Thursday, July 16, 2015

The Return Of Christmas In July-Day 16

Something a little different tonight, just to shake things up.  From December of 1967, a radio show for The National Guard featuring Ed Ames doing three Christmas songs, or at least playing three Christmas songs from his new Christmas LP, Christmas With Ed Ames. The songs are Do You Hear What I Hear?, Deck The Halls & Ballad Of The Christmas Donkey.  There's also plenty of chit-chatting with show host Martin Block, and the usual promo stuff for the National Guard.  (Some of those promos are almost exactly word-for-word the same as a record of promos I shared out some years ago for the US Navy.)  Anyhow, the LP is titled Guard Sessions, and features sessions 305, 306, 307 & 308.  I'm sharing 307 with you tonight, that's the one with all the Christmas music, and I'm going to throw in 306 as well.  That one has Ed's hit When The Snow Is On The Roses, which just happens to have a wintery title.  And you have your choice, you can download the individual tracks here, or you can download the full shows here.  The choice is yours. (I included the non-Christmas tracks, What The World Needs Now & Try To Remember in there as well, just for the sake of completeness.)  I researched this record a little on Google and found a Billboard article from September 30, 1967, about the passing of Martin Block.  That was several months before this show was released, and the article actually mentions that he had recorded a few shows prior to his death, this one and one with Judy Garland.  You never know what you might find out on the interweb!

3 comments:

  1. I'm a sucker for these Armed Forces/Civil Defense records! Thanks Ernie!

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  2. I grew up listening to "The Ballad Of The Christmas Donkey," and it remains one of my favorites; this is a nice little "bonus" you've provided…thank you so much!

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