Christmas In July 2026-Part 36

Day 36, we're really stretching this out into August. Don't worry, we're almost at the end, this isn't going to go nearly as long as Christmas did earlier this year. Maybe you thought that was a good thing but it was hard on me and I don't need the headache. So I'm going to take an aspirin while you check out what's in Santa's sack today.

1. The Shawnee Choir-Soloists: Gertrude Hippler, Soprano; Jean Ann Wolbert, Alto-Earl Willhoite, Director-Christmas Tree (Christmas And Concert Songs For Mixed Chorus)

This is the first track of the day from this recently-found publisher's demo LP. And I think this is the track from it that I had the most trouble recording. I had to use a conical needle (instead of my usual more-sensitive elliptical one) and then slow the turntable down by 10%. Hope it sounds OK. And I believe this song was written by Harry Simeone but I'm not familiar with it. Did he record it somewhere?

2. Leopold Stokowski And His Orchestra-Concerto Grosso In G Minor, Op. 6, No. 8, For The Evening Of The Nativity (In Dulci Jubilo-A Baroque Concert, 1967)

A very classical track to celebrate the holiday with. When people imagine classical music in their head, I believe this is what they hear, or at least I do.

3. Bob Bradburn-Tiny Tony (Happy Holiday With CHQT Radio's Bob Bradburn And The Jasper Place High School Stage Band)

The final and best track from this Canadian LP, so I made it the headliner of the day. I think I shared this track from a 45 at one point a couple year's ago, but if you missed it then, don't miss it now. It's the only song I know of that talks about Santa's barber.

4. The Shawnee Choir-Earl Willhoite, Director-Calypso Noel (Christmas And Concert Songs For Mixed Chorus)

Second track of the day from this LP. Sorry to have to double up on them like this, but it's the only way to get them all in before the season ends. I found this record too late to spread the tracks out over the month.

5. Stanley Black Conducting The London Festival Orchestra AKA The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra-Dance Of The Flutes (Tchaikovsky-Nutcracker Suite/Serenade For Strings, 1967)

Is this the only Nutcracker track for the day? I think so, and it's the last track from this side of the LP I have to share. If you're really paying attention, you'll notice that I skipped the first track on this side. That's because I couldn't get it to quit skipping. I tried every trick in the book, but nothing worked. So we'll have to find another copy and try again one day.

6. The Crane Wind Ensemble, State University Of New York At Potsdam-Anthony J. Maiello, Director-Toy Box Concerto (Music For Concert Band, 1985)

I love when they announce the name of the track on these publisher's demos.

7. Jenson Publications And Purifoy Publishing-I Have Seen The Child (Choral Celebration Vol. VI, 1984)

The only track I have today from this particular LP, but not the only track from Jenson. As I mentioned, this was something recorded last year but I forgot to share it before the end of the season, so it's sat in a folder until now. Hope it's not too stale.

8. Unknown Artists-Mary's Lullaby (Songs For Kindergarten Children, 1970)
9. Unknown Artists-Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus (Songs For Kindergarten Children, 1970)

Two tracks from one of the LPs I found just this past weekend. Some days I come home with nothing at all, some days I come home with ten different records that I can pull something from. You just never know.

10. Jenson Publications-The First Noel (New Music For Concert Band-Volume 27-Easy Edition, 1990)

The second track of the day from Jenson, but at least it's from a different LP than the other one.

And that's all I've got for today. I'll be back again tomorrow with more for you, don't miss it. 

MEGA 

Christmas In July 2026-Part 35

Just when you thought the season might be close to winding down, I had a good weekend at the thrift stores and brought home thirty more tracks to share for the celebration. That means we've got three more days worth of music in the pile now. However, a couple of those records had a lot of tracks on them, so I need to share more than one selection from each one for the next few days to get all the songs in. I don't like doing that, but I'm going to do it because I have to. I think it's a small price to pay for a longer Christmas in July. Let's see what's in the wheelbarrow today.

1. Jaime Mendoza-Nava And His Orchestra-Death In The Snow (The Savage Wild, 1970)

Soundtrack to a movie I've never heard of that takes place in Canada's snow-swept central plains, so there are a couple of snow songs to share from this one. This is the more somber one as you might imagine.

