Christmas In Tijuana

And now for something a little bit different.  I've seen a lot of different Christmas LPs that claim to have that Tijuana sound, but I'd never seen this one before.  I didn't see it shared out anywhere, either, although I think I found the same tunes with a different cover, so it's not entirely new, but it's close.  What better place to get your Tijuana Christmas tunes than from the Canadian Arc label, the same folks who brought you last year's great Christmas record set in a pub?  I don't think this one is that good, but it makes for a nice change-up on the old iPod.  This is Tijuana Style-Christmas Carols (Arc AC 34, Stereo).  I have no idea who actually is performing here, but since they put "Christmas Carols" in quotes on the label below, and not Tijuana Style, I'm thinking they're telling me that's the band name.  Sound good?  Better than nothing, I guess.  Go get it!

1. The Holly And The Ivy
2. Silent Night
3. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
4. While Shepherds Watched
5. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
6. Good King Wenceslas
7. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
8. Away In A Manger
9. The First Nowell
10. Christians Awake
11. Once In Royal David's City
12. O Come All Ye Faithful

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Return Of The Harp

Long a favorite around here, or at least a favorite once I got my hands on a stereo copy, I finally decided to remaster this classic LP from Bianco.  This cover looks a little the worse for wear, but I think you'll find the music to be quite nice.  Bianco was one of the folks who popularized the harp as a lead instrument back in the late fifties and early sixties, along with Robert Maxwell and others.  This great Christmas record showcases some of his smoothest recordings, setting a great mood for your Christmas time.  Go ahead, download it, you know you want to.  This is The Rainbow Sound Of Bianco, His Harp And Orchestra-Joy To The World-Everybody's Favorite Christmas Music (RCA Victor Club Record CSP-104, Stereo, 1962), new and improved for 2011!


1. Medley: We Wish You A Merry Christmas Silent Night
2. White Christmas
3. Jingle Bells
4. O Holy Night
5. Medley: Away In A Manger; The First Noel
6. Medley: Adeste Fideles (O Come, All Ye Faithful); Joy To The World
7. Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem
8. We Three Kings Of Orient Are
9. Silver Bells
10. Medley: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing; Deck The halls
11. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
12. Medley: Sleigh Ride; We Wish You A Merry Christmas


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2008 Redux, Part 2

Time for the second part of my 2008 rehash, making available the items I shared with you back during Christmas in July 2008.  Not too much I can say about it that I haven't already said, so I'll give you the link without a whole lot of yak.

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Old Mann

Here's another ancient share, from way back in 2005 (well, the mono copy was in 2005, I think I first shared the stereo version in 2006).  Budget label, budget sounds, but some folks seem to like that sort of thing.  This is Sy Mann At The Wurlitzer-Everybody's Christmas Favorites-Organ & Chimes (Palace STXM-901, Stereo).

1. White Christmas
2. Adeste Fideles
3. Silent Night
4. Joy To The World
5. Away In A Manger
6. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
7. Jingle Bells
8. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
9. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
10. Noel
11. Deck The Hall
12. We Three Kings Of Orient Are
13. Good King Wenceslas

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18 Big Ones!

How can you resist the lure of 18 Christmas songs, as sung by stars of radio and television?  You're not a machine!  You can't pass this up! I recorded this nicely-covered LP in response to a post from my blogger friend Lee (over at Music You Won't) last year.  He'd purchased a set of two EPs by this same title comprising 2/3 of the 18 titles.  I wanted to help him complete the set so I dug this out of my archives and recorded it.  But it turns out that the songs on here aren't an exact match to the ones on the records he has.  Mine is all the same old boring Christmas songs while his set includes some new, exciting titles like Poppy The Puppy and All Around The Christmas Tree.  So I don't think this set isn't going to help him one bit.  But you might enjoy it.  Please download Vocals And Orchestra By Popular Radio And Television Artists-18 Christmas Songs (Broadway BR-1028, Mono).

1. Hark The Herald Angels Sing
2. Joy To The World
3. Good King Wenceslas
4. Deck The Halls With Holly
5. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
6. Jingle Bells
7. Shepherds' Carol
8. Bring A Torch Jeanette Isabella
9. White Christmas
10. Silent Night
11. O' Come All Ye Faithful
12. The First Noel
13. O' Little Town Of Bethlehem
14. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
15. O Holy Night
16. Away In A Manger
17. Auld Lang Syne
18. O Tannenbaum

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Return Of The Avon Lady

Someone requested the return of this old Avon share, so here it is.  It's been a long time since I've given it any thought, although it has been reshared more than once since it's debut here back in 2005.  I hope you enjoy it.  This is Avon Campaign 21 (Avon 10" 33 RPM, Mono, 1968).

