Christmas In July 2026-Part 7
1. The Concordia College Choir-Victor Hildner, Director-Listen, Lordlings, Unto Me (The Concordia College Choir, 1956)
An unknown-to-me song from this college group. It was on the Christmas side of the record so I have to assume it was a Christmas song. Someone may correct me though.
2. The Accordion Masters With Rhythm Accompaniment-Skater's Waltz (The Accordion Masters Play Twelve Favorite Waltzes, 1958)
This is the track from our featured LP cover above. I love to find accordion songs to share with you. They're usually much better than the harp records I find.
3. Bill Mann With The Concert Orchestra Of Stockholm-Go Tell It On The Mountain (Go Tell It On The Mountain, 1965)
A rerun from years past, but still a nice one. I love it when a non-Christmas record announces it's Christmas content right there on the cover in big letters. Despite it's using a Christmas song for the title, this is the only Christmas song on the record.
4. Bowmar Orchestral Library-Chinese Dance (Stories In Ballet And Opera)
Another installment of The Nutcracker Suite from this demo record. Well, I've been calling it a demo record, but IIRC there are no ads on it to buy the music. This may have been more along the lines of a studio library record with royalty-free performances you could use as needed. I think the cover is pretty generic with a sticker for the title and catalog number. Anyone familiar with this series?
5. Gooding Amusement's German Organ-Here Comes Santa Claus (Christmas With The Gooding Band Organ, 1984)
One more good track from this actual band wagon. It's a giant steam powered organ and percussion device that made music and it was on wheels to be moved from location to location. I think it had been converted to run on compressed air instead of steam, but the mechanism to play the music is still the same.
6. The Choir Of Leeds Parish Church-Directed By Simon Lindley-Michael Harris, Organ-Christians, Awake, Salute The Happy Morn (Favourite Hymns And Christmas Carols, 1984)
More music from this fundraising album. I wonder if they ever got the church back in tip-top shape? Looks like they're doing pretty well for themselves these days, so I guess they got the funds they needed back in 1984.
7. Faron Young-If We Make It Through December (A Man And His Music, 1974)
This may be my favorite track today. I never gave much though to people covering this Merle Haggard track but I guess they did an here's a little proof. I bet if I keep digging I'll find more covers.
8. The JM Choral Group-Novices And Postulates Of The Religious Of Jesus And Mary-Mother Marie Laetitia, R.J.M., Director-What Child Is This? (Patterns In Song, 1960)
There's a long history of singing nuns here at the blog, and this is more of the same. We do not, however, have much history of flying nuns, though there was that one track...
9. The Arlingtones, Jay Giallombardo-Director, Soloist: D. Allan-I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas (A Chorus For All Seasons)
Not sure why they lengthened the title of this song, unless they were hoping to get away without paying any royalties to Irving Berlin. I think they're going to need to be a little smarter than that.
10. The Crane Wind Ensemble, State University Of New York At Potsdam-Anthony J. Maiello, Director-March Of The Plastic Soldiers (Music For Concert Band, 1985)
And bringing up the rear is a song from a demo LP for the arrangements. I love when they announce the name of the song before they play it. Enjoy!
great. i am off to Sweden and was hopping to get #7 before I had to leave to catch the first of the trains i need.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy! Bring me a Coke bottle!
DeleteI think Bowmar made records for school use.
ReplyDeleteSo they moved that band organ from place to place, eh?
That could be the case for Bowmar. And it would make sense given the generic stickered sleeve.
DeleteYes, that big band organ traveled from festival to festival entertaining visitors wherever it went. There's a whole spiel on the back of the LP which appeared to have been issued for a major anniversary of the company.