Christmas In July 2009-Day The Twenty Second

It's getting late, I'd better get today's post up before I fall yet another day behind. Tonight tunes, are, well, all over the place. No rhyme or reason, as rhyme and reason take planning ahead, and I've done none of that. So let's go...

Track one: I Wonder As I Wander by Burl Ives. I promised you more from Burl, and here it is. This is from Folk Songs Dramatic And Humorous (Decca 10" DL 5467), another of those little 10" records that I like so much.

Track two: Midnight Sleighride by The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra. Yes, yes, I know, I shared this with you last year, but this time it's a version recorded from radio taken from the record The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra Revisited (Golden Era LP-15071). I like this song, and I'm gonna bring it to you as many times as I possibly can until you leave me so many comments saying that you don't want it that I have to stop.

Track three: Greensleeves by Guy Lombardo And His Royal Canadians. Yes, it can be a Christmas song. Trust me. This is from Golden Folk Songs For Dancing (Decca DL 74430). I expect you to dance to this, just like the title says.

Track four: What Child Is This by the St. Olaf Lutheran Choir Conducted By Olaf C. Christiansen from the album Fifty Golden Years (Mercury MG 20728, 1962). Listen closely to this one. Hear that? It's the same music as Greensleeves! I told you it was a Christmas song! More from this group tomorrow.

Track five: Hallelujah Chorus as performed by The Coronets on their steel drums. I thought that record from last year was a fluke, but perhaps this is a popular song for steel drummers. I found this one on the LP Mixed Moods-Steel Band Of St. Kitts W.I. (COR-1).

Track six: My favorite for the night is I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm (From "On The Avenue") as performed by Skitch Henderson, His Piano And Orchestra. I was excited to find this the night before last when I picked up a copy of his LP A Tribute To Irving Berlin (Columbia CS 9683). I'd never seen it before, and didn't know it existed, but there it was. I shared half an LP of Skitch Christmas music with you a while back, and I've found bonus tracks here, here and there. This one brings me a little bit closer to having a whole LPs worth of Christmas music from Skitch. What a great name, Skitch!

Well, that's all for now. Here's the download link, see you tomorrow.

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Twenty-First

Here's the twenty-first day of my little Christmas in July celebration. That means only ten days left! It sure will be nice to get a little sleep once in a while, at least until Thanksgiving. Tonight's shares are three songs about skiing, and three songs about skating. I figure both of those are nice winter sports, things you might do around Christmas time. So here goes...

Tracks one, two and four are all by Jack Shaindlin Conducting The Cinerama Symphony Orchestra from that soundtrack album I first shared with you a few days ago, Cinerama Holiday (Mercury MG 20059, 1955). The first two tracks are On The Slopes and Skiers, both written by Morton Gould. The fourth track is Skating Waltz, and it's not written by Morton Gould. It's not written by Emil Waldteufel, as you might have thought, either. That would be Skaters Waltz (see below).

Track three is Ski Run by 101 Strings from their album 101 Strings Plus Dynamic Percussion (Alshire S-5145). I was surprised at how good this was and how much I liked it. Maybe I need to pay more attention to all those 101 Strings albums I see. Nah...

I gave you track four above, so that brings us to track five, one of those Waldteufel tracks I hinted about. It's Skaters Waltz by Bob Kames, and his LP Golden Years In Hi-Fi-20 Organ Solos By Bob Kames (King 598). I believe this is Bob's first LP for King, at least according to the liner notes. It's certainly not his last, as I attested to by posting not one, not two, not three, but four Christmas albums by this guy last Christmas. And now I've found a bonus tracks for you! Stay tuned, I may have a second bonus track. Maybe. I promise nothing.

Track six is another version of Skaters Waltz, this time entitled Skaters Waltz In Swingtime by Bob Crosby, His Orchestra And The Bobcats. The LP is The Best Of Bob Crosby (MCA 2xLP MCA2-4083, 1975). This is a fine collection of his well-known stuff compiled in the seventies, but this particular track was originally recorded 1-23-39 according to the liner notes. Good version.

And there you have it. Six more songs, bringing the total so far to a staggering 167! Not too shabby. So here's the download link, see you again tomorrow.

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Twentieth

Need some more Christmas tunes? I thought so. Got a real hodge-podge again today, but there's good stuff in here. Let's dive right in.

Why not start out with a classic from a classic? This is Snowfall from Esquivel, His Piano And Orchestra and his album More Of Other Worlds, Other Sounds (Reprise R-6046, 1961). Unfortunately, this is the mono version, which was the LP I happened to find. It's still really, really good. Turn it up loud.

Next up is White Christmas from The Wurlitzer Company and that LP I first shared with you yesterday, Organ Melodies From The Hobby-Lesson Course For Wurlitzer Organs (The Wurlitzer Company, De Kalb, Illinois). Short, sweet, but nice.

Track three is the great Jo Stafford with her husband, Paul Weston, on the Appalachian carol I Wonder As I Wander. This is from American Folk Songs (Corinthian COR-110). I believe this is a re-release of a much earlier LP, since this is on the Weston-Stafford owned label. Jo retained the rights to all of her early recordings somehow, then later reissued them on her own. But you already knew that.

Track four? Why it's Mele Kalikimaka by The Honolulu Symphony Orchestra Conducted By George Barati from White Ginger Blossoms (Decca DL 74564), a collection of tunes written by Hawaiian composer R. Alex Anderson. This is a really good version of a song you don't hear often enough.

The fifth track is another one from John Klein and Leo Addeo from their album Bells In Toyland (RCA Victor LSP-3832, 1967). This time it's Toyland itself. I'm running short on tracks from this great LP, but I'm not out quite yet. I told you I recorded most of the album for you, and I wasn't kidding.

The final track is Swinging Shepherd Blues by Raymond Paige Conducting The Radio City Music Hall Orchestra from the album Music Hall Bon Bons (Everest SDBR-1024, 1958). I love the sound on these Everest LPs. I think they sound so good because of the involvement of Raymond Scott, but I have no empirical data to prove that.

There you go, another sixer. Hope you like it. Oh, here's the download link. Almost forgot the most important part, didn't I?

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Nineteenth

What day is this? I'm loosing track of time... Seven versions of two songs tonight, The Bells Of St. Mary's and Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers. Not seven versions of each, though, just a total of seven. Five of one and two of the other, I think. Let's get started, shall we?

Track one is version one of The Bells Of St. Mary's. I'm not sure this is supposed to be a Christmas song, but it's about bells and a church, so it's sort of like a Christmas song. This one is by Gordon Macrae, Arranged And Conducted By Van Alexander, from his album Songs For An Evening At Home (Capitol T1251, 1959). Not a bad vocal take on this one.

