July The Ninth

July goes a lot more slowly when you aren't trying to rip and post a dozen records a day. Here we are on day nine and it feels like it's been a month already. Not sure how I was able to keep up most years, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. You never know what you're capable of until you do it. So here's a little something I did for you back in 2010. Boy, that seems like an awful long time ago. It's another great collection of songs from Christmas In July, some common things, some uncommon things. I remember when I first got into Christmas music, I enjoyed the usual songs played on the radio, but I quickly began to look for the oddball stuff, the things you didn't hear every year, both unique versions of familiar carols and songs you hadn't heard before but still sounded like Christmas. And that led to what has become a lifetime of collecting this stuff. I'm betting that a majority of the stuff on this collection is new to you (or was when I first shared it back in 2010). It was mostly new to me then, too, but now it all seems like familiar comfort music that puts me in the holiday mood year after year.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

01. Brook Benton-Go Tell It On The Mountain
02. Dickie Goodman-Santa And The Satellite, Part 1
03. Paul Whiteman & Orchestra With Jack Teagarden & Johnny Mercer-Christmas Night In Harlem
04. The Bellwethers-Ukranian Carol Of The Bells
05. Julius La Rosa-We Need A Little Christmas
06. Hal Mooney And His Orchestra-I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
07. The Bill Shepherd Singers-Christmas In Killarney
08. The Daughters Of The Cross-Mary's Little Boy Child
09. Edmundo Ros And His Orchestra-My Favorite Things
10. Richard Robinson & William Reeve-Jingles, The Christmas Clown
11. Matt Dennis-White Christmas
12. Jo Ann Castle-Skater's Boogie
13. Johnny Winter-Please Come Home For Christmas
14. The Gooding Band Organ-A Little Boy's Christmas
15. The Dunster Dunces-Winter
16. Gaylord Carter-Jingle Bells
17. Dickie Goodman-Santa And The Satellite, Part 2
18. Dimitri Tiomkin-Toy Trumpet March; Christmas Morning
19. Sammy Davis, Jr. And Carmen McRae-Baby It's Cold Outside
20. Fred Karlin-Christmas
21. Doug Setterberg & Stan Boreson-Winter Wonderland
22. The Jackie Davis Trio-The Christmas Song
23. John Klein-Hanukkah Song
24. The Kennedy Space Center Chorus-We Can't Go Wrong
25. Richard Ellsasser-Sleigh Ride
26. Teresa Brewer-Jingle Bell Rock
27. The Paul Mauriat Orchestra-The Little Drummer Boy
28. Irving Fields And His Trio-Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers
29. Hugo Winterhalter-A Marshmallow World
30. Frank Sinatra-White, The Young In Heart
31. Fred Waring And His Pennsylvanians-Let Us All Sing Auld Lang Syne

MEGA

July The Seventh

Hope you folks are enjoying this walk through the long history of Christmas in July here at Ernie (Not Bert). I know it may be boring to those of you who've been around these many years, but it's a nice little primer for the new folks. And I'm really proud of some of these old collections.  Each one is a nice collection of Christmas tunes that you're fairly unlikely to stumble across elsewhere. Some of these things now are so familiar to me that I can't help but think of Christmas when I hear them, so I'm a little biased when I call them Christmas music. I hope you'll agree with me after listening to everything in context and seeing how it all fits together in the mix. Well, it's not like I spent a lot of time trying to sequence these collections. I just try to alternate instrumentals and vocals while not repeating the same songs or artists over and over again. And even those rules get broken sometimes. I also try not to repeat songs on the best-of's, but I think I've found at least one track that appears twice, though the name escapes me. I discovered it when I put all the best of collections into a single playlist, then sorted it by artist.  Kinda jumps out at you then. Anyhow, this is a collection of songs I discovered and shared in  2009.  I hope you'll find something exciting here to listen to, and it takes you back to those simpler times a decade ago before we all had to worry about our condos collapsing or global warming creating bigger & badder hurricanes. As usual, the linked songs below will take you to the day they were first shared, though I'm sure those old shares are long broken.

