19-Santa Songs

The theme of the day is the big man himself, Santa Claus!  Lots and lots of really good songs about Santa Claus, in all his many guises. Some of these are familiar, some of them are seldom if ever heard, but they are all good, and all of them are sourced from the vast collection of The Internet Archive.  Really, head on over there and poke around, you'll probably find a bunch of stuff that you've never heard before. Go ahead, I'll wait... OK, if you've made it back, go ahead and download this neato collection of Santa songs, and give it a listen.  It's good stuff.

MEGA

Update-4 Jan 2023-Added tracklist to allow searching.

1. Gene Amons And Tom Archia-Boppin With Santa
2. Henry Burr, Tenor With Orchestra-Dear Old Santa
3. Eddy Howard And His Orchestra-Dearest Santa
4. Ronnie Ronalde (Singing & Yodeling) And Chorus With Orchestra Conducted By Arturo Steffani-Grandfather Kringle
5. Mad Man Michaels-Gwiazdor
6. Firehouse Five Plus Two-Jingle Bells (By S. Claus)
7. Jiminy Cricket-Kris Kringle
8. The Marshall Brothers-Mr. Santa's Boogie
9. Jeffrey Clay, The Serenaders And Gus Dana-Old Kris Kringle
10. Blue Barron And His Orchestra, Vocal By The Blue Notes-Red Cheeks And White Whiskers
11. Bill Tabbert And The "400" Quartet-Joe Lipman Orchestra-Santa's On His Way
12. Vaughn Monroe And His Orchestra, Vocal Refrain By Vaughn Monroe And The Moon Maids-The Jolly Old Man In The Bright Red Suit (And The Whiskers On His Chin)
13. Hoosier Hot Shots-The Man With The Whiskers
14. Frankie Masters And His Orchestra-Hello, Mister Kringle
15. Al Morgan-Vocal And Piano With Orchestral Accompaniment-Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
16. Roger Miron Et Ses Laurentiens-Le Pere Noel S'en Vient (Santa Claus Is Coming)
17. Tino Rossi, Orchestra Dir. Raymond Legrand-Petit Papa Noël

 

18-Instrumental Christmas 2

It's been a few days since the last one, so here's a new installment of instrumental Christmas favorites. I've snuck in a few organ and chime records, which I told myself I wasn't going to do, but there are just so many of them I can't help myself. If you don't like them, you can pick them out like the celery in your salad, and you won't even get ranch dressing on your fingers. There are some really interesting selections in here, including appearances from Django Reinhardt, Anton Karas, Mantovani and even The Three Suns! And did someone ask for some whistling? Got it! Marimbas? Got it! Your best bet here? Joe Loco!  Listen and see.  Please enjoy this collection of vintage 78s, care of The Internet Archive, the same folks who brought you the Wayback Machine.

MEGA

Update-4 Jan 2023-Added tracklist to allow searching.

1. Robert Rheims, Organ And Chimes-Away In A Manger/Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
2. Leopold Stokowski And His Symphony Orchestra-Christmas Music (From "The Messiah")
3. Michel Warlop, Solo De Violon, Acc. Par Django Reinhardt (Guitars) Et Louis Vola (Contrebasse)-Christmas Swing
4. Hackel Berge Trio-Violin Cello Piano-Holy Night
5. Ken Griffin At The Organ-Merry Christmas
6. The Three Suns-Sleigh Ride
7. Mantovani And His Orchestra-White Christmas
8. Marimba Novelty Orchestra-Winter Wonderland From "The Ziegfeld Follies"
9. Vernon Geyer-Hammond Electric Organ With Piano-Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells
10. London String Quartet-Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fidelis)
11. Zither Solo By Anton Karas (Of "The Third Man" Film)-Silent Night, Holy Night (Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht)
12. Ronnie Ronalde (Whistling) With Orchestra Conducted By Arturo Steffani-The Skaters Waltz
13. Joe Loco Quintet-White Christmas
14. Alexander D. Richardson-Organ Solo-The Birthday Of A King
15. RCA Victor Orchestra-Ardon Cornwell, Conductor-March Of The Gnomes (From "Christmas Tree Suite")