Version two is by John Duffy at the organ from his LP John Duffy At The Mighty Columbia Square Wurlitzer (Liberty LRP 3004, 1955). I love the cover on this one, you should go search it down. I'm too lazy to scan it in for you, sorry.

Version three is Jesse Crawford from the same 10" LP I featured the other day, In A Monastery Garden (Decca 10" DLP 5058). Sorry about the scratchiness.

Version four is a bit odd. It's from an LP put out by the Wurlitzer company that gave you a sample of all the different songs in the sheet music that came with your new Wurlitzer organ. Well, I don't know if the sheet music came with it, or you had to buy it. For that matter, I'm not sure if they gave you this record or you had to purchase it. Either way, it's a short little version and I'm sure you'll find it at least interesting. Oh, the title of the record is Organ Melodies From The Hobby-Lesson Course For Wurlitzer Organs (The Wurlitzer Company, De Kalb, Illinois).

The fifth version of this song is my favorite, and for two reasons. Reason one is that it's got some good rockin' guitar in there, and the second reason is that the guy's name is Ernie. It's Ernie Maxwell and the LP is The Happy Guitar Of Ernie Maxwell (Canaan CAS-9670-LP). No Berts on this one, I assure you. This is a religious LP, or at least that's who it's targetted towards. Ernie and his family are all wearing matching purple suits on the cover. But the guitar rocks a bit more than you might expect.

The last two tracks are a couple of different versions of Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers. I thought the five versions of The Bells Of St. Mary's were a little skimpy, so maybe you can think of these two as bonus tracks. Version one is another organ song, this time by Ray Bohr from his album The Big Sound-Ray Bohr At The Pipe Organ (RCA Victor LPM-1306, 1956). Version two is by The Sandpipers And The Golden Orchestra, Music Director: Mitch Miller from Let's All Sing Like The Birdies Sing (Golden Records LP-83), a collection of songs from those little yellow records they had when your parents were kids. I see those a lot at the thrift stores but they always look like they were used as Frisbees instead of records.

So there you go, seven songs for the nineteenth day. Here's the download link, don't forget to come back almost every day!

A Bird That Doesn't Know The Lyrics

Couple months back, I was at Mom and Dad's house, and along comes this hummingbird. I put the long lens on the camera and tried to sneak off the porch to get some shots. Well, I failed. All I could get was the silhouette above, and one blurry picture of him in the air below. These little guys are fast, shy and tiny. I'm going to have to come up with a plan. Maybe a nice sugarwater feeder and a blind. Hmmm...

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Eighteenth

Yep, we're making progress now! Day eighteen already, and it's only the twentieth. Sigh... What do I have for you tonight? A real hodge-podge of stuff.

We start out with a version of Sleigh Ride done at a rather languorous pace. I don't know why exactly that is, but it's different. The artist is The Alma College Concert Band-Samuel Jones, Conductor, and the album is The Kilties Go Concert (Recorded Publications Company 32M-98121/2, Alma College, Alma, Michigan). This is another one of those homemade records, pressed up by a bunch of people without a recording contract. I love these.

Track two is a rousing version of Go Tell It On The Mountain by the Lee Patterson Singers from Oh Happy Day (Fontana (UK) 6434 001). I think this is a budget label thing from England, but it still sounds good. There's an odd noise in this that I think is the singer taking a deep breath before he starts singing each time. Odd...

Track three. March Of The Toys, as played on a carillon to great effect by John Klein, accompanied by Leo Addeo, from that old standby Bells In Toyland (RCA Victor LSP-3832, 1967). I've shared several tracks from this one with you this month, and I'm not done yet. And they've all been winners, that's the amazing thing. Maybe I should record the whole thing and share it out at Christmas? Also, am I the only one who notices a distinct cimlarity between parts of this song and parts of that US Air Force song? Something about "off they go, into the wild blue yonder..." Maybe it's just me.

Track four is something a little more modern, but something I've needed to record for a while now. And when I sat down to make the recording, the record is warped badly. Luckily, this track is the last track on the side, so the effect of the warpage is minimal. But then it started skipping in the last 30 seconds of the song. Took me half an hour of playing with it to get rid of that. The ones you think are going to be a quick rip always wind up being the hardest. So, what song could possibly be worth all that trouble? It's Ray Stevens 80's rerecording of his 60's Christmas tune, Santa Claus Is Watching You, this time from the LP I Have Returned (MCA Records MCA-5635, 1985). I've always liked this song, with it's, err, unique line-up of reindeer. I wish I could afford one of those 45s on Mecury where he did this orginally, but I haven't stumbled across one in my price range yet.

Last, and maybe least, is an odd number from a budget collection. It's Jimmy Soul performing Rockin' Santa from A Shindig-Hullabaloo Spectacular (Gladwynne GLS 2004). Or at least it's something close to that. The fidelity on this is horrid, I'm sure it is a recording pulled from scratchy old vinyl as played on that big old console hi-fi in your grandmother's living room, with the needle flipped over to 78 instead of LP. And I think the name of the track is supposed to be Rock 'N Roll Santa, but you be the judge. Anyhow, I still felt the need to include it for your perusal.

So there you go. Here's the download link. Now I have to go record some more music before I run out of shares for you guys. It's getting a little tight at the moment.

Screw What?

I took this shot last month while I had that fancy rented camera lens. It's a detail of the leaf base on a screw pine tree. I've always liked these tropical trees, but rarely have I gotten a good picture of one. I like this shot, though, you can really see the detail in there, with the saw-edged leaves slowly spreading out into a fan shape.

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Seventeenth

Now that I'm past the halfway point, I feel like doing something a little special. How about 32 tracks in a single post, over an hour of music? No problem, here are three side-long versions of The Nutcracker, as well as a handful of individual performances of selected tracks. Artists include William Steinberg And The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Arturo Toscanini And The NBC Symphony Orchestra, Andre Kostelanetz And His Orchestra (in a different performance from the one I gave you on the first day of Christmas In July, this one from 1950), O'Lyn Callahan, Morton Gould Conducting The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy And The Philadelphia Orchestra, and lastly, some little accordian band named The Three Suns.

Let me give you the details for that Three Suns track, because that's the one I'm most proud of. As you might recall, I've shared out all of the Three Suns Christmas albums around here, and quite a few individual tracks from singles and collections. This one was new to me, so I'm going to add it to their Christmas canon. Waltz Of The Flowers comes from budget-label release For Listening And Dancing (Pickwick PTP 2012 (Combines two LPs, Twilight Time & Body & Soul)), in fake stereo. I don't know how this track eluded me for so long, but now we've got it. I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I do.