1. Christmas Kickoff
2. Jingle Bells
3. Silent Night
4. Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairies

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The Montreal Express

I'm not a betting man, but I'm willing to wager that 99.9% of you have never heard this little winter song.  It appears to be a promo item for BostonGas, touting the benefits of switching to gas heat.  And why do you need gas heat?  To fight off the cold chill of The Montreal Express, a weather system that seems to have been blamed for all of Boston's cold weather.  Those of you from Beantown will enjoy the sites they namecheck in this song.  The rest of us will just nod knowingly and ignore you.  It's a neat little record, with music pressed on only one side but a neat checkerboard pattern in the blank grooves on the flip.  Lemme know what you think of Al Sears And His Countrymen-The Montreal Express (Blue Flame Records 1-Sided 7" 45 RPM, Stereo).

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2008 Redux, Part 1

We're making progress here.  I've shared out all of the Christmas in July stuff from 2006 & 2007, so now I can move on to 2008.  That's a ton of Christmas music already, and even more still to come.  I had to break 2008 up into five sections, it was that big!  So here's the first few days, the first eight, I think.

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Christmas At The Apollo

When I first spotted this record, I was sure it said Christmas At The Apollo, and I thought to myself, Wow! This is going to be great.  Then I looked again and realized my mistake, but I was still pretty excited.  It was something I'd never seen before and looked like exactly the sort of thing I could share out at Christmas.  So here it is.  The Apollo Club appears to be a group of male singers, some sort of amateur singing society, but one with great talent.  There may be Apollo Clubs in a number of cites, but this particular one appears to hail from Minneapolis according to the liner notes.  I couldn't find hide nor hair of this record on the internet, or at least nothing that told me anything I didn't already know from owning the LP.  Is it rare?  Probably.  Is it valuable?  No, not really.  It's just a small slice of Christmas past that some of you will enjoy and others will pass by.  If it looks like something you're interested in, then please download Christmas With The Internationally Famous Apollo Club (Soma MG 1216, Mono).  The cover photo was taken at the premier of The Seven Wonders Of The World in Chicago in 1956, so the record probably came out in 1957 or 1958.  Just a guess...

1. Shepherds, Awake
2. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
3. Mary Had A Baby
4. Carol Of The Bells
5. Silent Night
6. The Innkeeper's Carol
7. As It Fell Upon The Night
8. O Bone Jesu
9. Oh Come All Ye Faithful
10. Luther's Cradle Hymn
11. Deck The Halls

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I shared another LP on this label some years ago, but here's a link to the 2010 reshare where the download should still be good.

2007 Redux, Part 4

And, finally, the last part of my 2007 revisit to Christmas in July.  This covers the final quarter of the month, and includes day 32.  I usually go a day or two over because 31 days just can't handle that much Christmas!  On to 2008 soon...

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A Douglas Two-fer

I got a request to repost my old Mike Douglas shares, so here they are.  The first one, shown above, dates to 1967, but I first shared it in 2006 (in August, no less), right after he passed away.  Then I found the second one, below, from 1979, much later than the first one, but I shared it out the following year, in 2007.  Neither of them are something you see very often, so I'm happy to bring them back for you.

Mike Douglas-My Kind Of Christmas (Epic BN 26322, Stereo, 1967).

1. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)
2. The First Noel
3. Do You Hear What I Hear?
4. O Holy Night
5. (The Story Of) The First Christmas Carol
6. White Christmas
7. Silent Night, Holy Night
8. Silver Bells
9. Ave Maria
10. Touch Hands On Christmas Morning

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The Mike Douglas Christmas Album (Word WSB-8815, Stereo, 1979).

1. Oh Holy Night
2. One Small Child
3. Do You Hear What I Hear?
4. What Child Is This?
5. Christmas Song
6. It's O.K. To Be A Kid At Christmas
7. Christmas Is Love
8. Thanks To You At Christmas
9. Special Delivery
10. Happy Birthday, Christmas

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2007 Redux, Part 3

What was I about to post?  Oh, yeah, today's link to old Christmas in July shares.  I hope you guys are enjoying these.  Today is the third part of 2007, should be days 17 through 24.  Lot's of good tunes in here.

