Christmas In July 2020-21
Good evening! Welcome to part 21 of the July festivities! Hope you're having a blast, and maybe the music is making you feel a little bit cooler. Low around here last night was 84 degrees, I need all the Christmas spirit I can get. Here're fifteen more tracks you feel the spirit.
1. (All I Want For Christmas Is) My Two Front Teeth; Christmas Morn Is Coming (Excerpt) by an unknown artist, and taken from Superior New Works For Concert Band-Advanced Edition-Volume 23 (Jenson Publications 2xLP CB23A88AD, Stereo, 1988). Yes, the demo tracks just keep on a'comin'.
2. Joy To The World by Steve Erquiaga, Frank Martin & Kenneth Nash from Spectrum-The Colours Sampler (Colours SPCN-7-100-14782-4, Stereo, 1985). Interesting version, but very New Age.
3. Merry Christmas, Doctor by Nichols And May from The Best Of Mike Nichols And Elaine May (Mercury SR-60997, Electronically Created Stereo, 1965). Some Christmas psychiatrist comedy for you.
4. Sleigh Ride by Frederick Fennell Conducting The Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra from The Music of Leroy Anderson, Vol. 1 (Mercury SR90009, Stereo, 1958). The bestest of the Leroy Anderson songs I've got to share this season. A real classic.
5. Frosty Morning Blues by Bessie Smith from Any Woman's Blues (Columbia 2xLP G 30126 (Originally recorded 1924), Mono, 1970). Everything that's old comes around again.
6. Freischutz Prayer by The Eroica Three-Disc Symphonion Music Box from Old Music Box Melodies (Bornand Music Box Co RCB-7, Stereo, 1981). Is this a Christmas song? It was mixed in with the other Christmas music on the record, so I went ahead and grabbed it.
7. Out In The Cold Again by Frankie Lymon from Soul Souvenirs Of Yesterday (AKA The WOL Soul Brothers Present Their First Anniversary) (Roulette R-25337 (Radio station WOL, Washington, DC), Mono, 1966). From one of those seemingly ubiquitous oldies compilations put out by your local radio station. This is the third or fourth version of this song that I've shared this season. Previously, I think I'd only ever seen one version.
8. Toyland (From The Operetta "Babes In Toyland") by the great Vaughn Monroe And His Orchestra from Dance With Me! (RCA Camden CAL-329, Mono, 1956). Monroe almost has enough Christmas music in his catalog to make an album. I need to see if I can dig up some old transcription discs somewhere to make a full Christmas album. I know I have three or four recordings of Let It Snow that he did, but I doubt if anyone needs to hear all of those on one album. Wait, does he even sing on this one?
9. A Christmas Song by the unknown artist at Silver Burdett Records, and coming from the LP Making Music Your Own-Kindergarten Record IV (Silver Burdett Records 75 180 4, Mono, 1966). Lots of songs from this one.
10. Alleluia, Glorious Is Thy Name by Brookside Jr. High School Music Department-Concert Chorus-William Bent, Conductor from Winter Concert-Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 1971 (United Sound USR 4026, Stereo, 1972). Local group done good.
11. The Village Of St. Bernadette by Ronnie Brown With Orchestra Under The Direction Of Henri René from Presenting The Velvet Piano Of Ronnie Brown (Columbia CL 1492, Mono, 1960). Never heard of the main artist here, but Henri Rene is great!
12. Spring Carol by The Texas Boys Choir-George Bragg, Conductor-Sydney Laudenslager, Harp-Victor Lederer, Soprano-Tim Kimsey, Alto, from Britten: A Ceremony Of Carols-Gregg Smith: Bible Songs For Young Voices (Vox Turnabout TV-S 34544, Stereo, 1973). Is a Spring Carol anything like a Christmas Carol? Maybe...
13. Do You Hear What I Hear? by The Women's Ensemble Of Bethany Lutheran Church, Melodie Bollman-Director, Eleanor Peura-Accompanist from The Ensemble Sings (Century Advent Recording LRS-RT-6062 (Astabula, Ohio), Stereo). Another record from which I pulled a lot of tracks this year.
14. The Skaters' Waltz by Reginald Dixon from Tiger Rag (Starline (EMI) (UK) SRS 5056, Stereo, 1971). Because you can't have too many version of a calssic.
15. All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth by an unknown group on Warner Bros. Finest For Concert Band (Jenson Publications JP-3900, Stereo, 1983). We started with a demo track, we may as well end with one. And interestingly enough, it's even the same song. Sorry about that.
And that's it for tonight. Thanks for following along. Hope you're finding some treasures in there once in a while.
I must have that Leroy Anderson LP, but I am going to download this track anyway - thanks!
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ReplyDeleteWell, I was kinda wondering if it was indeed Frankie Lymon, and it certainly is!
I once (tried to) watch a show on PBS about Frankie Lymon, because I wondered how/when he died. I nodded off about 10 minutes before the show ended and woke up again 5 minutes later and he was gone and I missed the story. This was, of course, long before the interwebtubes. RIP, Frankie Lymon.
Heroin overdose. :(
ReplyDeleteYou're totally right, Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride is truly a classic. Nice version here. I was hoping that Joy to the World was going to be cool, but, alas, not that great in my opinion. You never know, some New Age Christmas stuff isn't always bad. Toward the end of the Alleluia track, I was starting to count how many times that word was mentioned. It seemed like the only word in the whole lyrics. Oh, and both demo tracks, not half bad (especially the concert band one).
ReplyDeleteThe demo tracks are arrangements that are designed to be both easy for the target user to play, as well as entertain an audience, so it's no surprise that they're usually quite interesting. They aren't artists trying to present something new or unusual or culturally relevant, they're just fun and entertaining. :)
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