If you've hung around the blog at Christmas time lo these many years, you'll remember that one of my early obsessions was the Christmas music from the Warner Bros. label in their early years. Begun in 1958, they jumped right in the deep end of the pool with some great Christmas music from the likes of
Billy May, Jimmy Joyce,
Ira Ironstrings,
Wally Stott and other, lesser names like
George Greeley,
Gene Lowell,
The Guitars Inc,
The Children's Choir Of All Nations and even a
generic music box & chimes LP. Oh, and how could I forget, the infamous
Warner Bros. Stars album! So much great music, and all from LP. What I was ignorant about was their output on singles, the small records that spin faster. I stumbled across the record I'm sharing here on
Discogs some time ago, and managed to track down a copy not long after. It collects up a double handful of those singles into LP format and was sent to radio stations in 1960. You get both sides of some records, but only one side of others, so if you like what you hear, track down the original singles and get the rest of this great music. There are a lot of things here that I've never heard before (along with a couple of ringers), it was a real eye opener to those early days at Warner. To the best of my knowledge, this was issued without a specific sleeve, my copy came in a plain green cardboard sleeve, the type commonly used for library records. I hope you enjoy this collection as much as I did! This is
Christmas Hits From Warner Bros. (Warner Bros. 8467/8468, Mono, 1960). Oh, there's a similar record from a year earlier I'd love to have, but it seems to go for
crazy money. Not sure why since all the tracks are from LPs that aren't too hard to find.
1. Edd Byrnes-Lonely Christmas
2. The Lollipops-Mister Santa
3. Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.-Adeste Fidelis
4. Mel Blanc-I Keep Hearing Those Bells
5. Warren Barker-Midnight In Bethlehem
6. Graham Donald-And It Ain't Paid For Yet
7. Ira Ironstrings-Christmas Is For The Birds
8. Warren Smith-Dear Santa
9. Edd "Kookie" Byrnes-Yulesville
10. The Marquees-Christmas In The Congo
11. Cathy, Jeanette And Jolene-Jingle Bones
12. Red Coffee-Ducky Christmas
13. The Lollipops-Little Donkey
MEGA
Gosh, I didn't know this one existed. An interesting lineup on it, straying away from the TV stars that populate the "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" LP. Red Coffee as "Quacky the Singing Duck"? Also, "Christmas in the Congo" sounds like it should be tasteful.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that you didn't ante up the $425 for "Christmas in Vitaphonic Sound."
A WB Christmas without Robert Conrad?? (-:
ReplyDeleteThis was a couple of years after the WB Stars record, I think, so it wasn't their biggest push. Still gets a track by Efrem Zimbalist Jr on here, though. I think I even have that as a single somewhere with a picture sleeve. I'd love to get the earlier LP Sampler, but there's nothing on there I don't have original record for. This one was full of stuff I'd never seen before. One of my favorite finds this season!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to this one, especially for the Mel Blanc track. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWhat a terrific album!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing it & Merry Christmas
Your Pal,
Doug
Thanks for the comments, folks! It's a good one!
ReplyDeleteI forgot about the King Family Christmas record on Warner Bros! They have a rich Christmas legacy!
ReplyDeleteThis will be fun - thank you!
ReplyDelete