Here's the download link, have at it. I'm getting a little closer to being caught up, I think, just another day or two of double posts and I'm there.

The Best From July Of 2007

Another week in this July celebration has passed, so I figure it's time to point you towards another old best-of. This time it's the collection of all the greatest tracks I shared out in July of 2007. I think there's some really good stuff in here, so if you want a nice little package of goodies without all the downloading, sifting and sorting, this is it. The tracklisting is as follows, and the hyperlinked names will take you to the day I originally posted that track.

1. Nickelodeon-Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
2. Ashtabula High School A Cappella Choir-Carol Of The Bells
3. Joanne Wheatley & Hal Kanner-Baby, It's Cold Outside
4. IBM 7090 Computer-Joy To The World
5. Ron Goodwin-Xmas It Ain't
6. Fred Sateriale's Big Band-Toyland Cha Cha Cha
7. Hugo Winterhalter-Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Cha Cha
8. Earl Grant-Snowfall
9. Ferrante & Teicher-Happy Sleigh Ride
10. Bing Crosby-The Secret Of Christmas
11. Count Basie & The Mills Brothers-December
12. Connee Boswell-White Christmas
13. Andre Previn & David Rose-Blue Holiday
14. Waldorf "Punch & Judy" Orchestra-Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers
15. University Singers-Go Where I Send Thee
16. Sunshine-The Very First Christmas Day
17. Stan Wolowic-Happy Holiday
18. Sarah Vaughn & Billy Eckstine-I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
19. Al Melgard-Jolly Coppersmith
20. Alfred Apaka-It's Snowing In Hawaii
21. Lawrence Welk-Holiday
22. The Klokken Ringers-Silver Bells
23. Ray Conniff-An Improvisation On "Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy"
24. The Robert de Cormier Folk Singers-The Virgin Mary Had A Baby Boy
25. The 'Promises, Promises' Cast-Christmas Day
26. Glenn Miller-It Happened In Sun Valley
27. Martin Denny-Snowflakes In Summer
28. Ruby Murray-Christmastime In Ireland
29. The Robin Hood Orchestra-Silent Night
30. John Gary-Let There Be Peace On Earth (Let It Begin With Me)
31. Gordon Jenkins-Happy New Year

Wow, it seems like I was just recording and sharing out those tracks yesterday, but it's been two years now. There's some really great stuff in there that I'd forgotten about. Anyhow, here's a download link that should get you to the share eventually. Thanks for stopping by.

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Sixteenth

Good morning, welcome to day 16 of Christmas in July on day 19 of July. Yes, I'm behind, don't remind me. Since this post is now falling on a Sunday, I've decided to share six different renditions of 3 different versions of Ave Maria. Don't worry, that'll all make sense here shortly.

Tracks one and two are both from organist Jesse Crawford and his 10" LP In A Monastery Garden (Decca 10" DLP 5058). One version is the Schubert written one, the other is by Bach & Gounod. After I recorded this one, I found that I had the same tracks on a 12" LP with the same title, but I like those little 10" records so I kept the somewhat scratchy versions I had. If you like those sorta-small, sorta-big records too, be sure to check out Big 10-Inch Record, he shares out a lot of them, and they're never scratchy.

Track three is by the great Lennon Sisters, and is taken from their ponderously-titled album Lawrence Welk Presents The Lennon Sisters Singing Best-Loved Catholic Hymns (Dot DLP 3250). This particular song is fully titled Ave Maria! O Maiden, O Mother, and I think it's yet a third variant of the Ave Maria theme.

Version four is another vocal version performed by The Notre Dame Glee Club-Daniel H. Pedtke, Director, taken from the 10" vanity LP Songs Of The University Of Notre Dame (Processed & Pressed by RCA Victor, Published by Record Publications Company 10" 33 RPM E3-QL-1127/8). I love these private pressings. I have to pick up and look at every one I see. I don't buy them all, but I get more than my fair share of them.

Number five is Don Baker from the album Curtain Time With Don Baker At The Conn Theatre Organ (Concert-Disc M-1020). Organ albums are another record genre that I always pick up and look at. And I always seem to buy more than my fair share of them.

Last, but not least, is the classic Alfred (not E) Newman And His Hollywood Symphony Orchestra from the LP In Concert (Mercury MG 20070). I'm trying to come up with a good Mad Magazine joke here, but nothing is coming to mind. If I come up with something funny later, I'll be sure to amend this post.

There you go, six songs for Sunday that you should have gotten Thursday. Here's the download link, have a great day! I think this brings my total of shared tracks for the month to 111. Not to shabby!

A Different Moon

You're looking at a piece of the Moon. This is a different piece than the one I showed you before. This one was at the Smithsonian Air And Space Museum in Washington, DC. Same deal as the one at KSC though, it's glued down pretty tight and you can barely touch it behind all the plexiglass, but you can touch it. I bring you this just so I can link to some incredible pictures that NASA just released. I've had people ask me before why they can't see the Apollo landing sites on the Moon from Earth-based or space-based telescopes (such as Hubble). (For one thing, Hubble can't focus in on objects that close, but that's another story. Nope, I'm wrong!) Well, the largest object mankind left on the moon was the lunar lander, which is about 12 feet in diameter. Spotting something that small from the Earth would be like trying to tell if the dime you dropped at the summit of Everest landed heads up or tails up, only you're looking back after you've made it home to Florida. It's just too small at too great a distance. Well, guess what? NASA recently launched a new probe to the moon to take some high-resolution surveys for a possible future moon mission. And what have they taken pictures of? Five of the six moon landing spots, that's what, and you can just barely make out the fact that there's something there. The probe is about 70 miles above the lunar surface, and the lunar landers make up about 4 pixels in the pictures. But what really stand out are the shadows being cast when the sun is low on the horizon. The shadows make up many more pixels, and stand out much more sharply. In fact, one site, shot at just the right time of day with near-perfect lighting conditions actually revealed trails blazed by the astronauts as they went back and forth performing experiments. It's only a matter of time before we get some really startling images of these landing sites, proving to all the doubters once and for all that Man has set foot on the Moon. And in fact, he left an awful lot of junk laying around up there. Shame, that

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Fifteenth

Here's one of the days I've been looking forward to this month. All of the songs I'm sharing out today are humorous little Christmas songs, or something similar to Christmas songs. Well, at least they are all meant to be funny. Let's just drop right in, shall we?

