December 25th Past

Merry Christmas to you! Even though it's the biggest holiday on most people's calendars, I still frequently share music on Christmas Day. So let's head on into the archives and see what sorts of things I save for the big day itself.

2016

Huh, I must have taken Christmas Day off this year. I guess I wasn't as industrious as I thought. Here's a link to an old reshare from about that time that never got any comments...

2017

White Christmas, with synths.

2018

Christmas from Austria.

2019

Christmas from West Point.

2020

Merry Christmas at 78 RPM.

Christmas Day

Finally, Christmas Day is here! What a season it's been! Hopefully you have spent the day with friends and family, opening presents and eating too much food, now it's time to relax and download a little more Christmas music. I've got a very special share for you tonight, something I don't think you've ever seen or heard before, I know I certainly hadn't. This is a record given to employees of RCA's Electron Tube Division, the people that manufactured radio & TV tubes, for the 1959 Christmas season. It's a custom recorded program of Christmas carols presented as a sort of radio program complete with narration. Both sides feature the same program, one side in mono, the other side in stereo. When you give it a listen, you'll see that it's not very conducive to being cut into tracks, so I present it to you just as I recorded it, two complete programs, one in mono and one in stereo. They aren't exactly the same length, but I think that's just a mastering issue. As near as I can tell, they are the same recording, just processed differently. It's a great little show, and it's unreleased music from the best record company in the world in one of their best years ever. It's not unheard Elvis or anything, but for Christmas music fans of this period, it's pretty impressive stuff. So make your Christmas last just a little bit longer and download Radio Corporation Of America-Here We Come A-Wassailing (Radio Corporation Of America Electron Tube Division K08P-2866/K08Y-2867 Not For Sale Or Broadcast, Stereo/Mono, 1959). Anyone who recognizes the announcer, or the singing group, or even the recording itself per chance, please let me know something more about this recording! Oh, this was a gatefold sleeve with a pocket on one side for an insert and there was nothing printed inside, so I didn't scan it. The insert featured artwork and lyrics for all the songs. I scanned the front and back but didn't do all the pages. Sorry...

1. Here We Come A-Wassailing: Greensleeves; Gloucestershire Wassail; Green Grow'th The Holly; Boar's Head; Wither's Rocking Hymn; Bell Carol; Wassail Song; Deck The Halls-Monophonic

2. Here We Come A-Wassailing: Greensleeves; Gloucestershire Wassail; Green Grow'th The Holly; Boar's Head; Wither's Rocking Hymn; Bell Carol; Wassail Song; Deck The Halls-Stereophonic

MEGA

Merry Christmas!

Just sneaking in here real quick before the Christmas morning fun begins to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Thank you for spending parts of the season here with me! I hope this music brings you great joy, both now and every season!

December 24th Past

Here it is Christmas Eve, and I need to do some shopping. So I'll just leave you some links to old shares on this day in history real quick. Go enjoy time with your family, the links will still be here next week.

2016

One of the best Christmas records you haven't heard, if you like the soundtracks to animated specials.

2017

Christmas Seals, but not Christmas.

2018

Christmas in St. Louis (the other one).

2019

Christmas by Doggett.

2020

The night before Christmas.

More Warner More Bros

Christmas Eve already! Where has the time gone? Seems like only yesterday I was trying to find records to share, and now I'm trying to find Christmas presents to buy. My time might be running out for that though. Thankfully, the pile of records isn't running out, and I've got another good one for you here now. I was surprised when I saw what looked like a local chorus record on a major label and it turned out to be even better than that. It was a corporate chorus, and it was a Canadian release! Sometimes I feel like these records find me. Dofasco turns out to be short for Dominion Foundries & Steel, Limited, and this is the second record they released. Looks like they also featured in a Christmas special a couple years in a row, perhaps that's why they were popular enough to get this record released on a major label. I've never heard of these guys, their music or their TV specials, but perhaps it's a Canadian thing. I'm still excited to share another great record with you this season, so this is The Dofasco Male Chorus-A Festival Of Christmas Carols (Warner Bros. (Canada) WSC 9010, Stereo, 1971).

1. The Shepherds Story
2. Sanctus
3. Merry Christmas
4. White Christmas
5. Come Ye Lofty
6. O Tannenbaum
7. Deck The Hall
8. Adeste Fidelis
9. See Amid The Winter Snow
10. O Holy Night
11. The Sleigh
12. Carol Of The Star
13. Pat-A-Pan
14. Winterwonderland
15. Wassail Song
16. Rise Up Shepherd And Follow

MEGA

December 23rd Past

Tick tock, tick tock. Time's a-wastin', hope you're ready for the big day already. If not, well, you might consider giving the gift of Christmas music, because I've got plenty of that for you in the archives, and there's no trip to the mall involved. I gave someone a gift of Christmas music once, and it didn't go over well. At least they could use the memory stick for something else... Anyhow, here's a few links to this day in the past five years of music shares. Enjoy!

