A Hearty Welcome to 2025!

Good afternoon! And welcome to the 2025 Christmas sharity season! It's been a long time since last Christmas (when I gave you my heart, and a whole awful lot of 45's!) but I'm back with a big long season just chock full of music you may or may not want to listen to. I've got good stuff, I've got bad stuff and I've got lots of stuff in between. You're just going to have to look and listen to figure out if it's a good fit for your playlist or not. I think there's something worth listening to in each and every one of these records, even if it's only one time. I've been recording albums for myself since just before Christmas of last year, I just got the itch to start ripping some of my new records and I haven't let up since. I think the most recent record I ripped was less than a week ago. Not sure if anything that recent will have time to get all the way through the process, but maybe. I don't have an exact count but I estimate I've ripped about 450 full albums in the past 365 days. I've also made over 3400 passes with the scanner to assemble all these album covers. I've generated over 20,000 files between all the individual songs and images taking up hundreds of gigabytes on my poor old hard drive. I have not finished all 450 of those records, nor will I share them all. Quite a few of them are just records I wanted to listen to and if you want to listen to them they are streaming on Spotify or Amazon or Apple Music (Does anyone call it iTunes anymore?). But I've got plenty of obscure stuff for you that so far has escaped the digital era. I've been thinking about what to say to you today for weeks now, yet when I actually sit down and begin to type it all flitters away like butterflies in a hurricane. Oh, I need to share the fact that most of the season this year will be on autopilot. Sometime just after the middle of the year, my wife's family invited us to spend the holiday with them in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I've never spent a Christmas away from my own warm home here in Central Florida, so this is truly going to be a Christmas adventure for me. I've spent the past two months trying to get all my records finished up and all the shares pre-posted so that the blog keeps going even when I'm in the great American Southwest. If I see something interesting out there (like snow!), I'll try to drop in a picture if I can. And I plan to respond to comments just as quickly as possible, so please leave plenty. You know that a blog like this exists because of feedback from the visitors, so please let me know what you like, what you don't like, what you think might be interesting or related to the record at hand. This place is the most fun when it's a little community of folks who are all here for the music. I'll also have a laptop with a terabyte of data stashed away just in case I need to fix something I've done wrong in the mad dash to the finish. It may take me a day or two if I need to correct a link or something, but I should be able to make it happen. When I found out we were going west for the holidays, I figured I'd have to cut back to a single post a day (like last year), but the harder I worked the further I got and I think you'll be surprised with how much I was able to pull together and how long we keep going. I don't want to give anything away, but it's going to get crazy around here at times. Tomorrow is Black Friday, and after you've gone and celebrated Record Store Day, stop by Wal-Mart and get yourself a new, giant external hard drive. (Be sure it's a Western Digital though. I got a Seagate last time that only showed 10% of the advertised space when I fired it up, and they refused to replace it, saying I had modified it somehow! I'm still angry about that and want my $150 back.) You're going to need that space because I'm sharing everything in FLAC this year. The files sizes are about double the size of the old MP3s and I know not everyone is going to be happy about the format change, but we've got to move forward sometimes and this is the year for me. There are plenty of software packages out there that will convert this music to whatever format you may need for your iPod, Zune, or even RealPlayer. Everything I have from my phone to my car handles FLAC with no problem these days, so I made the plunge and have not looked back. I'll think of more to say later, but I'll sign off for now. Don't forget to leave me a comment whenever possible, that's how I judge my self-worth this time of the year. I'll be reading them aloud to my in-laws as we sit around the fire each evening in our adobe hacienda. They love to hear what you guys have to say, or at least I hope they will. I plan to provide a soundtrack to each evening that will quite likely drive them all insane. Here we go, hold on tight! Keep arms and hands inside the vehicle at all times and take small children firmly by the hand!

