When I was a kid, National Geographic was my favorite magazine. I think it was the only magazine my parents had a subscription to when I was little. (No, wait, I'm wrong. We got Reader's Digest, too.) Not sure if that was for me or if maybe they enjoyed it as well. But I can remember getting really excited when it showed up, and really unhappy in the occasional months when an issue got lost in the mail. I can remember writing to them to let them know that we hadn't got last month's magazine and got excited when I got a letter saying they were sending out a new copy ASAP. We also had a huge stack of back issues in a cabinet beside my mom & dad's bed. I'd lay on the bed and try to find an interesting date to read for hours on end. When I got older and had a little disposable income, I'd buy older issues at the thrift stores, trying to find the oldest dates I could because I thought those would be the most interesting. Even after I made it to college, I can remember going to one of the huge libraries at UF and finding their archive of National Geographics and flipping through copies that came out way at the very beginning of the magazine from before they included color photographs. Long story, but I figured it is a proper introduction to this record that was put out by the National Geographic Society as part of a series of records in the late 70's. This would have been my peak time for reading and enjoying the magazine, but I don't recall knowing anything about these records at the time. Not sure who the band is here, but I seem to recall seeing a famous name in the credits. Lemme go take a look. Oh, yeah, arranged and conducted by William Pursell. He had a pop hit with Our Winter Love in 1963 before heading off in other music directions like this one. I think you'll enjoy this one, I certainly did. Huge triple gatefold package here (with custom printed inner sleeves as well), you'll see it in the package, it's massive! This is
The Christmas Festival Chorale And Orchestra-
An American Christmas (National Geographic Society 07799, Stereo, 1977). Oh, I forgot about the first time I ever went to DC. I trekked all the way into town to visit National Geographic's headquarters there. Not much to see and I think I was the only person there, but I was glad I made the trip.
1. We Wish You A Merry Christmas; O Come, All Ye Faithful
2. What Child Is This
3. Deck The Halls
4. Away In A Manger
5. Silent Night
6. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
7. The Twelve Days Of Christmas
8. We Three Kings
9. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
10. O Holy Night
11. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
12. Joy To The World
MEGA
I wonder why the NGS decided to put out a Christmas record with such standard fare. It's not as though it would stand out from the other records on the market.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your tale about the magazine!
I think it was part of series that sort of dug into their ethnographic studies. I can't remember any of the others off the top of my head, but I think they were sort of folksy Americana.
DeleteIt was my favorite magazine for a long time. :)
We had a subscription when I was a kid, my favorite issue had a flexi-disc "Songs of the Humpback Whale" and of course I enjoyed the occasional nude photo. Speaking of that, there were also stacks of them in the grade school library I attended. They were inside a bathroom that was kept locked. But we all knew they were in there. Occasionally the door was unlocked and we'd take a peek. -Organ
DeleteYeah, they had the first flexi-discs I ever saw, and the maps, too. Those were always fun bonuses. The naked girls were OK, but they weren't exactly appealing.
DeleteTupeloBrian remembers their catalog having music but never bought any of it.
ReplyDeleteYour memory is better than mine. I took a peek at their catalog listed over at Discogs and it's quite a few records.
Deletehehee Ernie...
ReplyDeleteMy mother had subscriptions NG, Readers Digest, Life, Sunset, and some other Home and Garden magazine, some womens magazines she would pick up now and then at the grocery store or wherever.
I rarely ever read them or looked at them.
I will look forward to hearing this album though.
We didn't get that many, but I certainly enjoyed the ones we had. When I came of age, I subscribed to a few magazines myself, but none of them ever held my fancy.
DeleteThis Santa drawing was used a lot in the record world in the '60's, from Pickwick albums to the picture sleeve for the Mama's and the Papa's "Dancing Bear" single.
ReplyDeleteI think it's by Thomas Nast.
DeleteComic book artist Carl Barks frequently looked through the pages of National Geogrq
ReplyDeleteNational Geographic to get story ideas for the Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories he would write and draw for such comic book companies as Dell and Gold Key in the '40's, '50's, and '60's.
ReplyDeleteNow that I didn't know! :)
DeleteThank you for this one, and really appreciate the story as well. As a blind kid, I used to borrow the cassette monthly from my regional library. I could not keep the tapes as they were reused for subsequent issues.
ReplyDeleteI hate to tell you this, but you were missing out on the best part if you couldn't see the pictures. It's often been said that they had the best photographers in the world. Life had the best photographers capturing people, but few publications could match National Geographic when it came to capturing pictures of the natural world around us.
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