July The Twenty Third

Well, well, well, what do we have here?  Looks like a brand new compilation featuring the very best of Christmas in July from 2020!  And it's been less than a year since I stopped sharing stuff out last season, so this has to be some sort of new record. The tracklist is another great sampling of all the stuff I shared during the season. I've been listening to it for a month or more now, and there are some real great tracks here. This was a season when I recorded a lot of demo albums for school band music publishers, and that's where a lot of the unknown artist tracks came from.  Some of those are also short and truncated, but they were some good songs I felt were worth sharing.

1. Dick Marx, Piano, And Johnny Frigo, Bass…Sleigh Ride

2. John McGee…Christmastime In Florida

3. Dennis Farnon And His Orchestra…Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year

4. Kraft & Alexander…March

5. Dave Harris And The Powerhouse Five…Siberian Sleigh Ride

6. Kokee Band…My Favorite Things

7. The Metro Strings (AKA MGM Studio Orchestra)…Christmas

8. Unknown Artist…Santa's Coming

9. Frances Lai…The Christmas Trees

10. Jimmy James…All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)

11. Marni Nixon…Funny Little Snowman

12. Unknown Artist…Snowtime

13. West York Area High School Percussion Ensemble…Holiday For Percussion

14. John Ylvisaker…Joseph

15. Charlie Fox And The Ring Of Sound…Greensleeves

16. Frankford High School A Cappella Choir…You Better Watch Out-Edit

17. Lenny Seidel-Pianist…Angels We Have Heard On High

18. The Östlund Family…The Christmas Story

19. The RCA Electronic Music Synthesizer…Oh, Holy Night

20. The Gabriel Sisters-Mary Lou, Connie Joe, Colleen…Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers

21. Lloyd Reese And The Solid Rock Chorus…Sweet Little Lord Jesus

22. The World Vision Korean Orphan Choir…Jingle Bells

23. Reid Nibley…The Shepherds And The Star

24. Ekseption-Royal Philharmonic Orchestra…Ave Maria

25. Frank Chacksfield And His Orchestra…White Christmas

26. The Babes…Disco Toyland

27. Unknown Artist…The Nutcracker

28. Lutheran High School West Brass Ensemble…God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

29. King Curtis…Swingin' Shepherd Blues

30. David Webb…The Marvelous Toy

31. The Handbell Choir Of St. James Methodist Church…Westminster Carol

32. John McCutcheon…Christmas In The Trenches

33. Air University Band Maxwellaires…Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

34. Liv Ullmann & Rock Hudson…Baby It's Cold Outside

35. Anita Bryant…X Has No Word For These Bible Stories

36. Long Island Banjo Society…Bells Of St. Mary's

37. Bob Johnson And The Lonesome Travelers…Auld Lang Syne

 MEGA

If that cover image looks familiar, there's a reason for that. I took the picture during the 2019 Christmas season when I happened to find myself in NYC and insisted on multiple trips to see the tree at Rockefeller Center. I would have gone back more, but I got sick and spent the last couple days in bed before I had to catch a flight home. But why is the picture familiar? Because it's been featured on multiple Christmas album covers over the years, including a couple I've shared around here. Cool to see that they still have very similar angels to those shown on this 1956 cover!  (Are all those albums by Dick Leibert? I guess they are.  He was long the organist at Radio City, right around the corner from this display, so I guess that's why he chose to use it so frequently.)

PS-All the Christmas in July shares from 2020 should still be posted if you feel like downloading them. I believe you can start here and work your way through all of them.  And there are a lot of them! Enjoy!