Winter, Christmas, Whatever

I absolutely loved this record when I found it last year. When I finally got around to recording and listening to it, not so much. It's nice enough, but nothing special. Hopefully you'll be much more charitable. Get busy and download Richard Ellsasser-Michael Carr's Wintertime Suite (MGM E3284 (Richard Ellsasser Playing The Organ of the John Hays Hammond, Jr. Museum, Gloucester, Massachusetts), Mono, 1955). Better get busy...Christmas is coming.

1. King Winter
2. Happy Fat Man (With A Sleigh Full Of Toys)
3. Winter In Mexico
4. Home For Christmas
5. Winter Setting
6. December Has A Warm Heart
7. Red Indian Snowman
8. Eight Very Busy Little Reindeer
9. Star In The East
10. Holly And Ivy And Mistletoe
11. Jack Frost, Incorporated
12. Ring In The New Year

Making Right What Once Went Wrong

I shared out this great LP last year against my better judgment. There's some great music on here, but my copy was pretty beat. There was even one song that skipped so badly I just left the whole thing out. But this year I found another copy, still mono, but in much better shape. Only problem was, one of the track had some electronic noise in the pressing. But I was able to use a short section from last year's recording and splice it into the new one. You'll only notice if you're listening closely, and then only because of a little extra surface noise in the area. In fact, I'm sure you wouldn't notice if I hadn't told you. But I did. Oh, this is something I just today recorded for you guys. I was only going to record the one track I omitted last year, but the vinyl sounded so much better, I wound up doing the whole thing. I'm still trying to throw some new stuff in amongst the repeats, I hope this counts... So please download and enjoy this new version of Dartmouth Glee Club-Paul R. Zeller, Director-White Christmas On The Campus (United Artists UAL 3102, Mono, 1961).

1. Happy Holiday
2. O Come All Ye Faithful
3. White Christmas
4. Angels We Have Heard On High
5. The Secret Of Christmas
6. What Child Is This?
7. The Christmas Song
8. Lo How A Rose E'er Blooming
9. Sleigh Ride
10. The First Noel
11. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
12. Mid Ox And Ass
13. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
14. Here A Torch Jeanette Isabella
15. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
16. Jingle Bells

Slim Versus Tex

Do me a favor, head on over to The Tuna Melt and download Voldar's share of Tex Johnson And His Six Shooters-Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, then come back here and download Slim Boyd & The Rangehands-Christmas Country Style-Go Tell It On The Mountain (Premiere XM 11, Mono). Now listen to the tracks that both records have in common. Anything sound familiar? Yes, I think it's just another repackaging job from the fine folks at Synthetic Plastics. Not that the music isn't good, it's just become rather tainted by the repeated re-releases, re-titling and re-artisting. At this point, it's just become a rehash. Anyhow, speaking of re-releases, I first shared this with you in 2006, I think, and I had a stereo version ripped for sharing this year when I lost my hard drive. Maybe next year...

1. Go Tell It On The Mountain
2. On December 5 And 20
3. Wagon On Christmas
4. I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day
5. Jeanette Isabella
6. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
7. The Night Before Christmas
8. A Santa Claus Greeting
9. Have A Merry, Merry Christmas
10. Silent Night

Dorothy (Not Gary)

Before you even think about downloading this share, I want you to head on over to Big 10-Inch Record, say hi to my friend Buster, and download his Christmas share of Dorothy Collins' super-rare, never seen, extremely good, full-length Christmas record. It's titled Won't You Spend Christmas With Me, and did I say it's really good? Buster shared it with me privately two years ago (after I had shared this very EP), and I enjoyed it. As I do with things I like, I tried to find a copy for myself. And it's been two years of miserable failure. You just cannot find this record anywhere. Not GEMM, not eBay, not thrift stores, nowhere. So you really should go over there and download it from Buster's blog, because you aren't going to find it on the shelf at FYE. And you should ad Big 10-Inch to you regular reading list. Always lots of good shares over there. And plenty of Christmas, if my guess is correct.

Now that I've got that out of my system, here's a little EP that Dorothy Collins recorded some time later, I think, for Sinclair Oil, I think, on which she shares credit with her then-husband, the great Raymond Scott. Nothing on here is nearly so good as the stuff on the LP above, but it's nice to have. (Dorothy had a couple of Christmas singles on Coral as well, including Mr. Santa & The Twelve Gifts of Christmas.) So to help complete your collection, please download Dorothy Collins-Season's Greetings In Song (A Top Rank Artist 117058/117059).