1. The Weavers-Santa Claus Is Coming (It's Almost Day)
2. John Klein, Orchestra And Chorus By Leo Addeo-Sweet Nutcracker!
3. Perry Como With The London Boy Singers-Christmas Dream
4. 101 Strings-Ski Run
5. Larry Chesky And His Orchestra-Sun Valley Polka
6. Johnny Dyno-Jingle Bells-Polka
7. Tom T. Hall-Christmas Is
8. Skitch Henderson, His Piano And Orchestra-I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
9. The McGuire Sisters With Orchestra Directed By Dick Jacobs-Children's Holiday
10. The Honolulu Symphony Orchestra Conducted By George Barati-Mele Kalikimaka
11. Roger Miller-Footprints In The Snow
12. The Duluth Accordionaires, Directed By John Copiskey-Brazilian Sleigh Bells
13. Lockhart Cougar Chorus-Will The Real Santa Please Stand Up
14. The Merrill Staton Voices-That Man Over There
15. David Rose And His Orchestra-The Sad, Sad Rocking Horse
16. Eddie Albert-Let There Be Peace On Earth
17. Fay McKay-Twelve Daze Of Christmas
18. Dick Shawn, Arranged And Conducted By Milton DeLugg-My Favorite Things
19. Jane Morgan-The Marvelous Toy
20. Anna Russell With Eugene Rankin And Arthur Hoberman-Let Us Hang The Holly
21. The Ray Charles Singers-A Toy For A Boy
22. Jack Shaindlin Conducting The Cinerama Symphony Orchestra-Hup-Sa-Sa
23. Leroy Anderson-Song Of The Bells
24. Merle Haggard-Blue Christmas
25. Kurt Wege & His Orchstra-Sleigh Ride
26. Ernie Maxwell-The Bells Of St. Mary
27. Esquivel, His Piano And His Orchestra-Snowfall
28. Ray Bohr-Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers
29. Polyphon Music Box-Silent Night
30. Jimmy Soul-Rockin' Santa
31. Eddie Lawrence, The Old Philosopher-What Do You Want For Christmas

MEGA

 

Huh, this collection doesn't seem to have a New Year's Eve track at the end, I must not have been able to find anything good to share that year. No Chanukah track, either. Must not have been a good year for the holiday records.

July The Fifth

Hope you had a great Fourth Of July yesterday!  Here's your chance to have a great Fifth Of July with some great old Christmas music.  This is a fine collection of favorites, all shared out during the summer of 2007, though I didn't put together a Best-Of until 2009.  Good things take time, and I'm often very lazy when it comes to such things. Looking through the track list brings back some fond memories of old favorites, alongside some things that I don't really remember. I guess I need to go through and give it a good listen to bring myself back up to speed. I'm sure you'll enjoy it if you give it a listen, so here is The Best From Ernie (Not Bert)'s Christmas In July 2008-Because It's Hot Our There. They don't all have subtitles, I don't know when I started or stopped that.  Weird little thing I felt I needed to add because the cover has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas or Winter or anything. Well, I suppose it is indicative of July here in Florida, but no one is going to know that.

01. Sauter-Finegan & Their Orchestra-Sleighride
02. Homer & Jethro With June Carter-Baby, It’s Cold Outside
03. Ted Heath & His Music-Alpine Boogie
04. The Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra-Blue Christmas
05. The Real Thing Steel Band-Hallelujah Chorus
06. Brass Of The Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra-Deck The Hall
07. Ray Conniff & The Singers-I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing
08. The San Sebastian Strings With Rod McKuen & Anita Kerr-And Everyday Was Christmas
09. Erwin Halletz & His Orchestra-Hungarian Sleigh Ride
10. Greg & Steve-Jingle Bell Rock
11. Pearl Bailey-Jingle Bells Cha Cha Cha
12. Joe Cain & His Orchestra-I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm Cha Cha Cha
13. Ken Griffin-Kringle’s Jingle
14. David Whitehall & His Orchestra-Holiday Parade
15. The Sun Tones-The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot
16. The Four Rascals-I’ll Be Home For Christmas
17. The Pipes And Drums Of The Military Band Of The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards-The Little Drummer Boy
18. John Graas-Land Of Broken Toys
19. Jack Fina-Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers
20. Edmundo Ros & His Orchestra-The Skater’s Waltz
21. The Johnny Mann Singers-Snow
22. The Gene Lowell Chorus-Winter Song
23. Ahmad Jamal-Snow Fall
24. Georgia Gibbs-Looks Like A Cold Cold Winter
25. Joe “Fingers” Carr-Snow Deer Rag
26. Walter Carlos-Three Dances From Nutcracker Suite
27. Tomita-Snowflakes Are Dancing
28. The Modern Jazz Quartet-Variations On A Christmas Theme
29. The Chad Mitchell Trio-The Virgin Mary
30. Jack Conner-What Child Is This
31. Dennis Farnon & His Orchestra-Winter Wonderland
32. Bert Kaempfert & His Orchestra-Auld Lang Syne

MEGA