2. The Shawnee Choir-Earl Willhoite, Director-Mary's Baby (Christmas And Concert Songs For Mixed Chorus)

The first of two tracks from this release that I just grabbed this past weekend. Turns out that the vinyl was in horrible shape, likely from having gotten too hot at some point. It wasn't really warped but it was deformed out near the edges. I was only able to get the songs that were further in the radius, and even then I had to change needles and slow down the rotation to get it to track properly. Unfortunately, I then promptly forgot to turn the speed back to normal and recorded five instrumental tracks at the wrong speed. Had to go back and fix all of them once I realized my mistake. My life is hard.

3. Tougaloo College Choir-Ariel M. Lovelace, Conductor-Mary Had A Baby (To You-From Tougaloo, 1968)

And the award for best named college is Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi. Nice little song from these folks, too, but I just love their name.

4. The Blue Ribbon Strings-Tchaikovsky's Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairies (Jewels Of The Classics aka Jewels From The Classics)

The Nutcracker piece for the day comes from this budget LP. It's so budget that the title changes from the front of the record to the label. And they've changed the number of fairies from one to many. Not sure how the song got so short with so many fairies dancing around in it.

5. Maynard Ferguson And His Orchestra-Humbug (A Message From Newport, 1958)

The lead-off LP cover hails from this record today. I put it up there so I could remember to tell the story about finding it. There were three copies in the pile at the Salvation Army. That happens sometimes, usually when a store dumps dead stock as a donation, so you'll find multiple copies of things that didn't sell, sometimes in alphabetical order for easy searching. Anyhow, there were two mono copies and a stereo version. I spotted one of the mono copies first, saw the Humbug title and put it in my pile. Then I saw the stereo copy and thought great, I'll grab that one instead. Instinct made me scan the tracklist again and I couldn't find the song I had keyed in on the first time. Turns out this track is only on the mono versions. This was 1958, stereo was new and the grooves were a little harder to fit in place. Sometimes they would omit a song on a longer side to fit the stereo version in. And this happened to be the sacrificial track here. Looks like it eventually came to CD and all the tracks are there. No idea if they're all in stereo though. And with all that, the song doesn't sound very humbug to me.

6. The Shawnee Choir-Earl Willhoite, Director-Beside Thy Cradle (Christmas And Concert Songs For Mixed Chorus)

Another track from this side-long collection of Christmas tunes. You'll be sick of this one before I'm done.

7. Unknown Artists-Song Of The Seasons (Songs For Kindergarten Children, 1970)

This is the first track from another record you'll see a lot of each day between now and the end. Maybe not so many as the others, but more than a little bit. I'm calling it an Unknown Artist, but there were actually lots of credits on the back of the LP. Problem is, they didn't tell you who played on what, so I didn't know which of the multiple groups and individual artists to credit where. So it's a bit of a mess, sorry.

8. Jenson Publications-O Holy Night (Sound Ideas For Concert Band Vol V, 1979)

First of two publisher's demo tracks today, both of which are from the same publishing house, though not the same LP. Thank heaven for small favors.

9. Jenson Publications And Purifoy Publishing-Sweet Baby Jesus (Choral Celebration Vol. VI, 1984)

And this is the other track from Jenson, five years after the last, and in association with another publishing house. Not sure if they'd merged or bought someone out or what, but it's a bit of a change.

10. Unknown Artists-The Friendly Beasts (Songs For Kindergarten Children, 1970)

And here is the other track from the kindergarten music record. There was some connection on the back of this one to the Mennonites, but I don't remember what it was. 

That's all I've got for today, more of the same tomorrow, literally in some cases. Enjoy! 