Tracks one and two are both from self described "international concert comedienne" (says so right here on the LP sleeve) Anna Russell. Both tracks come from her album A Square Talk On Popular Music (Columbia Masterworks ML 5036). Side one is subtitled The Decline And Fall Of The Popular Song and side two is subtitled Survey Of Singing From Madrigals To Modern Opera. The first track, from side one, is Please Santa Claus. I shared out an edited version of this one (just the music) some years ago on one of my Days Of Christmas collections. I think I also shared the full version elsewhere, but few people saw it. So here it is again, in a fresh new dub from the vinyl. Track two, from side two, is the sorta Christmassy Let Us Hang The Holly. At least you get a few fa-la-la-la-la's in there.

Track three is Fay McKay performing her near-classic Twelve Days Of Christmas from a compilation LP of hers, the only one of hers I've ever seen, actually, A-Live At The Dunes (MLG Records 1021). I first heard of Ms. McKay over at The Christmas Yuleblog, where you can read more about this particular song. I found this record still sealed, I opened it just now to record it for you guys. I think you'll enjoy it. Oddly enough, in small type, at the bottom of the back cover, it says "This album was recorded in Denver, Colorado". Sorta odd for a record titled A-Live At The Dunes. Oh, and the liner notes are written by Liberace!

Track four is from an odd little LP by Kaye Ballard & Arthur Siegel, Music By Fred Karlin, called Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Peanuts (Harmony (Columbia) HS 11230). The song is Snowflakes And Stars, and I think at least the snowflakes part is appropriate to our seasonal celebration here. The cover features a panel from a Peanuts strip by Charles Schulz, and the two leads are supposed to be Lucy Van Pelt and Charlie Brown. I don't know if this was a record-only thing or if it was a play or what. It's a little odd. The music just consists of various noises, like clunks and peeps. You'll see...

Track five has no music at all, it's entirely spoken word, courtesy of Eddie Lawrence, The Old Philosopher, from his album Is That What's Bothering You, Bunkie? (Epic LN 24159, 1964). The track in question here is What Do You Want For Christmas, so you know it's got to have something to do with Christmas, and indeed it does. This was my first exposure to Mr. Lawrence, but I'm going to keep an eye out for him from now on.

There, I think that's it for now. Here's the download link, thanks for visiting!

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Fourteenth

OK, here're the new shares for today, or, technically, the shares for last Tuesday. I'm still playing catch-up from my short illness, so bear with me. I may not get caught up this weekend, but I'm making good progress.

I'm cheating a little bit again today, as all the shares come from the same LP. The record is only Christmas on one side, so I guess I could share it now or at Christmas time, but I choose to share it now. The LP is The Charm Of The Old Music Box (Hacker Music Box Records 13993), and it's 13 Christmas songs as played by ye old timey mechanical music boxes. Not the little cheap ones you may have had as a kid, but mechanical wonders from the days before recorded sound. It might be a bit much to listen to all these tracks in a row, but put them on random play with other Christmas music and you'll find yourself enjoying them every time they pop up. The songs include Silent Night, Star Of The East, Angel's Serenade, Oh How Joyfully (O Sanctissima), Oh Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fidelis), O Tannenbaum, First Noel, Hark The Herald Angels Sing & Ave Maria. The types of music boxes include German Kaliope, Regina, Mira & Polyphon.

Here's the download link. If all goes well, I'll see you later on this evening with another share.

PS-More Christmas on music boxes here, here and here.

RIP Walter Cronkite

I just read about the death of Walter Cronkite this evening. He's one of those folks that you think will never pass away, will always be there, like that uncle you thought was really old back when you were little, but now you're all grown up and that uncle is still there. But Mr. Cronkite is no longer with us. I remember watching films (from a projector!) in class that featured him reporting on historical events, walking into the middle of a raging battle with his microphone and proclaiming You Are There! I only have vague memories of watching his evening news broadcasts at my grandparent's house. I can remember the bare set better than anything else, none of the flashy stuff you see today. And I can remember one night he wasn't there, instead they had some younger guy with big sideburns. I guess that was Dan Rather, or maybe Roger Mudd, not sure. Oh, and Walter used to be the voice of Spaceship Earth at EPCOT. They recently redid that ride, and I don't think it's narrated by him anymore. Oh, well, time marches on.

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Thirteenth

Now, let's see, last time you heard from me was Sunday, and here it is Friday. Sorry about that. Hard to stay focused on Christmas when you're sick. But I'm back and I've got some music to share with you, so let's jump right back in, shall we?

Track one is a nice little ditty called Over The Alps by Jack Shaindlin Conducting The Cinerama Symphony Orchestra from the soundtrack Cinerama Holiday (Mercury MG 20059, 1955). I read that this is from the second Cinerama movie made. Cinerama was one of those ultra-widescreen formats that Hollywood came up with in the fifties to combat the onslaught of television. Didn't really catch on as it was so difficult to produce the films and then project them on three screens. But this soundtrack has a few winter, snow and skiing tracks that I liked, so you'll be hearing some more from it later on. I think I left the tag off of the file, but this track was composed by Morton Gould.

Track two is Sun Valley Polka by Larry Chesky And His Orchestra from their self-titled album (Stella S-LP 913). I don't think this is related to the winter song It Happened In Sun Valley, but for the sake of my having something to share tonight, try to pretend it's the same song, only in the form of a polka!

Track three is from the great Roger Miller, Footprints In The Snow from his self-titled LP (RCA Camden CAS-851, 1964). Someone posted a comment about why I didn't post Old Toy Trains the other day, and that got me to thinking about Roger Miller. I found this track and figured it was a good one. I haven't dug up Old Toy Trains yet, but I'm looking. I know it's around here somewhere.

Track number four is another song by Hollywood Sound Stage Orchestra called Snow Frolic, written by Francis Lai and pulled from the LP Love Story And Other Romantic Film Favorites From Film Sound Track Scores (Stereo Gold Award GA-3 1). Are you feeling chilly yet? I know I am.

The fifth and final track for this day is Winter Nocturne by Buddy Cole from his posthumous LP Buddy Cole Remembered (Doric DO 1421, 1980). I think this song does a nice job of conjuring up a cold winter scene. This LP collected together a number of unreleased recording by Cole after his death.

And there you go, several days late, but I'm finally posting again. Here's your download link, stay tuned for more goodies as I try to get caught up.

No More Sears

I was saddened to read earlier today that the Sears Tower in Chicago is no more. Luckily, it didn't meet the same fate as the towers of the World Trade Center in New York, they just sold the naming rights to someone else. I've got a feeling this new name, Willis Tower, will take a while to catch on. I was surprised to learn that Sears hadn't occupied the building in any capacity since 1992. I was there in March of last year and I just remember it being really, really, really tall.