1. Jingle Bells
2. White Christmas
3. Deck The Halls
4. Oh Holy Night

60 Franch Girls

This really has nothing much at all to do with the LP I'm posting, but I just wanted to get it off my chest. I've been sharing this album out since 2005, and all these years, I've been too lazy to change the name of the download file. It should be 60 French Girls, not 60 Franch Girls. I pride myself on doing a pretty good job with my shares, both the audio and the image files. But I guess spelling isn't my strong suit. I think once you get inside the ZIP file, everything is OK, but I'm not sure. So if you can get past the Franch description, please download Les Djinnes Singers-60 French Girls With The Christmas Bell Ringers-Joyeaux Noel (ABC Paramount ABCS 397, 1961, Stereo).

01. Les Djinns Singers-Minuit, Chretriens (O, Holy Night)
02. Les Djinns Singers-Nuit Des Nuit (Silent Night)
03. Christmas Bell Ringers-Good King Wenceslas
04. Les Djinns Singers-Il Est Ne Divin Enfant (He Is Born A Divine Child)
05. Les Djinns Singers-Noel 'Trois Anges Sont Venus Ce Soir' (Christmas 'Three Angels We've Seen This Night')
06. Christmas Bell Ringers-Hark, The Herald Angels Sing
07. Les Djinns Singers-Non Beau Sapin (O Tannenbaum)
08. Les Djinns Singers-Pour Noel (For Christmas)
09. Christmas Bell Ringers-God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
10. Les Djinns Singers-Noel, C'est L'Amour (Christmas, This Is Love)
11. Les Djinns Singers-Noel Blanc (White Christmas)
12. Christmas Bell Ringers-O, Come All Ye Faithful

As you can see by the tracklist above, there are really two artists on this album. To the best of my knowledge, they do not perform together at any point.

Let Me Get It Over With

Perhaps my best share ever. Let me go ahead and get it out of the way early this year so you can all get your fill of it. Yes, this is María Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Moquiere de les Esperades Santa Ana Romanguera y de la Najosa Rasten, but you probably know her as Charo. Get ready to dance, dance, dance to Charo-(Mamacita) ¿Donde Esta Santa Claus? , (Salsoul SG 201, 1978, Stereo).

1. (Mamacita) ¿Donde Esta Santa Claus?
2. (Mamacita) ¿Donde Esta Santa Claus?-Instrumental

For The Santa On The Corner

As I mentioned in my last post, I opened the 2007 Christmas Sharity Season with two groovy albums, and this is the second of those. Like the first, it's really short. That one was short because it was one sided. This one is short because I only recorded the Christmas side of it. Side two was hymns, and I didn't think it fit very well. But side one is really, really good. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, especially O Little Town Of Bethlehem. So go get The Joy Strings-Well Seasoned (Epic BN 26321, Stereo, 1967?)

1. We Three Kings Of Orient Are
2. Silent Night, Holy Night
3. The Little King Jesus
4. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
5. Away In A Manger
6. Mary's Little Boy Child
7. Do You Hear What I Hear?
8. The Holly And The Ivy

Tonight's Moon

I went out to shoot the sunset at the beach this evening, which I may or may not share pictures of, but I noticed that the moon was already up, so I couldn't pass up the shot. This is the view as seen by my new 7D combined with a 400mm lens. Compare this to some of my older shots with fewer pixels and cheaper optics, and you'll see that it's a much better picture. Gotta love progress!

Get Going

As the only major American automaker not to file for bankruptcy this year, I have a little more respect for Ford than I used to. But then I pull out this record and it all goes away. I first shared this in 2007, in fact, it was one of two similarly groovy records that I opened the sharity season with that year. If you missed it then, you really, really need to download Christmas 1968 With The Going Thing (Private Pressing for Ford XCSV-141473, One-sided, Stereo, 1968). Trust me.

1. Introduction by John Naughton
2. The Christmas Song
3. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
4. My Christmas Tree
5. Silent Night
6. The Christmas Waltz

A Rose By Pretty Much The Same Name

Here's a great late-season share from 2006 I wanted to bring back. David Rose is best know for The Stripper, but much of his music was less forward than that song, much smoother and silkier. This collection of Christmas standards from 1956 certainly won't make anyone jump up and start shedding clothes. That shouldn't stop you from downloading and listening to A Merry Christmas To You From David Rose And His Orchestra (MGM E3469, 1956, Mono). All the songs are mashed up into two side-long medleys, I'm afraid. Did I mention this is smooth stuff?