 

After Christmas Last Year

Since I'm not posting Christmas shares every hour on the hour this year, it seems a little slow around here. That makes it much easier for both you and I to keep up, and the reason is because I just didn't have time for all the ripping and posting this year (new live-in girlfriend and all...). I was thinking about what I could easily do to bulk up the shares a little bit, and I thought about all those poor shares that come out during the Twelve Days of Christmas, that sorta dead period from Christmas night through Epiphany when I continue sharing, but lots of my visitors stop visiting because they think the season is over.  Well, allow me to highlight those shares here from last year, and if I get the chance, I'll do other years later.  There may be stuff in these shares that you've overlooked, and I believe all the links are still good. If you see something you really like, leave me a comment!

Bill Doggett-12 Songs Of Christmas. OK, technically this came out of Christmas Eve last year, but it was one of my favorite shares last year so I'll start with it.

Merry Christmas From West Point. Not too many people stop by on Christmas Day, so here's the share from that day last year. Another in a great series of military records here at the blog.

Charles Cronham-Christmas Carols. Organ and Chimes from last Christmas Day.

Wendell Watts-Jiminie The Christmas Tree. A share from last Boxing Day that I should have featured earlier. Hard to find this one, and quite cute.

Lucien Hetu-20 Succès Souvenir De Noël Avec Lucien Hétu. Two full LPs of French Canadian organ music!

Jack Parker-Pokey The Christmas Elf. Another great share that I should have put out during the season.

The Vienna Boys Choir-Christmas in Austria. Another entry in last season's around the world series.

Tom Glazer-We Wish You A Merry Christmas. It's only a single, but it's a good one. Pretty sure this was a 78, but I got decent sound out of it.

The Logistics Command Band Of Flight-An Air Force Logistics Command Christmas Sampler. Another military Christmas LP.

Montreal Sound-Christmas Disco Party. A good entry into the Christmas disco canon, and a very interesting cover. ;)

The Marble Collegiate Church Choir-Love On Earth. Religious college Christmas singing with a special appearance by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale!

 Jose Melis-Christmas With Melis. A remaster/reshare, but well worth your time if you don't have it.

Larry Caton-Christmas Time. More organ, not sure about chimes.

Christmas Presents. An organ record from Yamaha, an organ company. Different,

Edward Carrington Chorale-Christmas Chorale. A reshare, probably because there was some discussion of it over at Music You Won't. Check the comments. Always check the comments! :)

The Cincinnati Strings-Christmas Love. A record I posted just for the cover, but you may like it.

The USAF Band & The Singing Sergeants-The Wonder Of Christmas. Another military record, and the first to be posted in 2020. Little did we know what this year was going to hold.

Happy Holidays From The Nationaires. Christmas music from an insurance company? Yes! Now if only Flo from Progressive would release a Christmas album. Or maybe the Geico gecko...

The London Sound 70-The Sounds Of Christmas. A big 3-LP set that's been shared out a number of times at other places, but I wanted to take a stab at it myself. Lots of goodies on this one.

The George Garabedian Players-Tijuana Christmas. Well, you'll see...

The George Garabedian Players-Tijuana Christmas Volume 2. More of the same, but not really.

Papa Candito-Felicidades. Christmas from Puerto Rico.

Dorothy Collins-Season's Greetings In Song. An EP and a reshare, but worth a listen.

All Saints Choristors-Christmas Carols For People Who Like To Sing Christmas Carols. Weird cover on this one...

Cal Farley's Boys Ranch-King Of Love. Not to be confused with Boys Town.

The International Chorale-A German Christmas. Pretty sure I've now found other records in this same series, if I ever find time to revisit it.

The Dangerous Christmas Of Red Riding Hood. Not very much Christmas here, but The Animals show up, so give it a listen.

Christmas Booty. I don't share much country Christmas, so here's a little bit for you.