I'm Back

Hi gang! Sorry I've been MIA for a few days. I had a little bout with something that made me a little too ill to post, but I'm feeling much better now. I'll get back to the Christmas in July stuff tomorrow, promise! And thanks for the emails and comments. :)

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Twelfth

Are you ready for a little music here on the twelfth day of Christmas, in July, that is. How do I know these are all Christmas songs? Because they all feature the word Christmas in the title. Piece of cake!

Let's begin with Merle Haggard performing Blue Christmas from his tribute to the then recently deceased Elvis Presley, My Farewell To Elvis (MCA MCA-2314, 1977). Good stuff here, and a fitting tribute to The King.

Track two is a cover of a Francis Lai soundtrack song, The Christmas Trees performed by Hollywood Sound Stage Orchestra from their album Love Story And Other Romantic Film Favorites From Film Sound Track Scores (Stereo Gold Award GA-3 1). Now that I know there's a Christmas song from the soundtrack to Love Story, I'll have to track down the real soundtrack LP. Shouldn't be too hard to find.

The last three tracks are all versions of the same song as written by no less than Andrew Lloyd Webber and featured on the soundtrack to The Odessa File (MCA MCA-2084, 1974). Version one of Christmas Dream is performed by no less than Perry Como With The London Boy Singers. Version two is entitled Christmas Dream (Carousel Version) and it's credited to Anthony Bowles And Alan Doggett. The third and final version is called Christmas Dream (German Band) and it's performed by Adolf Stahuber. All three versions are quite good, but I'm particularly proud of the Perry Como version.

There you have it, Five Christmas songs for the 12th of July. Here's the download link, knock yourselves out.

Ye Olde Town Pump

Time for a little compare and contrast. As I mentioned a while back, I visited some caverns while I was in Ohio. One of them, creatively called Ohio Caverns, featured the odd-shaped formation above, a deformed soda straw called Old Town Pump. I recognized it from the website as soon as we walked by it, except that I didn't realize it was so small. I doubt if the pump part is over two inches tall. Anyhow, I bring it to you tonight so you can decide if it's pump-like or not. Below is a picture of an old pump, taken at a different cavern in Ohio, coincidentally next to a cemetery. Do you see a resemblance?

The Best From July Of 2006

Here's a little treat for those of you who might be new to Christmas in July. Each year I try to put together a best-of, for the folks who don't want to download everything, or for those who like to have a nice little collection to play all at once. Either way, it's a nice way to summarize all of the great music I shared out in July of 2006. Big thanks to Captain OT for the cover art!

1. Clebanoff-Bobsled
2. Ted Heath/Edmundo Ros-Baby It's Cold Outside
3. Lionel Hampton-Gin For Christmas
4. Marty Gold-High On A Windy Hill
5. Eastman-Rochester Pops-Brazilian Sleigh Bells
6. Dinah Washington-I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
7. Henry Mancini-Latin Snowfall
8. Yuji Takizawa & His Blue Bones Orchestra-White X-mas
9. Will Glahé-The Skater's Waltz
10. Esquivel-Sun Valley Ski Run
11. Billy Vaughn-The Chipmunk Song
12. Percy Faith-Little Bells And Big Bells (Glocke Und Glockchen)
13. Lawrence Welk-The Merry Christmas Polka
14. Jerry Murad's Electronic Harmonicats-March Of The Toys
15. Richard Hayman & His Harmonica Orchestra-Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers
16. Ian Fraser & His Orchestra-Sleigh Ride
17. Eddie Layton-Winter Wonderland
18. The Smothers Brothers-Swiss Christmas
19. David Rose-Christmas Tree
20. Eydie Gormé-Winter Night
21. Bernie Green With The Stereo Mad-Men-The Skater And His Dog
22. Enoch Light & The Brass Menagerie-My Favorite Things
23. The Four Freshmen-Santa Claus Is Flat Gonna Come To Town
24. David Carroll-The Ski Song (Slalom)
25. The Monterey Brass-We Need A Little Christmas
26. The Three Suns-Busy Holiday
27. Six Fat Dutchmen-Sleigh Bell
28. Billy May-Snowfall Cha-Cha
29. Dick Schory's New Percussion Ensemble-Holiday In A Hurry
30. Armengol-Ave Maria
31. The Crew-Cuts-Auld Lang Syne

I went through and linked each track to the original day I shared out that track, so you can find out more info about it if you're interested. I've been meaning to add those links each time I've posted this comp, but never gotten around to it until tonight. I'm a lot lazier than you might think. (Esquivel doesn't have a link because I didn't actually share that one on any day. Think of it as a bonus track.) Here's the download link, enjoy!

The Little Lighthouse

This is a view of the little lighthouse that stands at the spot where the Cuyahoga River empties into Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio. I've taken plenty of pictures of it, but this was the closest I've ever gotten to it without being on a boat.

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Eleventh

Day number eleven, and another hodgepodge of track with no real rhyme nor reason. Well, I suppose some of these do rhyme, at least the vocal ones. Wait, did I include any vocal tracks today? Just one, looks like. Let's start with that one.

Track one, the vocal one, is Winter Sky by Billy Edd Wheeler from the LP Memories Of America (Kapp KS-3425). I recorded this one because of the title mainly, but when I listened to the lyrics, he does talk about the birth of Jesus, so maybe it's closer to being a Christmas song than I realized. And that's it for the songs that have any rhyme. Come back tomorrow and maybe I'll have some more. Now, on to the tracks with no reason...

Track two is something I tried to record last year, but the copy I found was in terrible shape. It looked OK, but the vinyl was nothing but noise. I finally scored another copy, so that means I get to share a version of Greensleeves (or, if you prefer, What Child Is This) with you by Ferrante & Teicher from one of their earliest prepared piano LPs, Soundproof-The Sound Of Tomorrow Today (Westminster WP 6014). Not as crazy as the stuff they did on their prepared piano Christmas album, but still nice to have.

Track three is a version of Swingin' Shepherd Blues by blog favorite Ethel Smith. This is from her LP Bouquet Of The Blues-Ethel Smith At The Organ (Decca DL 8955). To tell the truth, I like the individual tracks of hers that I find much better than the tracks from her full Christmas LP. And I know that this track isn't really Christmassy, but I like to include it, and I'm going to use the excuse that shepherds came to see the baby Jesus. So there!

Track four is my first version of Sleigh Ride for the year (I think), but it's not going to be the last. Oh, no, nowhere near the last. This one is by Werner Müller And His Orchestra from their LP Werner Müller Plays Leroy Anderson (London Phase 4 SP 44057). Gotta love those Phase 4 records, they have such great sound. This is the second track from the label I've brought you this year, I believe.