But First, Thanksgiving

Today's the day you've been waiting for, I suspect, but not just yet. First, I need to do a little bit of Thanksgiving business. It's not every year that I have a share specifically for Thanksgiving day, but I was lucky to find this record and happy to share it with you. I guess Harvest Celebration is not quite the same as Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving is mentioned right there in small print above the title. That has to count for something, right? There is a track on here called This Is My Father's World, a title that takes on a whole new meaning when you realize that Richard Roberts is the son of Oral Roberts, and Patti of course was his daughter-in-law. I imagine there was a TV special or something associated with this LP, but I haven't done enough research to know for sure. Hopefully some one will clue me in if such a thing exists. But if you're wanting to give this a listen, please be my guest and go download Richard & Patti Roberts-Harvest Celebration (Light LS-5562-LP, Stereo, 1971). I'll be back this afternoon with the official start of the Christmas sharity season, I promise.

1. Harvest Prelude/Psalm 92
2. Harvest Celebration
3. This Is My Father's World
4. Psalm 50
5. Heritage Medley: This Is My Country; America; God Bless America; America The Beautiful; This Land Is Your Land; God Of Our Fathers; This Is My Country Reprise
6. The Giving Song
7. Psalm 136
8. My Father's Table
9. Lincoln Thanksgiving Proclamation
10. Thanksgiving Medley: To Our God Give Praise; To God Be The Glory; Old Hundredth

MEGA 

01-Thanksgiving Day Parade

OK, let's get this party started. Here's the first share of the season. I've named each share after a song in the download, often with some relation to the theme of the collection. Certainly not all the records are linked to the theme, but I tried to find as many as I could that linked together somehow. (Some days I was able to theme the whole thing, but those are the exception to the rule.) If you've visited the blog at any time over the past twenty years on Thanksgiving, you've likely seen and heard the Thanksgiving Day Parade song. It's from a TV remake of Miracle On 34th Street and it isn't really too well known. I try to push it whenever I can, and it's showing up here again with a few other Thanksgiving Day and November tracks. I feel like sharing notes on many of the songs each day, but that's going to just be too much. As you can see there are 45 tracks here (in honor of them all being from 45s) and it will just take too long to talk about them all. Maybe I can drop some info in the comments from time to time. We'll see how it all shakes out.

1. Slim Pickens-Vocal Accompaniment By The Jordanaires-Christmas In November
2. Annick Aïrosa Et Sa Guitare-Soir De Noël (O Little Town Of Bethlehem)
3. Bob Moule's Dixieland Express-Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town
4. Bobby G. Rice-Holidays Are Happy Days
5. Danny And The Juniors And Santa's 8 Reindeer With Frank Slay & His Orchestra-Candy Cane, Sugary Plum
6. Earl Grant-Silver Bells
7. Ed Sullivan Presents Music Of Christmas-Arranged & Conducted By John Gregory-Jingle Bells
8. Eddie De Marr With Glenn Osser And His Orchestra-(It's Rough) This Time Of Year
9. Elton Britt With The Pinetoppers-Christmas In November
10. Fred Bergin And His Music-Toyland
11. Fred Waring And His Pennsylvanians-Grandma's Thanksgiving-Part 1
12. Guy Lombardo And His Royal Canadians-Vocal Chorus By Tony Craig-White Christmas
13. Jimmy Dean-Arranged & Conducted By Don Sebesky-Blue Christmas
14. Joe Sun-Silent Night (Stereo)
15. Johnny Mathis-Conducted By Jack Feirman-The Little Drummer Boy
16. Julius La Rosa With The Choraliers-Directed By George Nassar-We Need A Litttle Christmas
17. King Coleman-Blue Grey Christmas
18. Lawrence Welk And His Champagne Music-Merry Christmas Polka
19. Leonard Feather-Ralph Burns And Their Orchestra-Dasher
20. Liz Story-Greensleeves
21. Mark Thomsen-Noël
22. Nick Di Sipio With Orchestra-Christmas Is Here
23. Paul Mickelson, N B C Organ-Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
24. Ray Anthony And His Orchestra-Vocal By Ronnie Deauville-Marshmallow World
25. Rejoice!-November Snow
26. Richard Maltby And His Orchestra Featuring The Honey Dreamers-Wild Bells
27. Stanley Fritts And The Korn Kobblers-Vocal By Stanley Fritts-Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
28. The Anita Kerr Singers & The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra-Shine, Shine
29. The Fontane Sisters And Freddy Martin And His Orchestra With Merv Griffin-Snowflakes
30. Seymour (The Heartbeat Trumpet) With Chimes And Organ-O, Come All Ye Faithful
31. Mireille Mathieu-Weisser Winterwald (Winter Wonderland)
32. Ron Brooks-What Christmas Means To Me
33. Alfred Apaka And The Hawaiian Village Serenaders-Joy To The World (Hauoli Ka Honua)
34. Bruno Pallesi-Caro Gesu' Bambino
35. Carla Thomas-All I Want For Christmas Is You (Gusto Version)
36. Eydie Gorme-Arranged And Produced By Don Costa-Let Me Be The First To Wish You Merry Christmas
37. Fred Waring And His Pennsylvanians-Grandma's Thanksgiving-(Concluded)
38. Homemade Theatre-Santa Jaws Part 2
39. Jimmie Davis-Sacred Singing With Instrumental Accompaniment-Gently Rock His Cradle
40. Leland W. Sprinkle Sr-Dutch Hymn Of Thanksgiving
41. Marie Chabot-My Christmas With You
42. Positive Force-'Twas A Night Long Ago
43. Spencer Ross-Thanksgiving Day Parade
44. Seeburg Musicians-O Holy Night (DS)
45. Henry Mancini-Christmas Greetings