Maurice Copeland-The Night Before Christmas. Remember filmstrips? Well, this is the soundtrack to one.

The Upper Room Radio TV Parish-Christmas Is. A set of radio shows about Christmas.

Franklyn MacCormack-I Like Christmas. A 78 with nice Christmas & New Year's recitations, and with the picture sleeve!

Dr. John A. Redhead And The Upper Room Carolers-Hark The Herald Angels Sing. Three more records in the same series as two clicks up.

The Upper Room Radio TV Parish-The Holy Holiday Series. Another three records in the series above. None of them are essential listening, but an interesting piece of history.

PJ Proby-Christmas With PJ. A rare Christmas EP from the US ex-pat who was big in England but never did much on the charts here.

Don Jacoby-Merrie Christmas. This one is worth it for the cover alone!

Bob Ward-Merry Christmas 'Specially For You. Another one you need for the cover, but not in a good way.

To Make This The Best Christmas You've Ever Heard. Nothing on this one that you don't already have in your collection, but it's a great piece of history that doesn't seem to be anywhere else out there on the internet, though that may have changed in a years' time.

Commander Shea School Boys' Choir-White Christmas. A remaster of an old share, with an essential B-side.

Senator Bobby's Christmas Party. Political humor that's very much a piece of it's time, not ours.

Dea Woodman-Big Red Sleigh. So much good stuff on singles, but so hard to find.

Danny Thomas-The First Christmas. A single from a soundtrack, featuring a non-LP Christmas song on the B-side.

Morton Gould-Christmas Music For Orchestra. A 10" record. I think I have a Christmas song from him that I'll share out at some point this season, something that isn't on this album.

Tommy Cash Sings Two Original Christmas Songs Written Just For You. A couple songs from Johnny's brother for a bank somewhere. I'm sure Johnny wouldn't have sold his music like this.

The Imaginations-Santa Send Me. Is this reggae? Something close maybe...

Soupy Sales-Santa Claus Is Surfin' To Town. I'd been looking for this one at a decent price for a long time.

And that's where I left off last season.  Looks like I went a lot farther than I remembered, I must have been having fun and getting lots of comments.  I'm sure there's something in there that you missed, so grab it and enjoy. Not sure how far past Christmas we'll go this year, but I'm sure it will last until well after the new year. Don't forget to keep coming until I call it! :)

Nothing for Chanukah

My apologies to those of you who are chosen, but I'm afraid I have nothing to share for Chanukah this year. Even though it's usually not a very popular share, I always like to share out a little something for those who celebrate a different holiday this time of year. (Yes, I know there are yet more holidays this time of year, but if you think Chanukah music is hard to find, try to find a Merry Tet song, and Kwanza didn't come along until after the records I like to share here, and Festivus is even newer...) Anyhow, I wasn't able to find anything in The Internet Archive that I thought was related to the Eight Crazy Nights, though your mileage may vary. (And yes, I spelled it every way I could find, and only got a hit for something that I think I've already shared around these parts.) As a bit of consolation, here's a link to the Chanukah In August from earlier this year, and a post from last year that's similar to this one, it has links to a lot of older Chanukah shares. Maybe next year will be better.

PS-If you find something in the Archive, lemme know!

17-Patriotic Christmas

Well, that share earlier today was just too short, so here's another even-shorter collection to try and make up for it.  This one features the unlikely theme of a patriotic Christmas, something we could use a little more of here in the US in this troubled time. I think all these tracks date from around the time of the Korean War, another troubled time in US history, when people didn't clearly understand a war that was being fought in a far away land. The Christmas songs of WWII aren't so clearly USA-centric, and the Christmas songs that came out of Vietnam can be downright anti-American, so this is a nice little sweet spot for Christmas and America.  A short but sweet set, courtesy of the fine folks at The Internet Archive.

MEGA

Update-4 Jan 2023-Added tracklist to allow searching.

