(Warning: Anonymous Content!) OK, onto part three of our trip through Canada via their leading music label, Arc. OK, Arc is probably not the leading label of Canada, but we're going to pretend it is for the time being. This next record listed no artist, and I almost passed it by but I was glad I gave it a spin. It's actually pretty good in that it captures a little bit of the Now Sound of the late Sixties right there in the grooves. You get some very happy singers with some peppy music chugging though twenty songs of Christmas. They're grouped into long medleys but the music just keeps bouncing along. Three tracks per side may seem short but each track is at least four minutes long with half of them reaching seven minutes, and amazingly enough, I don't find them boring. I think you'll enjoy them too. This is
Unknown Artist-
Sing A Song Of Christmas (Arc (Canada) AC 33, Stereo, )
1. Jingle Bells; God Rest You Merry Gentlemen; The Holly And The Ivy
2. While Shepherds Watched; See Amid The Winter Snow; Once In Royal David's City; Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
3. Ding Dong Merrily On High; We Three Kings Of Orient Are
4. Silent Night; Away In A Manger; The First Noel
5. Good King Wenceslas; Christians Awake; O Come All Ye Faithful
6. O Little Town Of Bethlehem; It Came Upon The Midnight Clear; Good Christian Men Rejoice; Angels From The Realms Of Glory
MEGA
You had me at Now Sound.
ReplyDeleteTry it and see. :)
DeleteDitto!
DeleteI was surprised myself for a generic release.
DeleteOrdinarily I prefer the Now Sound to stay the Then Sound but I'll give it a listen.
ReplyDeleteIt's all a bit Timey-Wimey...
DeleteErnie, I listened to the Ding Dong Merrily On High; We Three Kings Of Orient Are track. At first I was like, where have I heard those singers before? I could be wrong, but they sound like unknown artists, on Frank Mills' "Christmas With Frank Mills and friends" Capitol Records 1992 album. Probably doesn't help you though, ;)
ReplyDeleteSeems unlikely, but maybe. Pretty sure this was from decades earlier. You never know, I guess. :)
DeleteI hear you, but it's funny how I was drawn to that CD, when I heard it. I sure wish these companies would put background singers or even the name of the main group, even if it is a studio group. Thanks Ernie, for all you do :)
DeleteBudget labels don't care about that sort of thing. They paid bottom dollar for these recordings, probably no residuals or royalties to be paid, so why ID anyone associated with it? It's a sad situation.
DeleteArc largely kept production in house from what I can figure out, so they put a certain amount of $$$ into turning out the soundalikes and a lot of it doesn't sound bad.
ReplyDeleteArc releases are very common in thrift stores here and are almost a lost part of canadian history sadly few care about. They took regional artists and recorded them. They also took some american artists and recorded them. In my 100 or so album collection, Arc put out a rather diverse roster of music and sound alikes were only part of it. Bay Studios in Toronto was their recording studio.
I might add, Anne Murray's first official release was on Arc in 1968, 2 years before Capitol picked her up. That's also common up here.
Yeah, it's my understanding that some of this stuff is pretty common North of the border, but not so easy to come by down here. Some of it is really good stuff, some of it, not so much...
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