Non-Christmas

I have long lamented the fact that the original Harmonicats did not release a Christmas album.  A splinter group recorded an album well after their prime on a budget label, and I've shared that one with you before.  I think there was also a single track recorded by the group in the sixties that showed up on a Goodyear Christmas LP (maybe...nope, it was a Columbia label Christmas collection).  But there isn't a Christmas album in all of their classic canon.  So I'm going to share this LP with a doll theme and pretend like it's a Christmas record.  There are plenty of tracks here that wouldn't be out of place on a Christmas record, so I don't think it's too much of a stretch.  I remember downloading a copy of this vinyl many, many years ago from a now defunct blog run by someone named Ben T.  Like so many excellent blogs through the years, that one eventually went belly up and was never heard from again.  I'm doing my best to keep that from happening around here, but you never know what tomorrow might bring.  Anyhow, I eventually found my own copy of the vinyl, and that's what I'm bringing you tonight.  This is Jerry Murad's Electronic Harmonicats-Dolls, Dolls, Dolls (Mercury SR60008, Stereo, 1959).  It's good stuff!

1. Waltzing Doll (Poupee Valsante)
2. The Toy Trumpet
3. Spanish Doll (Senorita Munequita)
4. Paper Doll
5. March Of The Toys
6. Wedding Of The Painted Doll
7. Oh! You Beautiful Doll
8. Dance Of The Dutch Doll
9. Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers
10. Pink Dresden Doll
11. The Wooden Soldier & The China Doll
12. Doll Dance

MediaFire

This isn't the first time I've shared out a non-Christmas album during the holiday sharity season, mind you.  And something tells me it won't be the last.

And what would a Harmonicats Christmas LP really sound like?  Probably a lot like this EP from The Mulcays, another great, though lesser-known, harmonica group.