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Hawaii Via Belgium

What's that? You want some Hawaiian Christmas music? But you want it to come from a bunch of Belgian studio musicians?  Not a problem.  I recorded this last year, but never shared it out for whatever reason, but I'm giving it to you this year because I'm tired tonight and don't want to work on something new.  This has seen it's fair share of shares on the various sharity blogs out there, but this is my rip, and if you don't already have it, I think you'll enjoy it.  This is The Waikikis-Merry Christmas In Hawaii (Kapp KS-3444, Stereo, 1965).  Mele Kalikimaka!

01. White Christmas
02. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
03. Silver Bells
04. Snow In Hawaii
05. O Tannenbaum
06. Sleigh Ride
07. The Little Drummer Boy
08. The Christmas Song
09. Winter Wonderland
10. Waikiki Christmas
11. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
12. Silent Night

MediaFire

If you want better Hawaiian Christmas music, you're going to have to pay for it.  I used to share out a great one, but it's now something you can legally download.

A Couple Of Pointers

In case some of you are here looking for random Christmas things to download, allow me to point you towards a couple of shares that are somewhat hard to find.  I shared out two red records on Christmas And A Half this past year, that's also known as Ernie's birthday, or June 25th if you prefer.  You can find those two records here and here.  Nothing too exciting, but a couple more for the collection you're building.  One of them is by an unknown artist, so if you can put a name to the music, I'd be very appreciative.

2007 Redux, Part 2

And here's the second collection of stuff from Christmas In July 2007, days 9 through 16 if memory serves.  Lots and lots of interesting stuff in these downloads, I hope you're taking advantage of them while the gettin's good.

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Stereo Mummers

One of the more popular, or at least one of the more talked about shares from last year was Happy Holiday With The "Best Of The Mummers", but unfortunately, the copy I had was in mono.  So I got a little excited when I saw a copy of this LP on a dealers list earlier this year, hoping it was a stereo copy.  And sure enough, it was!  (The cover was a little rough, with some wear and some tape across the back, but it sounds good.  And I wasn't going to even try to get that original price code sticker off of there.  If I had more time and more proficiency in image editing, I could probably replace that with a chunk of the mono cover, but I'm tired and lazy.)  Now I get to share this with you, and I'm officially proclaiming it the happiest Christmas music I'm going to share all season.  Don't believe me?  Download it and listen.  If you don't agree, I'll give you your money back!  This is Happy Holiday With The "Best Of The Mummers" (Sure SS-Vol. 13, Stereo, 1963).  Oh, I was also able to put the date of 1963 on it based on some ads I found online, either in the excellent Google index of Billboard or something similar they've done with other trade papers and newspapers.  It's amazing the information that's out there if you look.

1. Quaker City String Band-Happy Holiday And White Christmas
2. Quaker City String Band-Jingle Bells
3. Greater Kensington String Band-Silver Bells
4. Greater Kensington String Band-Winter Wonderland
5. Polish-American String Band-Christmas Bells
6. Polish-American String Band-Mistletoe Polka
7. Greater Kensington String Band-I'll Be Home For Christmas
8. Greater Kensington String Band-Silent Night
9. Polish-American String Band-Christmas Time
10. Polish-American String Band-Jingle Bells Polka
11. Quaker City String Band-Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer
12. Polish-American String Band-Happy New Year To You
13. Aqua String Band-Golden Slippers and Four Leaf Clover
14. Aqua String Band-Auld Lang Syne

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Happy Holidays From ...

For the mix-tapers out there, here's another collection of celebrity IDs from the late Eighties.  Some of these are repeats from the one I shared last year, but not many.  Most of these are unique to this record, and a couple of them are actually interesting.  Drop these at random spots on your compilation or radio show, and see how many people think you've actually got celebrity guests!  This is Holiday Greetings From The Epic, Portrait And CBS Associated Families (Epic Portrait Associated/CBS EAS 2864, Stereo, 1987).  They also make nice things to drop at random on people's iPods.  If only there was a way to beam them wirelessly across the room and add them to people's playlists...