MEGA

Christmas In July 2026-Part 34

Here we are on the 34th day of Christmas in July, it's not even July anymore but I'm still finding more stuff to share with you. In fact, I found eleven leftover tracks from last Christmas in July that I never got around to sharing! If you were around then, you might remember that I had a couple dozen of those arrangers' demo albums to share, many of which had a dozen or more tracks which made it hard to get them all shared in my allotted time. When the end of the month came along, I had these eleven tracks left, but they were almost all from the same company and from only a small handful of different albums. If memory serves, I had to go somewhere near the end of the month and was unable to post for a few days. I intended to post more when I returned but never got back into it. So those tracks have sat there unused for a year now and I figured I'd sprinkle them into the pile and make this year's sharity go a little further. Still going to have to duplicate some albums from day to day, but it's not as bad as doing it all in one day. Wish I had remembered I had those unused shares earlier in the season, but better late than never. Let's see what's in the stack!

1. Hylo Brown & The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers-Little Footprints In The Snow (Hylo Brown Meets The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, 1963)

We start the day off with some bluegrass featuring a couple of established artists joining forces on a great track.

2. Hoagy Carmichael With The Pacific Jazzmen-Arranged And Conducted By Johnny Mandel-Winter Moon (Hoagy Sings Carmichael, 1957)

The headline track of the day is the great Hoagy Carmichael. I really love that cover picture of him, huddled over that piano like he's tuckered out after a long piano recital. He doesn't have the best voice (like Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits) but he makes up for it in feeling. He wrote a Christmas song that I've heard as performed by The Mills Brothers, I wonder if he recorded it at some point himself? Yes, looks like he did, and I shared it here, but it's not him on vocals. Looks like I actually shared out the track in question today sometime back nine years ago, but it was from a reissue, this time I've got the original LP.

3. Reginald Foort, F.R.C.O.-Nutcracker Suite: Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairies (Waltz And Ballet, 1956)

The Nutcracker nut of the day is from this organ spectacular album. I think this is also the last track from this LP I have to share with you. Getting closer to the end so I'm wrapping up a lot of different series pretty quickly. Can't have any loose ends, unlike last year...

4. Stuttgart Festival Band-William Harrison, Conductor-Greensleeves (Have Band Will Travel-Music Minus One Trombone)

The last of the play-along tracks from this album. Anybody out there play trombone? I don't think I know anyone who ever played that instrument.

5. The Drew University College Choir-Lester Berenbroick, Director-Carolyn Kessinger, Double Bass-This Day A Child Is Born (In Concert)

I kind of like the simple green cover of this one. The music is OK, but I was really drawn to that cover. I think if you put a great cover on a mediocre record, it sells better than a great record with a mediocre cover. You can't help but judge the book by it's cover sometimes.

6. The Robert Shaw Chorale-RCA Victor Orchestra-Robert Shaw, Conductor-Ave Maria (Hallelujah!-The World's Favorite Choruses, 1977)

Don't ask me which version of Ave Maria this is, I don't remember. They all seem to run together.

7. Mary O'Hara-Song For A Winter's Night (Mary O'Hara At The Royal Festival Hall, 1984)

I almost made this the featured LP today but I really liked that picture of Hoagy so I went with that. I think this is a Gordon Lightfoot song that's not very well known, but I always enjoy it when I hear it. This is supposed to be a live album, but the applause sounds dubbed in to me and the music sounds like it's from the studio, not the concert hall. Your mileage may vary though.

8. Jenson Publications-I Saw Three Ships (Superior New Works For Concert Band-Vol. IX, 1981)

And now we get into the leftover tracks. As I mentioned, these are all demo recordings of fancy arrangements being marketed to high school bands. They're not bad, but they're often simplistic and frequently faded out out long before the song is over. Can't be giving away complete tracks that somebody might try to steal and share during Christmas in July 45 years later...

9. Jenson Publications-Snow Trail (Superior New Works For Concert Band-Vol. IX, 1981)

Another song from the exact same album as the last one. Just go back and read what I wrote above one more time.

10. Jenson Publications-Christmas Greetings (New Music For Concert Band-Volume 27-Easy Edition, 1990)

At least this one is from a different LP, but it's still more of the same. That's all I've got for you today, so take it or leave it. Thanks for stopping by, we'll see you tomorrow. 