Tracks include:

O Little Town Of Bethlehem
O Christmas Tree
Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
Good King Wenceslas
O Holy Night
Hark, The Herald Angels Sing
It Came Upon The Midnight Clear
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night
Away In A Manger
We Three Kings Of Orient Are
Deck The Hall With Holly
The First Noel
Joy To The World
The Twelve Days Of Christmas
I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day
I Saw Three Ships
Unto Us A Boy Was Born
Wassail Song
Angels, From The Realms Of Glory
Christmas Is Coming
Angels, We Have Heard On High
Toyland
Silent Night
O, Come All Ye Faithful

Big Bird

Continuing on with new pictures from my new D7, here's an extreme close-up of a sandhill crane yesterday. There was a flock of four of these guys wandering around in the neighbors yard. I stalked them for quite a while, actually filling up my memory card with pictures. I won't bore you with all of those, but I wanted to show you at least one. This is a full-size shot from my new camera, not cropped at all. This answers a question I've had about these birds and was never sure of the answer. The red part is skin, not feathers. You can zoom in close on this picture and see the little red, fleshy bumps next to the smooth gray feathers. Pretty cool.

Success Story, Volume 1

I've shared out many, many Christmas records over the years, and only one thing has linked them all together. They have not been available on CD or as legal downloads. Well, as you might imagine, things change. What used to be obscure and forgotten somehow becomes remembered, and when that happens, things become available again. Such is the case with many of my old shares, and I feel that's a good thing. If you can pay a little money to listen to some great old music, and (hopefully) some of it goes to support the artist (or their family), I think you should. I like to think that by once featuring an album here, I somehow helped to bring it back to the attention of the world. Anyhow, the net effect of all that blathering is that this George Wright LP is now available legitimately, and I'm going to point you towards it.

If you'd like to own George Wright At The Wurlitzer Pipe Organ-Merry Christmas (HiFi SR706, Stereo), then head on over to Amazon and download it there. I'm not sure if they're selling a mono or stereo version, though. They show the mono cover but there's a good chance the download is stereo. For the record, the mono one is George Wright At The Wurlitzer Pipe Organ-Merry Christmas (HiFi R706, 1956, Mono). Now, go be a responsible citizen and buy what you can't download for free anymore. I always did love these covers...

The Wright One

Here's a little favorite from years past, and the first of many organ records you'll see here at Ernie (Not Bert) this year. I'm sure many old record collectors are familiar with George Wright through the dozens and dozens of records he released over the years. If there's a song you like written before 1970, there's a good chance George has recorded it somewhere. And that includes an awful lot of Christmas music, on both this LP and another (but more on that other one later). Please be my guest and download George Wright At The Wurlitzer Pipe Organ-Christmas Time (Dot DLP 25479, 1962, Stereo).

1. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
2. Silver Bells
3. The Little Drummer Boy
4. What Child Is This (Greensleeves)
5. White Christmas
6. Deck The Halls
7. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
8. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
9. With Quiet Joy
10. Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming
11. The Christmas Song
12. Silent Night

Lighthouse

This is an LP I first shared out in 2007, but part of it was shared out on an EP around here in 2006. None of that really matters, but I need to say something about it and I don't know what. It's a nice collection of carols sung by a chorus from the Lighthouse School. I think these days it's part of Lighthouse International, but I'm not certain. Oh, last year I talked a little bit about the cover artist, so if you want to learn more about that, follow the link. If all you want is the music, then please download Christmas Carols By The Lighthouse Singers (Vik SPV-2, Mono).

1. Silent Night, Holy Night
2. O Come, All Ye Faithful
3. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
4. The First Noel
5. Ave Maria
6. Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem
7. O Holy Night
8. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
9. Joy To The World
10. The Lord's Prayer

Mr. Melis

Here's a great record that I don't think I've re-shared in quite a while. José Melis was the musical director on the original Jack Parr-version of The Tonight Show, among other things. This is an album you almost never see, and I'm going to make sure that it gets seen more often. You won't be disappointed if you go now and download José Melis And His Orchestra-Christmas With Melis (Seeco CELP 4230, 1958, Stereo).

Side 1:

1. Sleigh Bells
2. Winter Wonderland
3. The Story Of Christmas
4. Jingle Bells
5. Toy Piano
6. Merry Christmas Music

Side 2:

7. Silent Night
8. Adeste Fidelis
9. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
10. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
11. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
12. Oh! Little Town Of Bethlehem; Noel, Noel; Silent Night

The New Camera, The Old Tree

OK, I did it. I ordered a new camera. After my Rebel XSi broke at the shuttle launch, I knew I needed to get something. Something bigger, better and in my hands. Fixing my camera is going to cost a few hundred dollars, but more urgently, it's going to take six weeks or so. With the holidays well inside that six week window, I couldn't wait. So I ordered a brand spanking new Canon 7D. This is the top of the line crop sensor camera from Canon, and they don't come much better than this. I just got in via UPS on Wednesday, and today was my first chance to take it outside and put it through it's paces. I have to carry the instruction manual around with it, because I don't know how to do many of the things I want to do yet, and with so many buttons, wheels and even a little joystick, it's hard to find things at a glance. I've still got my rented 100-400mm lens from the shuttle launch, and combined with this 18 megapixel sensor, I got some great picture of small birds from far away. You've seen the old tree behind my parent's house many times before, and I've probably brought you pictures of this very same kestrel before, but never this clear. I've cropped all of these picture down to almost 1:1, so click on them and see just how well this camera/lens combination works.

