Monday, July 01, 2019

Christmas In July 2019-Part 2

OK, here's the deal.  I've already got 456 songs recorded to share with you during this month of fun, and unlike past years, it all need to be pushed out before the month ends.  I've got obligations in August, and won't be able to keep the fun going.  So I ripped as much as I could ahead of time, and it's a big pile.  So rather that share out huge blocks of stuff once a day, I'm thinking it will be more manageable to do a couple smaller shares a day to get all this stuff out there to you.  I hope that works for you, and I hope I can keep up with it.  Here's another ten great Christmas tracks for you.

1. The Serendipity Singers-I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing from Serendipity Gold (United International Records UIR 12880, Stereo, 1980).  You remember The Serendipity Singers, they were the ones who told you not to put beans in your ears.  Well, this is much later in their career, they didn't believe in such nonsense anymore.  Here they are singing the Coca-Cola Christmas song that turned out to be Don Draper's idea.

2. Honor Solo-Earl Campbell-O Holy Night from Elmira Public Schools-Southside High School (Century 2xLP 34735, Stereo).  I've got many, many of these private label school recordings this year.  You'll be sick of them by the time we get to the end of the month.  But at some point, someone will leave a comment about how they found a song that they or their parents or grandparents sang on, and that will make all the effort worthwhile.

3. Shirley Temple singing Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers From "The Little Colonel" from The Best Of Shirley Temple (HRB Music 2xLP HRB 2007, Mono, 1978).  I didn't know this song had lyrics.  I brought this record back from New York City with me recently.  I bought it at a Goodwill, then got caught in the rain waiting for a bus back to where I was staying.  I stood underneath the 59th Street Bridge to try and stay dry.  I felt groovy.  It's actually called The Ed Koch Memorial Bridge now, but everyone just calls it The Queensborough Bridge.

4. Edmundo Ros And His Orchestra-The Skater's Waltz from Heading South...Of The Border (London Phase 4 SP 44153, Stereo, 1970).  This is a rerun.  I think about 30-40% of what I'm sharing this year will be reruns of things I've shared previously, but they are all new recordings.  If I spot a Christmas song, I grab it and sort out the details later.  Maybe it's a better copy, maybe it's stereo instead of mono, you just never know.  And I get better with my recording techniques from year to year.  So I like to revisit the oldies.

5. Jane Morgan, Orchestra Directed By Frank Hunter-Toyland (Babes In Toyland) from Great Songs From The Great Shows Of The Century (Kapp 2xLP KX 5006-S, Stereo, 1959).  A rerun, but a good one.  From a series of Great Songs albums put out by Kapp, you'll be seeing other entries from the series here during the month.

6. J.J. Johnson & Kai Winding-Troika from Betwixt & Between (A&M/CTI SP 3016, Stereo, 1969).  This is the sort of thing I look for.  Never heard it before, and it's barely mentioned on the sleeve.  But it's there.  It's short and it's sweet.  Great stuff!

7. Wayne Johnson With The Evangel Quartet-What Child Is This from Spiritual Classics (Music City MC WJ 114, Stereo).  Gospel LPs are also a good spot for Christmassy songs.  You never know what may pop up.

8. Ray Bohr-Wedding Of The Painted Doll from Ray Bohr And The Radio City Music Hall Organ (Design DLP-128 (Cover) DCF-1015 (Label), Stereo, 1960).  Organ music from a budget label.  It doesn't get much better than this.  No, seriously, it's good stuff.

9. Jimmy Jenson-Yingle Bells (Jingle Bells) from This Is Jimmy Jenson...The Country Swingin' Swede! (Jay Records LP-1001, Stereo).  Another great one!  Christmas music in Swedish dialect.  Sort of a Yogi Yorgesson ripoff, but still pretty cool. More from this one throughout the month.

10. Unknown Artist-Young King from Choral Celebration Vol. V (Jenson Publications JP-4000, Stereo, 1983).  More demo music.  You're going to get sick of these, there are a lot of them...

That's it for part 2.  Lots to come still, believe me.  I haven't made a dent yet, and I'm still trying to record a little bit more every day.  I'm going for the record!  Here's the download.

5 comments:

  1. 456 tracks! That's a lot when you are doing them one at a time. You're like a Christmas-music machine.

    That said, I need to speak to you about some of your choices: "Organ music from a budget label. It doesn't get much better than this." Oh, really?

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  2. J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding? Now you're speaking my language. I was always a fan of "Troika", too. Brilliant! I do wish it were longer than, you know, half a minute. But still...brilliant! And bonus...I dropped it in my iTunes library and it went from "Troika" into "Because I'm Santa" by The Dollyrots...and it totally works! Gonna have to remember that segue.

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  3. Stubby-Troika was a surprise find, but it wasn't the reason I picked up the LP. Stay tuned for another great J&K track.

    Buster-You don't like my budget label organ and chime tunes? :)

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  4. Some really great stuff on this one! I enjoyed every single track. I have a Shirley Temple record set that I loved to listen to when I was growing up and I'm pretty sure Parade of The Wooden Soldiers is on there and I completely forgot about it. Thanks for reminding me. Edmundo Ros and Jane Morgan: both are wonderful and I'm happy to hear them again. Love J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding's Troika and can't wait to see what else you have from that album. Maybe I'm just tired but Wayne Johnson's voice made me laugh out loud. I have to agree with you about the Ray Bohr track. That's magic and I say that completely seriously. Do I remember another track of his that you shared before? And I really like the song from the Choral Celebration demo. Excited to hear more of that.

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  5. Welcome to the party. Good luck keeping up! :)

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