MEGA

Christmas In July 2026-Part 33

G'day, welcome to the second day of the slightly-extended Christmas in July celebration this year. I've got a few more goodies in the pile so we're going into extra innings to get it all out to you. We've got too much fork for just one fork, as they say. Make your own overtime play on words here if you wish, I'm too tired to come up with more. Anyhow, the Christmas keep on coming... 

1. Margo Smith-Six Weeks Every Summer And Christmas Every Other Year (Song Bird, 1976)

It's got Christmas in the title, that makes it a Christmas song, even if it's really about the price of fame on a married performer and her kids. I had forgotten about this song until it showed up on this LP recently. I think I've shared a version of it many years ago, but not this one. Turns out this is not the hit version so I'll need to keep looking for that one.

2. Lynn Roberts, Carmen Baron & Juda Campbell-My Christmas Wish (Holiday Songs For All Occasions, 1978)

From an album for the kiddies that covered a lot of different holidays, this is the Christmas-appropriate song.

3. The Merrill Stanton Voices-Pine Cones And Holly Berries (With "It's Beginning To Look Like Christmas") (Meredith Willson's Here's Love, 1963)

One of my favorite collections of songs from this musical, I might even like it better than the official cast album. The performances here are really infectious, assuming that's a good thing. You'll want to sing along, is that a better description?

4. Bowmar Orchestral Library-Arabian Dance (Stories In Ballet And Opera)

The last of the tracks I have for you from this library recording. And the only Nutcracker track of the day as far as I can tell.

5. Living Marimbas-Arranged And Conducted By Leo Addeo-Greensleeves (Love Is Blue, 1968)

You had living guitars, living voices, living pianos, living strings, living brass, why not a living marimba? This was the age of the Tijuawannabes, a whole subculture of groups trying to be the backing band for Herb Alpert. And the sound of the marimbas was a big part of that.

6. Urbie Green-Ave Maria (Bein' Green, 1972)

I thought about having a theme day for Urbie Green, but I didn't make the appropriate notes to keep track of all the different recordings I had this year that he appeared on. After I recorded this track, I started seeing his name pop up as a sideman playing trombone on all sorts of other records. I really should have written them down. I could even have thrown in a track from that trombone accompaniment record if you were inspired by hearing Urbie play. For the record, I recall that Mitchell Kezin, creator of the movie about Christmas record collectors, stated once that his next project after Bob Dorough would be about Urbie Green. We discussed a number of his albums at one point and Mitchell was pretty excited about diving into it someday. Unfortunately, Mitchell passed away before he finished that Bob Dorough project and long before he could start anything about Urbie. I wonder what happened to all that live footage he shot of Dorough in the final years of both their lives? I hope it finds an outlet someday where it can be documented and appreciated.

7. Teddi King With Loonis McGlohon, Pianist-Blackberry Winter (Lovers & Losers, 1976)

I need to pull this up and compare it to the song of the same name by Mitch Miller. I'm not sure if they're the same or not.

8. Chorus-Christmas At Hampton Court (Reprise) (Rex, 1976)

I probably should have attributed this to the Chorus from "Rex", but I was lazy and didn't think about it. You'll remember this record as the one that features a Christmas song with a part sung by a very young Glenn Close.

9. Judy Garland-Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (That's Entertainment, Part 2, 1976)

It's a bit of a ringer, but it showed up on a non-Christmas album so it counts. For those who don't remember, That's Entertainment was a series of movies that featured highlights and outtakes from musicals put out during the heyday of such things. I can remember seeing it on TV when I was little, or maybe it was specials cut from the movies I saw. Anyhow, this is the version Judy sang in the movie, and it's a little rough.

10. Toy Band-Toy Symphony-3rd Movement (March And Dance With Toy Band-My First Golden Record Library Volume 10)

Finally, the last track I have to share from this kiddie record. Some things just aren't that exciting but I still share them for whatever reason.

That's the end for today, hope you hear something you enjoy! 

MEGA

Christmas In July 2026-Part 32

Welcome to the first day of Christmas in July in August! We don't often go this long, but this year has been very generous with the records, so we're doing what we need to do and going long.