That old tree is home to not only the kestrel at top, but also this woodpecker and an occasional buzzard.


I didn't catch this hawk actually in the tree, but he did fly past in a big hurry. I managed to get this and one other shot of him in the air before he hid in the non-dead trees.

Another Filmstrip

Since I re-shared the Thanksgiving filmstrip soundtrack with you earlier, it's only fitting that I also re-share this Christmas filmstrip soundtrack from last year. The narration on this one tells all about how we got our various Christmas customs, or at least how they like to imagine we got some of them. I don't think they are altogether correct on some of this. But you can be the judge of that. Please help yourself to Maurice Copeland-How We Got Our Christmas Customs (Society For Visual Education A860-3RR (One-Sided 12" 33 RPM), Mono).

Christmas 2009

Well, I think it's high time I get this party started. Not that there's going to be much of a party this year, but you know what I mean. A couple of weeks ago, the hard drive on my PC went dead. It took all of the Christmas stuff with it that Id recorded for sharing in the past year and a half. So there's not much in the old kitty this year to throw up on the blog. But I do hope to get something up here every once in a while that you haven't seen before, but you're also going to have lots and lots of repeats here. Hopefully this will satisfy some of the new folks, but I know it's going to leave some of you high and dry. Sorry about that, but those are the breaks. Please check back often, hopefully you'll find something you missed the first time around.

Thanksgiving, 2009, Part 3

I promised some new Thanksgiving music, and here you go. These are two tracks I found back in July when I was searching for new Christmas music. Track one is called Thanksgiving Day, and it's from the LP Hits From The Gang Shows (Fontanta 680932TL TFL.5104, Mono). Ken Jones is credited with running the orchestra, but the vocal chorus is uncredited. I'm afraid I don't know anything about these gang shows, but since this appears to be a UK release, perhaps someone from across the pond can fill us in. The other track, and my favorite, is The Big Clown Balloons, performed by The Merrill Stanton Voices from their LP Meredith Willson's Here's Love (Columbia Special Products CSRP 8899, 1963, Stereo). Here's Love was Meredith Willson's follow-up to The Music Man, and it doesn't seem to have been nearly so popular. It's basically a musical re-write of Miracle On 34th Street, and that might explain why they are singing about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Those of you with good memories might recall that I shared a couple of Christmas-themed tracks from this same LP back during Christmas In July (here and here). But for these two tracks, you can get the download here. Hope you are all enjoying your Turkey Day, and I'll see you later on this evening.

Thanksgiving, 2009, Part 2

Here's the soundtrack to a filmstrip about Thanksgiving that I first shared out last year. I kept hoping someone would put together a slideshow that went along with this, but no one ever did. Oh, well. Maybe this year. Anyhow, download this one before the end of the day and you'll be able to amaze you friends with your knowledge of Squanto And The First Thanksgiving (Society For Visual Education XTAC-83759 (One Sided 12" 33 RPM), Mono). Enjoy!

Thanksgiving, 2009

Well, here we are. Thanksgiving Day, 2009. Seems like just last year I was celebrating Christmas 2008, and now it's time to start all over again. Well, this is the fifth time I've shared this song with you, and it's become the official Thanksgiving kick-off song for Ernie (Not Bert). For a long time this was the only Thanksgiving song I had, but I think I found a couple more for this year. Stay tuned... But for now, please download the first song of the season, Spencer Ross-Thanksgiving Day Parade (Columbia 4-41532 7" 45 RPM single, Mono, 1960).

A Bird's Nest In The Hand

Right before I went and shot the shuttle launch, I was at my parent's house. And Mom pointed out these weird things growing in one of her flower beds. Unfortunately, it was after dark when she showed them to me. It took me almost half an hour of setting up the flash and a tripod to get this picture of the odd fungi she'd discovered. Turns out that this is some sort of bird's nest fungi, not altogether uncommon, I guess. I'd never seen it before. You can see how the little structures inside the opened pods look like eggs in a nest. What you lack here is some sort of scale. Each of those openings is about 3/16" across. The little pieces of wood are toothpick-sized mulch.