01: Greg Allman
02: Ana
03: Big Trouble
04: Bill Carter
05: Robin Zander of Cheap Trick
06: Rick Neilsen of Cheap Trick
07: Cherrelle #1
08: Cherrelle #2
09: Angela Clemmons
10: Charlie Daniels
11: Mary Davis
12: Gloria Estefan And Miami Sound Machine
13: Fabulous Thunderbirds
14: David Hallyday
15: Hiroshima
16: Insiders #1
17: Insiders #2
18: Tuesday Knight
19: Krystol
20: Lion
21: Aimee Mann of 'Til Tuesday
22: Teena Marie #1
23: Teena Marie #2
24: Kathy Mathis
25: Ozzy Osbourne #1
26: Ozzy Osbourne #2
27: Ozzy Osbourne #3
28: Quiet Riot #1
29: Quiet Riot #2
30: The Radiators
31: REO Speedwagon
32: S.O.S. Band #1
33: S.O.S. Band #2
34: Dan Siegel
35: Charlie Singleton
36: Survivor
37: Robert Tepper
38: Wa Wa Nee #1
39: Wa Wa Nee #2
40: Weird Al Yankovic #1
41: Weird Al Yankovic #2
42: Weird Al Yankovic #3
43: Weird Al Yankovic #4
44: Weird Al Yankovic #5
45: Pia Zadora

Good grief, that's a long list.  I hope you appreciate this.  I'm not even sure who some of these people are.

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2007 Redux, Part 1

Now that I'm done sharing out all the old Christmas in July things from 2006, I guess I can move on to 2007.  Here's the first batch of those, including days 1-8.  Don't say I never gave you anything.

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New John

Lucky for me, someone requested a re-share of my old John McCarthy Christmas record. That jogged my memory about this record and makes the perfect pairing.  Look close at the credits on this record from Columbia and you'll see a credit to John McCarthy conducting The Regency Choir.  Sweet, eh?  I'm not going to spoil the moment by blathering on and on, so if you want to listen to The Regency Choir-John McCarthy, Conductor-Three Wise Men (Columbia CS 9382, Stereo, 1966), please be my guest.

1. The Bells Of Christmas
2. Jesus Garcia
3. Silent Night
4. Pat-A-Pat-A-Pan
5. The Bells Of Bethlehem
6. Do You Hear What I Hear?
7. Three Wise Men, Wise Men Three
8. Heavenly Night
9. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
10. O Bambino (One Cold And Blessed Morning)
11. O Come, All Ye Faithful

Zippyshare

I really hate my LP covers this year. The big scanner/copier at work is getting older and older, and it's doing a worse and worse job. All those horizontal streaks you see in my cover scans aren't really there, those are artifacts from the scanning process. And I don't really have time to breath this year, much less spend a lot of time in PhotoShop (actually, I'm trying to learn Gimp this year...) fixing things.  Anybody want to contribute a large flatbed scanner to the cause?  I tried to do these on a little 8.5 x 11" home unit, and it just wouldn't cut it.  The glass was too far recessed into the plastic housing, pushing the sleeves flat against the glass creased everything up something awful.  Maybe next year I will be able to get something nice, unless, of course, someone has one they want to let go cheap. ;)

Old John

I had a request to share out the record you see below.  Not the one you see above, though.  But there wouldn't be the one below without the one above, so you're getting both.  The record up top is The John McCarthy Chorale-Merry Christmas Sing Along (RCA Victor LPM-2476, Mono, 1962, "An RCA Victor Record Club Exclusive") and I first shared it out back in 2006. The nicest thing I could say about it was that it had a great cover.  It was also in mono, and I eventually found a re-released version of the music in Stereo, but it was in the cover you see below, resequenced and retitled The John McCarthy Chorale-The Greatest Songs of Christmas (RCA Music Service R114285, Stereo, 1973).  Both issues were made for RCA's record club but in different decades.  I've since found a stereo copy in that original cover, so they do exist.  But anyhow, you can see where I'm going with this.  Someone asked for it, and I'm throwing it back up here.  Get the one you want, mono or stereo.

1. Joy To The World
2. Silent Night
3. I Saw Three Ships
4. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
5. Twelve Days Of Christmas
6. Wassail Song
7. Hark! The Heral Angels
8. Ding Dong (Merrily On High)
9. Oh Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)
10. Angels From The Realms
11. We Three Kings Of Orient Are
12. The First Noel
13. Pat-A-Pan
14. Good King Wenceslas
15. Jingle Bells

MediaFire-Mono
MediaFire-Stereo

PS-I liked that original cover so much, I stole it for one of my comps back in the day.