Monday, December 06, 2021

Jerry's Cousin

This is the first in what I hope is a series of Christmas records I dig up on the fabled Playboy label. To be honest, I only know of one other, but a guy has got to have a dream, right? For the record, I'm also working on Christmas singles from the Plantation label, but that's likely to be a pipe dream. Anyhow, this appears to be a non-LP single from the great Mickey Gilley, cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis & Jimmy Swaggart. With a family like that, you just never know what's going to happen. I was hoping this single would reflect the cool stuff found on Gilley's actual Christmas album, but I don't think there's anything here that tops the opening track on that album, a Christmas rewrite of his hit "The Girls All Get Prettier At Closing Time (or Christmas Time for our purposes). But it's still a nice single, with a George Jones song on one side and the old Roy Orbison Christmas chestnut on the other, authored by Willie Nelson. So the provenance is there. I think there's plenty to enjoy here. Why not download and listen to Mickey Gilley-Lonely Christmas Call b/w Pretty Paper (Playboy Records 7" 45 RPM P6095, Stereo, 1976)?

MEGA

Posted by Ernie at 12/06/2021 03:00:00 PM

4 comments:

  1. BusterMonday, December 06, 2021 5:51:00 PM

    I don't recall Hef having many if any country artists on his TV show, but there were quite a few on the record label. The TV show, of course, was much earlier.

    The earliest record on the Playboy label was Cy Coleman's "Playboy's Theme" in 1960. I have a few albums on the label. They are pop singers if I recall correctly. These were well before the record you posted.

    I am a great admirer of Willie Nelson and George Jones, so I should give this one a spin.

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  2. ErnieMonday, December 06, 2021 7:31:00 PM

    It does seem odd that the Playboy label featured so many country artists, and this was before the Urban Cowboy movie that spawned a thousand honky-tonk wanna-be's to put on a cowboy hat and listen to Eddie Rabbitt.

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  3. ch51Wednesday, December 08, 2021 11:16:00 PM

    And Urban Cowboy was filmed at Gilley's to bring everything full circle!

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  4. ErnieThursday, December 09, 2021 11:09:00 AM

    Sweet! I think Mickey's Christmas LP, or at least the first side, was recorded at his club as well. I need to check that though, so don't take me at my word. :)

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