1. Kate Smith, Orchestra Under Direction Of Jack Miller-A Merry American Christmas
2. Tony Martin With Henri René's Orchestra And Chorus-Christmas In America
3. Jesse Rogers With The Saddle Buddies-Red, White And Blue Christmas
4. Swing And Sway With Sammy Kaye-Vocal Refrain By Don Cornell And The Three Kaydets-Santa Claus for President

16-Mistletoe

A short set, but one filled with some really good music.  The unifying theme today is mistletoe, that mysterious plant that stays green while everything else int he snowy landscape withers and dies. No wonder the ancients collected it and ascribed strange powers to it.  These days we just use it as an excuse to get a kiss or two, and there's nothing wrong with that.  Again, there's really good music here, and all tracks are courtesy of The Internet Archive with a little cleaning by yours truly.  Hope you're enjoying the music!

MEGA

Update-4 Jan 2023-Added tracklist to allow searching.

1. Jack Owens, Sammy Cowling, Eddie Ballantine And His Orchestra-The Mistletoe Song
2. Eddie Howard And His Orchestra-Uncle Mistletoe
3. Lou Gold & His Orchestra-Vocal Chorus, Buddy Lane-Under The Mistletoe (Un Beso De Navidad)
4. Three Reinerts And Sussie Med Don Gais' Trio-Underneath The Misteltoe
5. The Keynotes, Vocal, With Primo Scala And His Banjo And Accordian Orchestra-The Mistletoe Kiss
6. Dick Robertson And His Orchestra-Under the Mistletoe
7. Mickey Carter And The Riff-Tones-Underneath The Mistletoe

15-Non-English Christmas

You know that Christmas is a holiday celebrated around the world, but you may not be familiar with the music of Christmas in those countries that don't speak English. The collection of 78s at The Internet Archive features music from around the world, and I was able to get some good stuff from there to share with you. And it turns out that many countries (and Denmark in particular) enjoy novelty American Christmas tunes in their own language!  So there's a good portion of those here as well.  Lots to love in this collection, so dig in!

MEGA

Update-4 Jan 2023-Added tracklist to allow searching.

1. Vivian Bazan-Biale Gody; White Christmas (Polish)
2. Weekend-Hyttens Kor Og Orkester-Bjældeklang (Jingle Bells)
3. Hedvig Volmer-Synger 3 Stemmigt Med Sig Selv Akkompagneret af Melodikvintetten-Hvid Jul (White Christmas)
4. Lørdagspigerne Med Hans Peder Åse's Kvartet-Hvor Gik Min Snemand Hen (Where Did My Snowman Go)
5. MIE Med Sid Merrimans Orkester-Jeg Så Julemanden Kysse Mor
6. Peer Rygård Nielsen (6 år) Med Bent Fabricus-Bjerres Trio-Kender I Den Om Rudolf (Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer)
7. Los Ruiseñores-Noche De Paz (Silent Night)
8. Roger Miron Et Ses Laurentiens-Noel De Chez-Nous
9. Gerda And Mirko Pugelj With Organ Accompaniment And Church Bells-Silent Night (Vocal In Slovenian)
10. Andy Russell With Male Choir And Paul Weston And His Orchestra-The First Noël (La Primera Navidad)
11. Ralph Pedi With Orchestra-White Christmas (Italian)
12. Gustav Winkler Med George Swensson's Ensemble-Du Kære Gamle Julemand
13. Regina Kujawa, Bernard Witkowski I Jego Orkiestra, Srebrnych Dzwonów-Dzwoneczki (Polish Jingle Bells)
14. Les Petits Chanteurs De Granby-Directeur: Frère Emmanuel, S.C.-Harmonisè Par Ernest Gagon-Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant (He Was Born The Christ Child)
15. The Okey Dokies Med Helge Jacobsens Kvartet-Når Vi Holder Julefest (Christmas In Killarney)
16. Trio Los Panchos (Gil-Navarro-Avillés)-Navidad Y Año Nuevo (Son Huasteco)
17. Claire Marti-Goat Shepherd's Song (Sung In Swiss Dialect)