bend the rule a bit. And it's a good song. And this one is ladies singing, not guys.
4. Toy Soldiers On Parade by Mission Viejo Chapter-Sweet Adelines from Phoenix-35th Annual International Convention & Competition (Sweet Adelines 2xLP SHX-81-48, Stereo, 1981). Well over 3/4 of the records I pawed through were by female groups. I guess they're part of an organization called The Sweet Adelines. Only barbershop association I knew about was the SPEBSQSA, but I guess they've changed their name now.
5. White Christmas by The Tetrachords from Early Portraits (Private Pressing TS81-749/750, Stereo, 1981). All of these tracks are really good!
6. Why Doesn't Santa Claus Go Next Door? by Mission Valley Chapter Of The Sweet Adelines Under The Direction Of Gloria Sandstrom, from Sweet Adelines, Inc. 1976 International Convention (Century Advent Recording USR 9851, Stereo, 1976). A song I've never heard before! Sweet!
7. Winter Wonderland by Roger Blackburn from Barbershopping In Brass (Sunrise MK 37-128, Stereo, 1972). Not exactly barbershop, but I guess he got his inspiration from there.
8. Entr'acte by Duke Ellington And His Orchestra from Nutcracker Suite/Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 And 2 (Odyssey (Columbia) 32 16 0252 (Originally issued 1960), Stereo, 1980). And that's it, only 8 barbershop songs, so I have to fill up the rest of the share with Nutcracker tracks.
9. Waltz Of The Flowers by Antal Dorati Conducting The Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra from Britten: The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra/Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a (Mercury MG 50055, Mono, 1955). Good stuff.
10. March by Vienna Festival Orchestra Conducted By Herbert Grossman from Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake Suite/Nutcracker Suite (Whitehall WH 20012, Mono, 1959). Not so good stuff, but adequate.
There you go, ten more tracks, and most of them fit the theme! Wish I could do that every day. Maybe if I put more time and energy into this sharing...
Zippyshare
You can add tonight's Duke Ellington track to my list of favorites. It's not one of his Nutcracker tracks you hear so much and it really swings. Diggin' High Society's version of "The Secret of Christmas", too.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid long ago, I disliked both barbershops and the barbershop quartets that were then frequently on television. They would make the singers (the men anyway) wear large mustaches and sleeve-garters, and the whole scene just seemed peculiar.
ReplyDeleteDuke Ellington I can go for, though. Just promise me he is not accompanying the Sweet Adelines.
i got my hair cut at a barber school today where they charge you four bucks to ruin your looks. (the male students all love electric shears. powerful toys. they hate scissors. they females are the exact opposite.) as my looks have already been ruined by the ravages of time, i don’t much care. all the way there, i was thinking of barbershop christmas music and wondering if i could get these people to sing. but i was quickly snapped back to reality with my teenaged barber’s first question: “how like?” having had several fearful sessions previously where the novice solved all problems by cutting nothing, this time i said “short”. big mistake. he smiled and started prattling in what he thought was english and ended with “ok?”. well, if you’re in for four bucks, you’re in for a pound. i said “ok”. next thing i knew, i had a 360 degree crewcut from my temple on down. but above, it was all rather normal length straight hair. apparently, in some young circles this is a big fashion. he was mightly pleased with the results… took pictures with his cellphone. i forgot about song requests and got the hell out of there.
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