Track five, and the final entry for tonight, is by Joe "Finger" Carr and is something I wish I'd had when I shared out my toy related tracks the other day. The song is The Wooden Sailor And The China Doll, and it's from the Stereo Showcase (Capitol SKAO 1268), a fancy demo LP from Capitol that showed off some of their new stereo catalog. Got some more tracks, or at least one more track from this LP to share with you later on this month.

And that's the whole ball of wax. Here's the download link, thanks for your patronage. If you're bored, click a random link at right, you never know where you might end up...

Who Are These People?

So, there's a blog out there that seems to be reposting my stuff. Well, it's not really a blog, I guess, but an aggregator. They collect and repost stuff from several places that they think is about Sarasota. The problem is, they aren't crediting me, in fact, they aren't even linking their copy of my stuff back to me. They only list me among a long list of contributors, none of whom I recognize. Seems to be a lot of stuff in there about Sarasota real estate, so it's probably being done by some sales company. I sent them an email to see what's up, we'll see what they come back with.

Here are links (1, 2, 3) to the last three posts of mine that they re-posted, all from tonight. Take a look and tell me what you think. Should I get aggressive with these folks?

Funny thing is, I bet a few minutes from now this post about them will show up on their site...

Crabby

I meant to share this guy with you a while back, as I shot him right before I went to Ohio, but I forgot. I shot him in the shallow water at Quick Point Nature Preserve on Longboat Key. I like to go out there at low tide and see what I can see in the water and on the sandbars. This night I found this cool looking crab. He really didn't like me, after I pushed him out of the seagrass with my feet and tried to take his picture. Right after this shot, he tried to burrow backwards into the sand, but I wouldn't let him. When I finally felt I had enough pictures, I let him go and he scuttled off sideways back into the grass, lickety-split.

To The Left

One of my favorite places to go in Ohio is Brandywine Falls, a large waterfall down in the Cuyahoga Valley. It's just a small stream that flows over the top, not the mighty Cuyhoga, but it's still a hundred foot drop, so it looks pretty neat. I'm sure you're looking at this picture and wondering what I'm talking about, because it sure doesn't look like the picture. Well, when I was there this year, the sunlight wasn't on the actual falls, it was just to the left, and it was really lighting up an area of water seepage that was leaching some iron out of the rocks. So I got some nice orange color alongside the leafy summer greenery. I thought it was a nice picture.

SR-71

While waiting for the flight home from Washington, DC, I took the bus over to the Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport. One of the more impressive planes they have there is this SR-71. For a plane that didn't exist for an awful long time, it seemed awful real to me. They said that when the Air Force decided to give this one to the Smithsonian, it flew from California to Washington in some insanely short period of time, breaking all sorts of speed records, taxied over to near the hanger where you see it now, and it's been there ever since.



I wonder how the decals stayed stuck to it at the incredibly speeds it reached. I still don't know, but there they are.

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Tenth

Ten days in, that's means we're almost one third of the way through. Still a long way to go, though. No big theme tonight, just some tracks that I've been looking forward to sharing with you for one reason or another. Let's jump right in, shall we?

Track one is another song by Mr. Jack Daniel's Original Silver Cornet Band, We Wish You A Merry Christmas. You got another track from this LP, Hometown Almanac (Spring Branch Productions SB-2, 1977), earlier in the month.

Track two is my first and maybe only celebrity vocal of the month. It's Let There Be Peace on Earth from the LP High Upon A Mountain (Dot DLP 25109, 1960). Who sings this, I hear you asking? Why it's Eddie Arnold! No, wait, that's not right. How about Eddie Albert! That's better. Yes, all the way from Petticoat Junction to your ears.

Track three is Vaughn Monroe and his iconic Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! in yet another re-recording for yet another label. This time is from His Greatest Hits (Dot DLP 3431). I think I brought you an early stereo rerecording of this last year. Nope, it was three years ago. How time flies when it's always Christmas.

Track four. I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony) by The Mike Curb Congregation from Softly Whispering I Love You (MGM SE-4821, 1972). I miss seeing this Coke commercial every Christmas.

Track five, and the one I like best from this batch, is the old Percy Faith classic Brazilian Sleigh Bells, this time as performed by The Duluth Accordionaires, Directed By John Copiskey. The Album is Jeno's Pizza Presents Music To Eat Pizza By (Northland Foods-RCA Victor Custom Records 812I-9323, 1967). That's right, it's an all-accordion album given away by a pizza parlor! You just don't get any better than that! And it's really a great track!

There you go. Five more. Follow this download link and have at it. See ya again tomorrow.

Little Birdie

I spotted this bird in a flower garden near the Smithsonian Castle in Washington, DC. At first I thought it was fake, just an ornament for the garden, but she watched me as I got closer, and eventually flew away. I don't know if she thought she was well hidden or if she was trying to draw me away from a nearby nest or what, but it made for a nice picture. No idea what kind of bird it is. Anybody recognize it and want to clue me in?

Unfortunately, this reminds me. I'm running out of space in my online Picasa account, so I'm going to have to do something soon to share more pictures. I know I can double that space for only a small fee, but then I have to pay that fee for the rest of eternity or the blog goes away. I guess they really sucker you in, don't they? Four and a half years of free posts, and then they hit you up with the recurring charge for the rest of your life. Oh well, I enjoy the blogging and the sharing, so it's probably worth it.

The Highest Court

Here it is, the Supreme Court, the last say when it comes to the law of the land. I stumbled on it almost by accident during my time in DC. I wasn't going by the map, I was just wandering from site to site, trying to take it all in. I remember it wasn't far from the US Capitol, on the way to Union Station. Or something like that, it's been almost two months since I was there for two days, so I don't have much memory to go on. Pretty impressive place, too, but oddly deserted when I was there. I guess it's off the beaten tourist path somewhat, and not as glamorous as Air And Space, or the Washington Monument.

Just for the record, there is not a statue of a lady out front wearing a blindfold and carrying some scales to weigh out equal justice. I was a bit disappointed by that.

D.C. Pei

I promised a long time ago to bring you more pictures of this building, and here they are. When I was in Washington DC, I didn't realize that the National Gallery Of Art-East Building was designed by I.M. Pei. If I'd been aware of that, I would have taken more and better shots. I might even have walked around to the other side. But I didn't know, so these are all you get. I believe these views are all from 4th street, just off Mall, which makes this the west side.