MEGA

Thanksgiving in June 2023-Part 1

Good day, and welcome to the occasional series of Thanksgiving music at the very end of June! I've got six tracks for you from four different records. If you don't know what's going on here, then you'd be well advised to come back tomorrow and I'll explain much, much more. But in the meantime, have a go at these tracks.

1. Hap Palmer With The Children's Chorus-Things I'm Thankful For-Vocal
2. All-City Choir-Susan Van Dyck, Chairman-Nancy Ferguson, Coordinator-Come Praise The Lord/For Thy Gracious Blessing
3. Instructed By Ed Durlacher-Music By The Top Hands-Turkey In The Oven-Instructions
4. Music By The Top Hands-Turkey In The Oven-Music Only
5. Hap Palmer-Things I'm Thankful For-Instrumental
6. Kathy Lecinski-Old Tom Turkey

Oh, and go buy a larger hard drive...

MEGA

2022 At 78 RPM-Frank Luther Special

One of the most prolific artists of the 78 era had to be Frank Luther. Year in and year out, for more than 20 years, he appears to have released multiple records, aimed first towards a country audience but eventually moving over into the field of intelligent kiddie entertainment. It was a crowded space, but he released so many records that to my eyes, he seems to have been one of the most important artists out there who was trying to both entertain and educate your children at the same time from the thirties to the fifties. Yet today, he's a footnote. Most of his stuff was only ever released on shellac records, only a few things were ever transferred to vinyl, and there were precious few new releases in the vinyl era. I've featured his recordings a couple of times around here, especially back in 2020 when I first started restoring shellac records from the Internet Archive, whether in a dedicated post, or scattered throughout various artist posts. I kinda figured I'd pulled out all the holiday tracks he had to offer, but I was wrong. Over the past year, I've come up with the ten more I'm sharing with you now, and it's a great sampling of the sort of high-quality kiddie-oriented music that he made his reputation with. Have a listen, and see if you don't enjoy it.

1. (A Visit From St. Nicholas) 'Twas The Night Before Christmas-Part 1
2. Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town
3. (A Visit From St. Nicholas) 'Twas The Night Before Christmas-Part 2
4. Ting-A-Ling-A-Jingle
5. Jingle Bells
6. Wake Happy Children; So Now Is Come Our Feast; Under The Holly Bough
7. Hark! The Herald Angel Choir; On Christmas Morning; Sweet Village Bells
8. Thanksgiving Day
9. New Year's
10. Christmas Is A-Comin'

MEGA