2016

Blue (Grass) Christmas.

2017

A winter choo-choo ride. Certainly something different.

2018

Kids at Christmastime.

2019

Local Christmas.

2020

Classic Christmas songs from 78s via The Internet Archive.

Obligatory Organ Post

It's Christmas Eve Eve, and I don't think I've posted my quota of organ records for the season. Probably too late to get many more in, but I've got one here that's short and sweet, but with a twist. Several of these tracks feature a nice bit of piano that I quite liked, and I hope you will too. But the big twist is track two, a personal message from Howard Holderness, President of Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company! I guess this was a giveaway from the company for Christmas one year, so he stuck his voice on these with a nice little Christmas message. I love these company things! Another odd twist here is the use of the entire B-side on another similar record for a different company. You can find it here on Discogs. (Speaking of Discogs, I think this Ted Smith is known more commonly as Tedd Smith, though he's not listed that way on Discogs. I need to fix that. In the spoken word part here, he's mentioned as being associated with Billy Graham, and Tedd Smith show up on plenty of Billy Graham-related records. But that's minutia you probably don't care about...). If you're still with me after all that, please be my guest and download Ted Smith-An Old Fashioned Christmas (Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company 6-7055A/6-6954B, Mono).

1. I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day
2. Howard Holderness-Season's Greetings
3. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
4. Joy To The World
5. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
6. Hark, The Herald Angels Sing
7. Away In A Manger
8. While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
9. It Came Upon The Midnight Clear
10. Deck The Halls With Boughs Of Holly
11. The First Noel
12. O, Come All Ye Faithful
13. Silent Night

MEGA

December 22nd Past

What day is this, I'm not even sure. Oh, Wednesday. The Wednesday before Christmas. Is that a holiday in some countries? I doubt it. Obviously I'm delirious. Before I lose it completely, here are links to some shares from the past five years of Ernie (Not Bert) that should still be available to download and listen to. Hope there's something in there you enjoy!

2016

The lost Luboff.

2017

Christmas with you.

2018

Christmas with some bloke name of Fenwick, care of Motorola.

2019

Christmas with Rex Humbard, part of a short series of Christmas records from TV preachers I did that year. There are more of them if you hunt around a bit. It didn't seem to be too popular of a series.

2020

Rhythm & blues from Christmas 78s. Well, approximately.

Who's Dennis James?

Time for another quick visit back to 1955 when the world was new, or at least it must have seemed that way. WW2 was becoming a distant memory, the US economy was booming and life was good. It was also a great year for Christmas music. Here's a little-known record from that year and the new Kapp label, a record that I was not familiar with prior to finding a copy this summer. (Of course I later discovered a second copy already in the collection that I don't remember buying. That happens a lot...) Dennis James appears to be a TV host, credited with hosting the first TV game show in 1946. I suppose they'd existed on radio before that, but TV was the thing that's stuck to today. He doesn't sing on this record, he just tells stories and narrates in rhyme. It's quite cute, I think you'll like it. There's also a chorus that does much of the heavy lifting, apparently assembled just for this recording. A banjo group called The Happy Harts shows up a few times, organist John Gart handles the orchestra, and the chorus is directed by Hal Kanner, who I'm not at all familiar with. It's a good listen, and deserves to be a little more well-known. This is Dennis James With The James Boys And Girls With The Happy Harts-Orchestra Directed By John Gart-Chorus Directed By Hal Kanner-Let's All Sing A Song For Christmas (Kapp KL-1009, Mono, 1955). I'm not going to list out all 34 tracks here, I'm much too lazy for that. Just download and listen, OK?

MEGA

December 21st Past

Getting really close to the big day now. Should I get a Christmas tree? I bet they're cheaper now than they were back before Thanksgiving. But the cat will just destroy it, so I better not. How about some links to Christmas shares from year's past? At least the cat can't destroy that!

2016

 A million medleys for Christmas.

2017

Huh, I guess I missed this day back in 2017. Contrary to popular belief, I do have to sleep once in a while, and I guess this was my day. Here's a link to a 45 I shared out a couple days earlier that I haven't mentioned here in this series of posts.

2018

Christmas at the barber shop. I still need a stereo copy of this one, so if you have a copy you'd like to send me, drop me a line. :)

2019

Christmas from New Jersey.

2020

Winter songs from crusty old 78s.

