Command Performance
1. William Steinberg Conducting The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra-Adeste Fidelis
2. The Ray Charles Singers-Christmas Is A Birthday
3. Bobby Byrne And His Orchestra-The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)
4. Ashley Miller At The Paramount Theater Organ-The First Noel
5. The Robert DeCormier Singers-Mary's Little Boy Child
6. Toots Thielemans And His Orchestra-Jingle Bells
7. The Ray Charles Singers-Silent Night
8. Command's Guitars And Strings Featuring Al Casamenti-Sleigh Ride
9. Robert Maxwell-White Christmas
10. Doc Severinsen And His Orchestra-Joy To The World
11. Dick Hyman-Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
12. Virgil Fox, Organist, With Louise Natale, Soprano-O Holy Night
Ah, this is a great record. Big fan of Toots Thielemans. A Jazz giant. Played with everybody from Ella Fitzgerald to Billy Joel.
ReplyDeleteAlso rather fond of the Ray Charles Singers.
I remastered my Ray Charles Singers records, not sure when I'll get to them but they're coming.
DeleteGreat Command Christmas album, but double great if you will post Ray Charles Sjngers Chistmas records with REALLY GOOD REMASTERING (especially the first)
DeleteThey're coming, but I don't know how great the remasters are. I didn't think the sound was super clear on any of the copies I had at hand. :(
DeleteThanks Ernie (the great sound problem is the first) ... needs also a good remastering your old post The Jack Halloran Singers - Christmas Is A-Comin'
DeleteSomeday, not this year though.
DeleteOk thank you very much
DeleteI recorded my own copy of this lp earlier this year; it's quite the eclectic collection of recordings. The Toots track is quite groovy 60s with that drum beat!
ReplyDeleteJust in case your newer visitors aren't aware of it, there was a Ray Charles Singers 45 for "Christmas Is a Birthday" that included another semi-Christmas song that isn't on this album but can be found on your 2009 best of Christmas In July comp here:
https://ernienotbert.blogspot.com/2016/12/vixen.html
(I had forgotten about the shout-out from the original post! Cheers!)
Credit where credit is due, you're the one that told me about it all those years ago. :) I never found the 45, but it turned up on as LP at some point so I grabbed it.
DeleteThanks for this! Love those Ray Charles Singers.
ReplyDeleteEverybody seems to be infatuated with The Ray Charles Singers. Maybe I need to share those out sooner rather than later.
DeleteYAY!! This album is in the top ten of my Most wanted Christmas albums to add to the collection, ranking right up there with Ed Sullivan's Music of Christmas, Jo Stafford's The Joyful Season (any version) and her Vocalion Columbia compilation, and Pat Boone's second seasonal Dot LP, Christmas Is A Comin', to name just a few. Looking forward to diving into this! Thanks for resharing. Hopefully Pete Fountain's Candy Clarinet will be among the albums in this year's Remastered series.
ReplyDeleteGlad we got one you wanted. Not sure about the others though. Only so many days to the season...
DeleteSurprisingly Classical for the Doc Severinsen cut! I was expecting it to head into Big Band Swing any moment. Still very good. Could have easily slipped onto a Goodyear Great Songs o Christmas album collection. Good ending and creative arrangement.
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly "tender and mild" for the Ray Charles version of Silent Night, with the only addition of an acoustic guitar providing any semblance of a beat on this cut. At times, it brings to mind the reverential sound of Charles' aforementioned MGM Christmas albums.
ReplyDeleteTouch of an Al Caiola sound on "Sleigh Ride." Of course, the label's top guitarist, Tony Mottola, had followed Enoch Light to Project 3 Records by this time. There is probably a good chance that the late Bucky Pizzerelli is on of the guitarists on this cut. One of the few cuts on this disc that has the type of quirky musical sounds that Command is known for.
ReplyDeleteMore typical period Command Records sound with the Toots Thieleman's cut. it sounds like "Jingle Bells A-Go-Go"! Probably one of the best cuts on the whole disc. At times, Toots' harmonica style is reminiscent of Stevie Wonder. One of the more unique takes of "Jingle Bells" out there.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I wish this LP had come out when Enoch was still around, but ya get what ya get sometimes. :)
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