Mr. Jefferson

I thought I'd share some pictures of the Jefferson Memorial with you tonight. This monument is on the other side of the tidal basin from the rest of everything, so it's a bit of a hike. I walked all the way around, and it's a pretty boring trip most of the way. You get to pass through the FDR Memorial on the trip, but I screwed up and went through it backwards, but that's a story for a different post.



And here's Mr. Jefferson himself, from a rather unique angle. He's a big guy, probably ten feet tall, maybe more. I was in a play about him back in elementary school, and I don't remember him being that tall, but we were all pretty short at that age.

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Ninth

Day Nine! And awaaaaaaay we go!

Track one is Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming by the St. Louis A Cappella Choir and the album The Lutheran Hour (RCA Victor LSP-1863, 1958).

Track two is Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring by Jerry Read Smith & Tom Fellenbaum from their album The Strayaway Girl (Song Of The Wood 7811, 1981).

Track three is also Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring, but this time it's by The Glasgow Orpheus Choir, Conducted By Sir Hugh Robertson. The album is Glasgow Orpheus Choir (Capitol T6003).

Track four is In Dulci Jubilo by Virgil Fox and his LP Heavy Organ-Bach Live In San Francisco (Decca DL 75323, 1972). I think I may have labelled the LP 'Back Live In San Francisco', but I'm pretty sure it was Bach. Sorry...

Track five is a version of Greensleeves, but you know it as What Child Is This. It's by The Cascading Strings, Conducted by Johnny Gregory, from the album called Cascading Strings (Fontana SRF 67584).

And that's it. Short, sweet, to the point. None of my meaningless blather. Here's the download link, enjoy yourselves.

All Hale

Another of the new places I visited in Ohio this past June was Hale Farm down in the Cuyahoga Valley. I didn't actually stop and take the tour, but as I drove by, this old Church caught my eye, so I had to stop and shoot it. It involved parking a quarter mile down the road, then hiking back up the hill and finding a hole in the weeds to crawl through, but I think I got the shot. I'll have to make it a point to go back next time and do some more exploring.

More Edgewater

Also in Edgewater Park (which I didn't even know was there until this last trip to Ohio), I spotted quite a few cool flowers growing among the rocks on the banks of Lake Erie. I don't know the names of any of them, but they sure were impressive to me. I guess the people fishing down there see them all the time and thus don't pay any attention, but I thought some of these were spectacular.


The orchid-like flowers above were actually on a large tree, and it was covered in them. That was probably the coolest of the flowers there. Not at all what I expected to be growing alongside one of the great lakes in a windswept and often wave-overtopped spot.

Stone Tower

I was walking along a breakwater in Edgewater Park near downtown Cleveland (Ohio City, actually) recently when I saw something carved on one of the massive stones that front Lake Erie. Looking closer, I realized it was a fairly decent likeness of Terminal Tower, one of the tallest and oldest buildings in Cleveland. After taking the picture above, I pointed the camera towards the real Terminal Tower across the Cuyahoga River and took the picture below. I'm sure you'll have no trouble telling which building it is in the skyline.

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Eighth

Entering the second week of Christmas In July fun, and I'm bending the rules a little bit. All of the tracks today are from the same artist and the same album, but it's not the whole album. Back during the 1982-83 school year, the Lockhart Cougar Chorus recorded an album, and tonight you're getting most of the tracks from side two. I'm not normally a big fan of little kids singing, much less random schoolkids, but the songs on here are not bad, and some of them are quite unique. I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I did. This was a private pressing, no label info on the record or the sleeve, just a cougar and name on the front cover. Oh, there was a mimeographed list inside showing the names of all the kids in the chorus, as well as the principal and the director. The track titles are as follows:

Twelve Days After Christmas (This is great, if a bit disturbing)
White Christmas (Sorry, no smart comment for this one)
As Long As He Needs Me (Is this even a Christmas song?)
Will The Real Santa Please Stand Up (Eminem was around in 1982?)
Griselda (Another of Santa's unknown reindeer!)
Ding Dong Merrily On High (Some of those Gloria's go on for way too long...)
Christmas Is For Kids (Yes, yes it is)

Trust me, you're gonna love this one. Here's the download link, go get it.

No idea where this Lockhart school is. There's a Lockhart Elementary near here in Tampa, but it's tough to tell. There are probably dozens of them around the country.

Tiny Sunset

Here's a shot of the sunset over Lake Erie when I was in Ohio a couple of weeks ago. This is actually a very tiny crop of a much larger picture, but I wanted to show you the mirage effect that occurred out over the lake. That's not a cloud in front of the sun creating that line, it's layers of different air temperature over the water, creating odd reflections and refractions (same things that cause the not-mythical Green Flash!). I wish I'd been able to get better pictures of it, but there was a train going by behind me, and I wanted to get pictures of that, too. So this was about the best I got of the sunset. This was shot with that fancy lens I rented, and it's cropped to well within an inch of it's life and it still doesn't look too bad.

One-Third

It's been a long time since I've brought you any pictures from my trip to DC back in May, and I apologize for that. I got a lot of great pictures on that trip, and I meant to share more of them with you than I have. Here's one that I've been using as my desktop wallpaper for a while now that really looks great at 1680 x 1050. This is the base of the Washington Monument, looking North towards the White House. I love those flags arrayed out in a circle like that. Something I didn't notice when I was there but found out about later is the slight change in color of the blocks near the top of this picture. That's where they ran out of money to finish the structure, and it stood there uncompleted for years. Of course, those years included the Civil War, so it wasn't going to be easy to get started again at that time. Hard to believe that more than 100 years later, the color of the before and after stones are still that different.

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Seventh

Looks like I'm about to make it though the first week of Christmas in July relatively unscathed. Yesterday was a pretty poor day, but other than that they've all been above board. Today is going to be a good day, too, with Christmas songs from the Great White Way. That's right, all of today's tunes came from Broadway musicals, and some of these are actually from those original cast albums. And do you know what the best part is? Nothing from The Sound Of Music!

Starting at the beginning, track one is Greenwillow Christmas (Carol) by Greenwillow Chorus from the original cast album Greenwillow (RCA Victor LSO-2001, 1960). I've always liked this song since I first heard it performed by The Browns. If it's new to you, you're in for a treat. (It shouldn't be new to you, really, since I shared a version out last year.)

Track two is Be A Santa by Sydney Chaplin & Chorus from the original cast album Subways Are For Sleeping (Columbia Masterworks KOL 5730). Again, great track if you've never heard it. I'm still looking for the Percy Faith LP that features this song. I have the MP3, but that doesn't count. With all the Percy Faith records I see every weekend, you'd think this would be a no-brainer, but no... If you like this song, you might want to hear Mitch Miller and his gang take their stab at it. They put it out on a 45, and as far as I know, it's only available here at the blog.