1. Poldi Zeitlin, Pianist-Winter Morning (Tchaikovsky 24 Pieces For The Piano-Masterwork Series For The Young Musician, 1952)

This is the last track from a long series of songs from this album. I don't think it was quite the whole side, but it was a big chunk. They're all nice little piano pieces, some of them even sounded like Tchaikovsky to my untrained ear, not sure why.

2. The JM Choral Group-Novices And Postulates Of The Religious Of Jesus And Mary-Mother Marie Laetitia, R.J.M., Director-Ave Maria (Patterns In Song, 1960)

And this is the last of a few tracks by these singing nuns-in-training. I don't know why, but I always enjoy the nuns.

3. The Parris Mitchell Voices Featuring Chips Murphie-We Need A Little Christmas (The Parris Mitchell Voices Sing The Hit Songs From Sweet Charity-Fiddler On The Roof-Mame-Man Of La Mancha, 1966)

Great Christmas track that turns up in the middle of this otherwise normal album. I've shared this one with you before, but now you get to see the cover, so enjoy.

4. Boston Pops Orchestra-Arthur Fiedler, Conductor-March Of The Toys (Great American Marches, 1976)

I'm not sure, but I think this record was a compilation of previously recorded stuff, they just pulled together everything they had that could be called a march and put it on one record. Good version though.

5. The Yoder Families-On Christmas Night (Come Let Us Join Our Cheerful Songs)

I was just in the thrift store a couple days ago where I found this record, and I found the record below there. You just never know, but you find more if you go a lot. I recommend at least three times a day, but you can go more if you like.

6. Camarata Conducting The Kingsway Symphony Orchestra-March Of The Toys ("Babes In Toyland") (The Great Victor Herbert, 1975)

Oh, great, I'm sharing this song for the second time today. How do I let this happen? Quality control is out of control around here, I'm going to have to speak to a manager!

7. Jenson Publications-Joyous Season (Jenson Publications Presents...Warner Bros. Finest For Concert Band, 1983)

What's this? A publisher's demo track? I thought we were done with those. Where did that manager go?

8. Joe Reisman And His Orchestra And Chorus-The Ice Skater (On The Wings Of Romance) (Sid And Marty Krofft's Les Poupées de Paris, 1964)

And we're finally down to the highlighted album of the day. I was not aware of this LP at al until it turned up at a goodwill store a month of two ago. I was going to buy it before I saw that there was a winter track on it, so finding that was just a bonus. This is one of the only songs on the album that doesn't feature a guest star, but Joe Reisman is enough for us. (Check out more Joe Reisman Christmas in the archives, and be sure to check the comments for a working link!) Other songs on the album feature a galaxy of guest stars that would make a great episode of The Love Boat. Bing Crosby, Pearl Bailey, Milton Berle, Phil Silvers, Gene Kelly, Liberace, Cyd Charisse, the list just goes on and on. And it's all in support of a puppet show from Sid & Marty Kroft! I had no idea this thing existed. Now I need to find it in stereo, that'll probably take another 20 years of searching.

9. Lou Fortunate-I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony) (Hurray For God!, 1973)

I just liked this one for the cover.

10. Toy Band-Toy Symphony-2nd Movement (March And Dance With Toy Band-My First Golden Record Library Volume 10)

Last and least is a short track from this kiddie record. You'll recognize the tune, or at least I did. Does this track have the random narration on it, I didn't remember if it does or not. Either way, doesn't matter, it's still better than those snippets of Greensleeves that I was sharing before.

And that's it, the first post of August. Still a few more to come so keep checking back.

