The Only One

You may or may not remember that last year was devoted to the 7" 45 RPM records here at the blog (Starts here, ends here). I shared out hundreds of those little records, 45 at a time, for 45 days in a row (with five more batches of 45 at the end of bonus stuff that I'd recorded throughout the month). It was a grand celebration of the art of the Christmas single and I pretty much exhausted my stash of those records. But as fate would have it, I was gifted a 45 during the course of the last year that I absolutely have to share with you. It's from Japan, was never released in the US and it features one of the stars of Sesame Street! You might remember Bob as one of the human stars of Sesame street from the premiere of the show through 2016. Millions upon millions of children grew up with him as one of the characters that helped kids learn life lessons alongside a giant bird, a trash can denizen, a Count who loved to count, a green frog reporter and two roommates who later had a blog named for them. As the saying goes, Bob was big in Japan where he released a few albums and singles, but his career never caught fire here in the US. I think he got his start singing with Mitch Miller in the States, but his recording career didn't catch fire until his records got released overseas. The Japanese fans loved him. This Christmas EP came out there in 1966 and never had a US counterpart as far as I know. I've lusted after it for a few years and earlier this year I got an email from a Christmas music buddy asking for my address. He wouldn't tell me why, and a week or so later this record appeared in my mailbox. I'm eternally grateful to the Christmas music community that exists online, I'm frequently the recipient of cool stuff like this, but I have to say that the is one of the most unexpected things I've ever gotten! So many thanks for this record, and I'm sure everyone who downloads and enjoys it will leave a nice thank you as well.  This is Bob McGrath-Christmas With Bob McGrath (CBS (Japan) 7" 33 RPM YSS-10002-JC, Stereo,1966), the only 7" record I have to share with you this year. I guess technically this record wouldn't have been part of my single celebration last year since it spins at 33 RPM, but that's a minor technicality. I shared out several sets of 7" records that spun at 33 RPM last year as well, but that was a pretty small pile of records compared to the 45s.

1. White Christmas  
2. Silent Night, Holy Night  
3. Jingle Bells  
4. Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town

MEGA