November 27th Past

Day three and I'm on a roll! It's easy to post stuff from the past because there's little to no work involved.

2016

Mimi Hines, in an alternate take on 45. I love finding stuff that's unknown.

2017

Christmas from Fairyland, a souvenir from my trip to Chicago that year.

2018

Christmas from 3M? Really?!?

2019

The 27th was the day before Thanksgiving in 2019, so it looks like I posted a rare Thanksgiving record from Oscar Brand for you that year. Too last for Thanksgiving this year, but if you're a hoarder completist like me...

2020

An excellent selection of 78s from The Internet Archive. Such good stuff in there.

Christmas 1964

Well, Thanksgiving is done, Black Friday/Record Store Day is gone, What else is there between now and Christmas Day? Well, a whole lot of Christmas music, me thinks! And if you're busy putting together your Christmas mix tapes today, I've got a little something special for you. This is an album sent to radio stations from Capitol Records back in 1964, and it features Christmas Seasonal and other greetings from their then-current roster of artists. You may not need a message saying congratulations on your power increase, but who wouldn't love a jovial Merry Christmas? Featured artists are Nat King Cole, Nancy Wilson, Andy Griffith, Freddy Martin, Kay Starr & Ray Anthony. And each of those artists gives you a little message for Station Anniversary, Power Increase, Celebration, Holiday & Christmas. There's bound to be something on here for every listener! This is Programming Aids From Capitol (AKA Capitol Programming Aids on the label) (Capitol PRO 2744/2745, Mono, 1964). I've been looking for more Kay Starr Christmas for a long time, so this is a very special find to me.

MEGA

November 26th Past

Day two and I'm still doing it! Hooray for me!

2016

I don't appear to have posted anything new on this day in 2016, so this was a reshare of something old. At this point, my rip is over ten years old, so try it at your own risk. I'm trying to highlight more recent stuff here, but in this case, you gotta take what you can get. At least it's in stereo...

2017

You can't go wrong with Steve Allen. He wrote a ton of songs, released a million albums, hosted his own TV shows, and just generally did a lot. This is a radio show he did back in the day.

2018

Who'd a thunk Dick Van Dyke would still be with us at 95! And he turns 96 soon! I hope I don't jinx him by posting this.

2019

Nothing on the 26th in 2016. Sorry.

2020

And the 26th was Thanksgiving last year, so this is the same link I shared with you yesterday. No need to go download it a second time. Well, it's pretty good, so if you really want to...

Eez For Goat

This is one of my favorite finds this year, though I later realized it had been shared by my friend Stubby years ago and somehow I missed it. Really, how can you go wrong with a goat for Christmas? You've heard of hippos and reindeer, is it really such a stretch for a goat? I think not.  This is The Wilder Brothers-The Old Chiminey b/w I Wanna Goat For Christmas (Wing 7" 45 RPM W-900039X45, Mono, 1955). Who are these Wilder Brothers? I've never heard of them.

MEGA

November 25th Past

I know I just gave you a list of these old shares, but that one was for actual Thanksgiving Day posts, regardless of the date. This is a list of shares that were posted on November 25th from year's past. Subtle difference, but it's a difference...

2016

Only an EP, but a good one, and I love that cover!

2017

Is it OK in this day and age to refer to a woman as a Dame? I suppose if you're a British actress it's OK, but not in the Sinatra sense...

2018

A nice collection of Christmas stories from RCA provided to radio stations who subscribed to one of their programs that year. Good stuff from Milton Cross if that means anything to you.

2019

Looks like Thanksgiving wasn't until the 28th this year, so I don't have anything to link to here...

2020

Looks like this date last year was actually the day before Thanksgiving, but lucky for you, I posted a selection of Thanksgiving-related 78s that day in preparation for the big day. I don't do that every year, but that was a banner year. In fact, there were two collections of Thanksgiving music that day...

Thanksgiving Day Past

One of the things I wanted to do this year was to draw some much-needed attention to the vast collection of music that's still available in the archives from the last five years or so. That covers all of the time I've been back at posting since taking a season or two off, and it's all still hosted at MEGA. (Note that sometimes you have to look in the comments for a working link, but they should be there somewhere.) Anyhow, here's a short list with a highlight and a link to shares from years' past on Thanksgiving Day that you might have missed. And I certainly won't be linking to all the old stuff that's still out there. Poke around and you will find many, many old shares that are still going strong, just waiting to be discovered!

2016

One of the great records put out by the Air Force Recruiting Office that you're not going to find at the local music store.

2017

Who are the LaFalce Brothers?

2018

A rare LP of all new Christmas songs. I can't tell you if they're any good or not, but they're new!

2019

Fun with Dr. Fun! I recently had to enter this one into the database at Discogs. If I don't, who will? Actually, there are lots of my shares that aren't over there, and I'm slowly working to fix that oversight.

2020

Oh, this was the year when I did all 78s from The Internet Archive. Some folks didn't like it but I loved it. So many good records that I've never seen or heard before. Enjoy

So that's the list for today. I'll try to put out a quick list every day if I can. And remember, if you haven't seen it before, it's new to you!

Where To Start?

I often agonize about where to start each Christmas season, what to share first, and I'm never super satisfied with the final choice. I guess it really doesn't matter, so why worry about it? This year, I had no idea, so I'm just going to go with this swell 10" LP from Jan Garber that I'd been looking for and only recently found. This was one of the few big band Christmas LPs that I was missing (the only other one I can think of right now is Ralph Flanagan's Holiday Inn. A little help?) and I found it at the record store less than a week ago. It's not the best Christmas record ever, but it's certainly not the worst. It's also pretty short. This is Jan Garber And His Orchestra-Under The Christmas Tree (Capitol 10" 33 RPM H9008, 1951).

1. Winter Wonderland 

2. White Christmas 

3. Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town 

4. The Christmas Waltz

5. Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)

6. Deck The Halls

7. The Bells Of St. Mary's

8. Jingle Bells

MEGA

And while I'm at it, Mr. Garber released a single the year before this that wasn't included on this album. I grabbed a copy of it from the Internet Archive, so if you download it and add it to the LP, you get a little bit more music for the same price.

1. Blue Christmas

2. What'cha Gonna Get Me For Christmas

MEGA

Christmas 2021!

Here it is, the Christmas season once again! I hope you've been looking forward to the holidays this year as much as I have. It's been a crazy year, though maybe not so crazy as last year. I know I say this every year, but I don't have too much to share with you this year, and not as much time as I would like to spend sharing. But I'll try to get something up every day for you, and I hope it's stuff you'll enjoy. I don't have a lot to say, either, so hopefully you know the drill around here by now. Keep checking back, and remember to leave a comment now and then.

Big thanks to Inkydog for the help on the artwork above. Bonus points if you can tell me where it's from. I left a bit of a clue in there for you, but last time I checked, this didn't exist out there on the web anywhere. I had a much cleaner version to share, but my layers got corrupted at the last minute. so apologies for the mottled backgrounds.