Another Ellsasser

I love when I can add something to an artist's discography that I've covered before. In this case, it's a whole new album for a guy that has already seen a couple different albums shared out here at the blog. Previously, we've seen a Christmas album from Richard Ellsasser, as well as a winter-themed album. That Christmas album was even issued under an entirely new cover and almost got posted as something new before I realized it was just a reissue on a subsidiary label of the original. (There are also a few tracks from Chirstmas in July past as well, if you dig hard enough.) But this one is truly brand new to us and is sure to be a great addition to the year. This is Richard Ellsasser-Joy To The World (MGM E3271, The Organ Of The John Hays Hammond, Jr. Museum Gloucester, Massachusetts With The Deagan Celesta-Chime, Mono, 1955). In the interest of correctness, I should say that I'm not sure this 12" LP was issued in 1955. There was a 10" version in 1955, and I couldn't confirm the 12" came out the same year. But close enough for this blog.

1. Joy To The World
2. Silent Night
3. Away In A Manger (Luther's Cradle Hymn)
4. We Three Kings Of Orient Are
5. Carol Of The Bells
6. O, Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)
7. What Child Is This? (Greensleeves)
8. The Holly And The Ivy
9. Three Old English Carols
10. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
11. The First Noel
12. Good King Wenceslas
13. Veni, Emmanuel
14. Bring A Torch, Jeanette, Isabelle
15. O Little Town Of Bethlehem

MEGA

December 20th Past

Should I start my Christmas shopping today? Nah, I think I get Christmas Eve off of work, so there'll be plenty of time then. In the meantime, here's more links to past shares you might have missed.

2016

Singers in stereo! For Christmas!

2017

Stereo motion! For Christmas!

2018

Christmas with Leroy. This record was harder to find than it should have been.

2019

Christmas in DC.

2020

A fine collection of Christmas comedy, all from 78s at the Internet Archive.

Gone Fishin'

One of my favorite types of Christmas record to find is the corporate Christmas collections. Not so much in this day and age, but back in the day, groups of company employees would get together to sing, either informally or occasionally as a professional group that would stage shows or even small tours. And sometimes they would release records. Even more rarely, they'd put out a Christmas record. In the past I've brought you collections of Christmas songs from groups representing Snap On, Anheuser-Busch, Nationwide, and others that I can't think of at the moment. Today I've got a small record that features songs contributed by the worldwide divisions of the Garcia Corporation, the fine folks who make fishing gear. You just never know what sort of company is going to put together and press these Christmas collections. I think you'll dig it. This is Merry Christmas (Garcia 7" 33 RPM GRC 7701, Mono). The audio editing is a bit rough on this one, and it's like that in the grooves. I think the splices were done in a hurry or by someone with out a lot of experience back when this was put together, but that's part of the charm on these sorts of releases.

1. Garcia Glee Club-Silent Night
2. French Mitchell Chorus-Noel
3. Tony Baly-Forever Christmas
4. Swedish Abu Chorus-The Star Over Eastern Land
5. Swedish Abu Chorus-Christmas Is Here Again
6. German By Plate Chorus-Silent Night

MEGA

 

December 19th Past

Are you keeping up? Let me know if you've had enough and I'll stop. In the meantime, here are links to five more old shares in the archives that should still be downloadable. Don't say I never give you anything.

2016

Christmas with Gomer.

2017

Christmas fun from a local TV station.

2018

Christmas from Franklin National Bank.

2019

Christmas in Italy. I went to Italy a couple years ago, but not at Christmas. I bet they really do things up for Christmas though, because it seemed like a very religious place. Churches everywhere, and little alcoves with a statue of the Virgin Mary on every other bend in the road.

2020

Country Christmas from 78.

Ireland! Again!

Been a while since the last installment of Christmas around the world, a series I did during the 2018 season. I think I already did a record from Ireland that year, but here's another one for your collection. Not sure if this one is better than the other one, but at least it's different. This is St. Catherine's Dominican Choir, Maureen Dillon-Conductor, Soloists: Bernadette Walshe And Eileen Egan-Christmas In Ireland (Avoca 33-AV-126 (Cabra, Dublin, Ireland), Mono).

1. Adeste Fideles
2. Hark, The Herald Angels Sing
3. Cry Out And Shout
4. The Holly And The Ivy
5. Ding Dong Merrily On High
6. The First Noel
7. Diadem
8. Christians Awake
9. Silent Night, Holy Night
10. Away In A Manger
11. The Seven Joys Of Mary
12. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
13. Once In David's City
14. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
15. On That Christmas Morn
16. Angels We Have Heard On High (Gloria In Excelsis Deo)

MEGA