The Best From July 2023

And here is a collection of what I thought were the best tracks from last year's celebration of Christmas in July. Looking over the tracklisting, I see that I had an awful lot of variations on The Twelve Days Of Christmas. They were too good to just pick one, so I spaced them out a bit and threw them all in there for you. They range all over the place, except I don't think anybody does it straight. Well, that's not true. I see the USAF Academy Symphonic Band in there, I'm sure they play it the way it's supposed to be, though you don't get any lyrics with that one. What else is in the stack? A great live track, some spoken word comedy, a few near-Christmas tracks that I thought were good enough to include, a right-wing Christmas fantasy, even a great 80's rocker. Oh, and give a listen to Cowboy's Christmas Ball, then go listen to The Killers song by the same name. Now tell me they never heard that first version when they were younger. Anyhow, there's lots of good music in here, far more than will fit on the old fashioned Cee Dee, but I'm trying to think outside of the box here. (Anybody still burn these things to disc?) The cover stained glass image is from the Duomo di Milano in Milan, Italy. Actually, it's in the museum next door. At some point, they replaced all the stained glass in the cathedral with modern reproductions because the ancient originals leaked badly whenever it rained. So this is an up-close photo of one of those original bits of glass. Sorry about the marks over the face of the baby Jesus, that's just the way it was. I'll stop talking now, please download and enjoy The Very Best Of Christmas In July From Ernie (Not Bert) 2023!

1. Bobby Lester & The Moonglows-Hey Santa Claus-Live
2. Charlie Barnet And His Orchestra-Piano Solo: Jack Wilson, Jr.-Muted Trumpet Solo: Conte Candoli-Snowfall
3. United States Air Force Academy Symphonic Band-Conducted By Major Herman Vincent-The Twelve Days Of Christmas
4. Shorty Rogers-Andre Previn Orchestra-40° Below
5. Pasadena Roof Orchestra-Savoy Christmas Medley
6. Elaine Stritch-Orchestra Under The Direction Of Deane Kincaide-Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
7. Rick Dees And The Cast Of Idiots-Merry Christmas (Wherever You Are)
8. Eddie Bond-Christmas In Heaven
9. Lord Buckley-Scrooge
10. All-City Choir-Susan Van Dyck, Chairman-Nancy Ferguson, Coordinator-Fat Jolly Man
11. Alice Day-Medley: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas; Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
12. The Newport Youth Band Under The Direction Of Marshall Brown-Lemon Drop
13. Diane Leslie-Christmas Song
14. Marni Nixon-Orchestral Accompaniments By Ed Jurey-Christmas Tree Angel
15. MacLean & MacLean-Nine Days Of Christmas
16. Buddy Tate, His Tenor Sax And Orchestra-Snowy White Christmas
17. The Rave-Ups-The Night Before Christmas (Hey Baby)
18. Barbara E. Leigh & The Everlov'ins-I Saw Mama Kissing Santa Claus (AKA I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause)
19. Allen Keller And Trombones-Kai Winding-Urbie Green-Nick Travis-Paul Falise-Christmas Road
20. Silver Burdett Company-Cowboys' Christmas Ball
21. Chris Rea-Joys Of Christmas
22. Original Salty Dogs Jazz Band-Santa Claus Blues
23. Wini Beatty With Rhett Fink And The Folkniks-Christmas Medley
24. The Munich Symphony Orchestra-Christmas Morning
25. George Jones-New Baby For Christmas
26. Steve Addiss & Bill Crofut-12 Days With Khrushchev
27. The University Of Texas Longhorn Band-Glenn A. Richter, Director-My Favorite Things
28. Marlene VerPlanck-Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
29. Cecile Frenette-Soon It Will Be Christmas
30. Paul Belanger-Old Fashioned Christmas
31. Conducted By Joseph Brooks-Christmas Song (Montage)
32. Lulu Belle & Scotty-The Empty Christmas Stocking
33. The Kings-This Christmas

MEGA (MP3)

MEGA (FLAC)

Don't miss the 2022 Best-Of that I shared earlier this season, and then there was 2021, a 2020, a 2019, a 2018, a 2017, no 2016, a 2015, but no 2014, and no 2013. There's a 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and a 2006. If that's not enough goody for you, I did a series of ten (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten) second-best collections that I think are just as good as the stuff that made the main collections. And if that's not enough for you, just poke around, I'm sure you'll find something somewhere here at the blog that will placate you.

(I think Google just recently made a change to how you upload images for the blog. They haven't changed anything in ages, but the upload interface was different today. Interesting...)