Twelve Drummers Drumming

Hello!  And welcome to the 12th day of Christmas!  Or Epiphany Eve as it's sometimes called.  Or Little Christmas Eve. Women's Christmas Eve?  Or January 5th, your choice.  Whatever you call it, it's cold outside!  And on the last day of Christmas, I bring you a little Eddie Lawrence, AKA The Old Philosopher.  Once you've heard one of his routines, you've pretty much heard them all.  Just in case you miss a little something in the first one here, there's another one on the flip side for you.  I think I actually shared the A-side of this single with you one time during Christmas in July, so it must have appeared on LP at some point, but this time it's from a smaller, faster record with two dissimilar sides.  Someday I should put together a whole collection of similar songs, but they might wind up all being records by Eddie...  Anyhow, here's Eddie Lawrence-That Holiday Spirit b/w The Merry Old Philosopher (Coral 7" 45 RPM 9-61915, Mono, 1957).

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As it happens, I recently traveled through the town of Tarpon Springs, a Greek community with perhaps the largest Epiphany celebration in this country.  Their tradition is to toss a cross into the local waterway, and boatloads of chosen male children jump in after it.  Whoever comes up with it is given a special blessing and gets all sorts of special chores for the next year.  This statue is out front of the sponsoring church and I happened to catch a picture as we drove by.  As it happens, Epiphany tends to fall on one of the coldest days of the year, and this year is no different.  But I don't think they've ever canceled it or moved it, or even changed the time to later in the afternoon.  I can also remember times in the past where pranksters have salted the water the night before with handfuls of duplicate crosses, leading to no end of confusion.  There have also been fights, tussles and outright unpleasantness over the cross, so it's the same as everything else.

(I just looked it up, and I guess the jumping in the water bit is tomorrow, not today.  I've never actually been, maybe I should jump in the car and head up there...)

Eleven Pipers Piping

Nothing too exciting tonight, I'm afraid.  A 1979 single from Vic Damone, something that I shared the album version of back during Christmas In July.  But I dug up my copy of the single, and I think the A side is a studio version of the track, while the B side seems to be the same thing as found on that LP.  I think it's a nice little song, and hopefully you'll enjoy it.  This is Vic Damone, Arranged & Conducted By Norm Geller With The Sal Carson Orchestra-Christmas In San Francisco b/w Christmas In San Francisco-Live Performance (Rebecca 7" 45 RPM 715, Stereo, 1979).

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Ten Lords A'Leaping

Trying to get this up before the new X Files starts in a few minutes...  I wanted to call this an early single from Jimmie Davis, but checking out his discography, I see stuff going back into the Twenties, so 1953 is hardly early.  I was previously only aware of his two 1960's vintage Christmas albums, and a single Christmas track from the '80s, so this came as quite the surprise when I found it.  For those who don't recognize the name, Jimmie Davis was a country singer who later turned to more religious fare, in the meantime serving two non-consecutive terms as governor of Louisiana.  Not a bad CV!  I don't believe that either of these tracks turned up in his later work, though I did spot a 1957 Christmas single that appears to have been re-recorded on one of his two holiday LPs.  And the songs here are pretty good, I was quite happy about what I found when the needle hit the groove.  This is Jimmie Davis-Christmas Choo Choo b/w I Love To Ride With Santa Claus (Decca 7" 45 RPM 9-28912, Mono, 1953).  You'll notice that the Anita Kerr Singers are credited on side 1.  I guess they are the ones making the train noises... If you want more train songs for Christmas, you can visit my earlier post this year, or maybe head on over to Lee's place for one of his shares earlier this season.

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Nine Ladies Dancing

Tonight's share is brought to you courtesy of Mr. Rosemary Clooney, Jose Ferrer!  As near as I can tell, this was Jose's second Christmas record.  The first he shared with Rosie, but this one seems to be all his.  Well, not all.  The flipside is ambiguously credited to "The Ferrers", which sort of implies maybe he and the Mrs. and some kiddies sing on it, but all I can hear are some generic kids.  So I'm thinking that was just a marketing gimmick.  Anyhow, this is a nice bit of Christmas music from one of my favorite labels, though it's more spoken than sung.  Ferrer was an actor, not a singer, that's why he chose a recitation here, and a famous one at that.  Nice picture sleeve, too!  Please enjoy Jose Ferrer-Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus b/w The Ferrers-Conducted By Darol Rice-Santa's Marching Song (RCA Victor 7" 45 RPM 47-7823, Mono, 1960).

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Looks like his son, Miguel, passed away in 2017. He was a regular on NCIS: Los Angeles. I wonder if he was one of The Ferrers on the flip side?

Eight Maids A'Milking

For your New Year enjoyment, here's a Christmas character you've probably never heard of before.  Sure, you've heard of Rudolph, Frosty, Uncle Mistletoe and about a million others, but Jake?  Nope.  I'm thinking maybe he's the somewhat sleazy half-brother of Suzy Snowflake, but I don't know that for a fact.  And bonus points for the Chipmunk-esque vocals here!  Welcome to 2018!  This is Bobby Star-Jake The Flake b/w Vel-Mars-Jingle Bells (Continental Arts 7" 45 RPM 575, Mono, 1964).

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Seven Swans A'Swimming

One that's been sitting here on my desk for literally years, waiting it's turn to be ripped and shared, is this 45 by Mike Douglas.  I shared the song on an album with you years ago, but the flipside appears to be an extended version with the background voices and some extra piano bits that's a nice addition to your collection.  (And if you don't remember that album, you might want to check the comments, just sayin'.) The label on this 45 is Image, but the LP label is Word.  That made me think this might be a re-recording until I found an article in Billboard mentioning that Image had sold the single to Word, so there you are.  Oh, and the name Lee Pockriss pops up again here, as both songwriter and arranger/conductor.  Small world.  This is Mike Douglas-Happy Birthday, Jesus b/w Mike Douglas Chorale-Happy Birthday, Jesus (Image Records, A Division Of AudioFidelity Enterprises 7" 45 RPM IM-3032, Stereo, 1979).

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