Track three is from the soundtrack to a movie that started out as stage play, so that's sort of keeping with our theme. It's Ribbons And Wrappings by Harry Secombe, Florence Henderson, Elizabeth Larner, Toralv Maurstad & Chorus from the soundtrack LP Song Of Norway (ABC ABCS-OC-14). Yes, you already heard one Christmas song from this LP. After I posted that track, I did a little research about the movie, and I'm afraid that no one had anything good to say about it. But the music is nice.

Track four is Pine Cones And Holly Berries (With "It's Beginning To Look Like Christmas") by The Merrill Staton Voices. On this LP, they're performing all the songs from Meredith Wilson's Here's Love (Columbia Special Products CSRP 8899, 1963) (or so the LP title tells us), but it's not an original cast album or soundtrack. I'd only ever heard this song by The Osmonds, I had no idea where it was from. Now I know.

Last but not least is a bit of a ringer. It's We Need A Little Christmas by Skitch Henderson & The Tonight Show Orchestra, from their LP Broadway Tonight! Skitch Henderson & The Tonight Show Orchestra Play Music From "Mame" (Columbia CL 2518). Again, not a soundtrack or cast album, but still a good track. I've had this one recorded for years (and even shared it out before) from one of those Columbia Records Christmas records, but this year was the first time I came across the original LP it was pulled from.

So, there you have it. Five more tracks towards the ultimate Christmas collection. Here's the download link, see you tomorrow.

Creepy Crawlies

If you spend much time at the coastline, at least here in Florida, you'll see these little critters pretty often. Whenever you approach some rocks on the waterline or maybe a dock or something, you'll see them scurry away from you so fast that you can't get a good look at them. Well, I got lucky and came across some that weren't as scared as they should have been, and I got a picture. Now, what are they? Not sure. I've heard them called different things, but I think sea roaches is the most common. I'm sure they have a real name, though. Wharf roach, maybe?

The Fourth Sunset

No, it's not the fourth sunset of the day or part of a series or anything, it's just the sunset from the fourth of July. I couldn't even see those pesky power lines from where I was at, but the long lens I was using didn't have any trouble picking them out. Oh well.

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Sixth

Hello again! Welcome back! Tonight is the first night of the month that I'm going to advise you against downloading the shares. There's nothing really good in here. It's all stuff that I thought might be decent based on the title, but nothing here has much of a Christmas feeling to it. Sorry about that. I'll do better tomorrow, I promise.

Now for those of you who are still with me, let's take a look at what's in tonight's crappy share. I'll start out with Snow Deer (Snow Deer Rag) by Al "Spider" Dugan from the wonderfully-titled LP Please Don't Put Your Empties On The Piano (Warner Bros W 1329, 1959). I think I shared out some versions of this same track last year, and they didn't strike me as particularly Christmassy then, either.

Track two is Roses In December by Alan McGill from his LP Alan McGill Sings (Sacred LP 9040). I had high hopes for this one because there was a picture of Roy Rogers on the cover! I thought the whole record was songs that he had written, but looking closely at the credits, that appears to be the case for only two of the tracks. At least it's on red vinyl. Scratchy red vinyl, but red vinyl nonetheless.

Up next is Eileen Farrell With Percy Faith And His Orchestra doing I Never Has Seen The Snow from This Fling Called Love (Columbia Special Products-Special Archive Series CSRP 8539). Again, high hopes, but nothing special.

Number four is Will Glahe And His Orchestra doing Holiday Polka from the album The Big Polka Band Hits (London PS 344). Pretty sure they mean holiday as in vacation, not as in Christmas. Haven't I previously shared a song of the same title? I think I have.

Lastly, you get Holiday Forever (Randy Brooks' Theme Song) by, you guessed it, Randy Brooks And His Orchestra. No idea who Randy Brooks is, but he must be important to have a theme song. This is from the LP Trumpet Moods (Decca DL 8201). Again, I think it's holiday as in vacation here.

There you go. If you care, here's the download link. Better stuff tomorrow, promise.

Hermit

I've tried to get some pictures of the hermit crabs down in Sarasota Bay recently, but I guess I'm not patient enough. They get about this far out of their shell, then I make a move they don't like and they crawl back in. However, looking at this guy, I'm not sure how good of a picture I want to get of one of these critters. Oh, and I have a confession. I'm always picking up shells at the beach, and I always try to look inside and make sure there's nothing living in there. I brought one home Saturday night that I thought was empty, and left it in the car overnight. When I picked it up Sunday afternoon, I realized there was a hermit crab living in there. He was dead, unfortunately. Oh, well.

Christmas In July 2009-Day The Fifth

Here it is, the fifth day, and I'm already running behind. I've been getting these posts up for you right after midnight, but now it's almost nine at night and I'm just now getting you a share for today. Sorry about that. Got too much to do around here, I guess. So what's on tap for today? How about five tracks tied together by the word Christmas in the title? Not much a theme, but it'll do.

Track one is Christmastime by The Collegians, Soloist-Craig Blair, from the album Let Freedom Ring-A Bicentennial Musical By Harry Bollback (Word Of Life Fellowship W-7606, 1976). This seems to be some sort of artifact from the US Bicentennial in 1976, but with a religious twist.

Track two is a lot more fun. The song is Christmas Is by country superstar Tom T. Hall from a whole album of songs for children called Saturday Morning Songs/The "Is" Songs (RCA AHL1-3362, 1979). This is a really nice song that I'm sure you'll enjoy over and over again.

Track three is the first of I think three we'll see from Burl Ives this month. This first one is called Christmas Cradle Hymn from the album Songs I Sang In Sunday School (Word WST-8130-LP). Singing alongside Burl on this short track are The Radio Kids Bible Club Children's Choir. Whew, say that three times fast...

Track four is a version of Blue Christmas by Robert Gordon With The Wildcats from the LP Rock Billy Boogie (RCA AFL1-3294, 1979). This isn't the first version of Blue Christmas you'll here this year, I suspect...

Fifth and last is At Christmastime by Harry Secombe, Florence Henderson, Elizabeth Larner, Toralv Maurstad & Chorus, the cast of the movie Song of Norway from the soundtrack of the same name (ABC ABCS-OC-14, 1970). I think the movie is about the life of Edvard Greig, and there is at least one other song on there that I hope to share with you later in the month. Lot's of foreshadowing going on today for some reason.

Anyhow, there's your five tracks for the day, and here's your download link. See you all again tomorrow!

Further Fourth

Here are a few more shots of the fireworks over Sarasota last night. Hope you enjoy them!