MEGA

Christmas In July 2026-Part 31

Welcome to the last day of the month! This is the date where we usually share out all of the New Year-themed tracks I've gathered up and today is no exception. But first, a short story. This blog started a little over 21 years ago and it's tumbled along from year to year with modest increases in the number of visitors here and there, with big spikes around Christmas because, well, that's my jam. But in the past couple of years, something has changed. I couldn't figure out what that something was for the longest time but I think I finally have a reasonable explanation. What's happened is that the blog traffic has shot through the roof. We never had 100,000 hits in a single December before, but we got over a million in December last year, slightly less than we got in November before that, an off month! Since than we've had a few months with well over a million hits for absolutely no fathomable reason. Day before yesterday, we got half a million hits in a single day. None of these increased hit rates were resulting in more comments or more downloads, so I suspected it was some sort of bot traffic, like search engines indexing the site. But it was too much, too frequently and from too many difference sources. Some investigation revealed that it was people looking for content to train their AI models. A company comes in, hits every single one of the thousands of posts I've made over the years (6647 total, not counting this one), then hits them all a second time just for fun. Sometimes they focus on a single post for whatever reason, loading it thousands of times in just a few short minutes. My recent traffic numbers are just crazy. I can't tell you which Christmas in July post got viewed the most because there are so many hits on some random post from 2012. I'm not lamenting the rise of AI, mind you. Instead I'm laughing at the thought of the crazy stuff I post on here being incorporated into some database somewhere where it can be spit out again in some unrelated situation. Who knows when the Christmas harp and it's prevalence in modern music will pop up somewhere, but I'll have a hand in making it slightly more important. And Christmas in July? That's going to be right on the tip of every AI agent's tongue for the next decade or more. Just imagine the outsized influence I'm going to have in this niche category! Anyhow, just me on my soap box. Let's get to the music, shall we?

1. Edmund Lyndeck, George Hearn, David Vosburgh & Norman A. Large-Orchestra & Chorus Conducted By Paul Gemignani-New Year's Eve (A Doll's Life, 1982)

Today's new year sharity begins with a pair of tracks from the soundtrack to a musical from Comden & Green. Looks like I've shared these with you before, but I didn't remember them and the cover didn't look familiar. I think that means I share too much...

2. Peter Gallagher & Betsy Joslyn-Orchestra & Chorus Conducted By Paul Gemignani-New Year's Eve (Reprise)/Stay With Me, Nora (A Doll's Life, 1982)

Ditto whatever I said about the track above since this comes from the same LP. I usually try not to share out two or more things from the same album at the same time, or two of the same song, but today is special If it's related to New Year's Day or New Year's Eve, it's coming out in the pile today.

3. Lynn Roberts, Carmen Baron & Juda Campbell-Feliz Año Nuevo (Holiday Songs For All Occasions, 1978)

A nice little Happy New Year song for you in Spanish, you don't get that every day. Feel like I've shared this one out before but I'm too lazy to look.

4. Myro Glass, Baritone, With Beth-El Choir-Piano, Organ And Orchestra Directed By Walter Goldman-B'rosh Hashono (On New Years) (Synagogue, Israeli And Yiddish Music, 1958)

This track is from the album shown up at the top pf the post. I thought I was going to get some Chanukah music from it when I first picked it up, but then I was excited to get a New Year's song instead. Not that I don't need some good Chanukah music, but I like finding things that I wasn't expecting. And yes, that is the front of the album. I believe the back side was blank.

5. The Daphne Hellman Quartet-Springtime In Scotland: Loch Lomond; The Campbells Are Coming; Comin' Thro' The Rye; Auld Lang Syne (Holiday For Harp, 1959)

You have to sit through a medley to get to the New Year's content on this one, but it's not so bad.

6. The Nighthawks-Auld Lang Syne (S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. Presents The Nighthawks)

Your only barbershop entry of the day. What did I just say about sharing the same song more than once a day? Well, you're getting this one a lot more than just the once.

7. Ladies Of The Courte, Spoken By Lorna Stephen, Herald's Proclamation By Tom Grieve-Auld Lang Syne (Melodie At Dalhousie Courte, 1975)

I think this is some sort of dinner theater presentation in Scotland. Gotta love finding the interesting records out there. Not sure how much actual New Year content there is here, but the tune is familiar.

8. Maurey Page At The Exciting Hammond Organ-Auld Lang Syne (Organ Oldies, 1962)

Yet another version of Auld Lang Syne brings op the rear of this short set of New Year's music today. Don't forget that we're going to keep the fun going for a few more days next month, so be sure to keep coming back for a little while longer. I assure you it will be worth your time. 

MEGA