In honor of the recently deceased Teddy Kennedy, the National Portrait Gallery had hung this Andy Warhol picture of the late Senator. Is there anyone that Warhol didn't paint, or at least alter? I think all he did for this one was put a few colored lines on there, and a few lines of sparkly dust. Not nearly so impressive as his work for Marilyn Monroe or Mick Jagger.
While I'm showing you license plates, here's one that's not really very creative. Or maybe it is, it's hard to be sure. While I was in DC, my hostess was very excited to receive her new plates in the mail, and I felt it only fitting that I somehow fit them into into the blog here. If this seems at all familiar to any of you, you've seen the plates on her car before...
Previous states: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Ohio, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin.
And not a state at all: DC
I saw this artwork in the gift shop at The National Portrait Gallery in DC. I think it's by the same artist who did the Preamble in plates that I showed you last time. I thought this one was pretty good, too, and you can actually buy or commission similar ones. No, I'm wrong. The artist is Aaron Foster. Check out the little add-on pieces for Alaska & Hawaii.
Here's another view of that archway I showed you yesterday from the Chinatown district in Washington, DC. Or, as someone posted in the comments, in Chinablock. I guess they call the area that because it's so small compared to other Chinatown districts in cities like San Francisco and New York. But I liked this night shot and figured I'd throw it up here while I was thinking about it.
As I was standing on The Ellipse, shooting pictures of The White House, something caught my eye. Sure enough, there was a red-tailed hawk circling overheard, or actually just to the right of overhead, probably over the Treasury building. He never got too close, but I was able to get this shot of him since I had a long lens on the camera just by luck. I think sometimes I have fairly decent bird karma.
Since I just mentioned The Statue Of Liberty Enlightening The World, I wanted to link to some pictures I'd taken of it. And I couldn't find any full-on shots here at the blog, so here's a good one that I apparently never shared. This is from my trip to NYC last year around this time.
While I'm showing you things near the sky in DC, how about the statue that sits atop the US Capitol Building? This is the Statue Of Freedom by Thomas Crawford that sits way up there where no one can see it. Again, I shot this with my longest lens, in the best light I could find. It's a little bigger than the chunk of aluminum that tops the Washington Monument, so I didn't have to crop it as tight, plus, it's not as far off the ground. But it's a little dark. You can see more detail in the original plaster model from which they made the mold to cast the bronze version. This model is housed in the Capitol Visitor's Center, under the plaza in front of the Capitol. Some people seem to think it's a copy of The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, but as you can see, it's not even close.
Ever seen the top of the Washington Monument? That's it in the picture above. It's a really, really tight crop of a close-up picture with about a 450mm (35mm equivalent) lens. You can see the multiple lighting rods surrounding the aluminum pyramid. If you want to see what it would look like without the lightning rods, and before it lost almost an inch of height from getting hit by lightning for many years before the rods, have a look at the replica below. This is housed in a small display in the room just below the observation platform in the Monument. At the time of the Monument's completion, aluminum was a precious metal, worth quite a bit more than it is today.
I spotted this sign on the George Washington Parkway just outside of DC. Seemed a bit of an oxymoron to me, George Bush Center For Intelligence. I guess it's really for the first George Bush, though. Pardon the blurriness of the photo, I shot this through the rear window of a car moving at 60 mph away from the sign. I was lucky to get a picture at all.
Who knew that Washington DC had it's own Chinatown? Not me! But we stumbled into it one night in DC while looking for something to eat. And surprisingly enough, we found some really good Indian food. Anyhow, the big gate lets you know that you're in Chinatown, just in case you didn't see the Chinese signs all over the place. The left side of the gate was labeled in Chinese, too, but the right was in English, and you can see that below. Remember Marion Barry, the former mayor of DC? He was busted on cocaine charges and spent six months in federal prison. Of course, after that he was re-elected as mayor for four more years. Something about DC...
In case you didn't feel the Chinese vibe enough, they've even got some propaganda papered up on the walls. Not sure what this poster was for or against, but I thought it fit right in with the scheme of things. It was just to the left of the big gate above, barely out of frame in that picture, actually.
Well, I'm back from DC now. Did you miss me? I didn't think so. Anyhow, I just flew in from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (which I think is the only international airport called National...) and boy, are my arms tired. No really. My arms and my legs. I probably walked 50 miles in the four and a half days I spent in DC, traversing the National Mall from one end to the other more than a dozen times, and then back and forth across DC countless more times. I saw just about everything on my (unwritten) list, with the exception of National Geographic's Explorer Hall, plus a bunch of stuff that I just stumbled on through blind luck. But that, to me, is the best way to really discover an area. On the flight out, we circled right around DC, so I pulled out the camera and squeezed off a couple of shots by twisting my neck around backwards and shooting behind the wing I was seated over. This is the best of those shots, and it's not too good, but you can get the general idea of things. I know this may come as a shock to you, but they don't offer aerial tours of DC, so this is likely to be the best aerial shot I can get for you. You can clearly see the National Mall in the foreground, with just the very tip of the Capitol building peeking in at the bottom. Straight up from that is the Mall itself, with tents still up from a Black Family Reunion event they had Saturday and Sunday. Then you can see the Washington Monument, it's tip skewering the WWII Memorial, and the the Lincoln Memorial. The bridge going towards the left is to Arlington National Cemetery (I walked across that bridge twice) and the bridge to the right leads off to Arlington, VA. There's lots of other stuff visible in this shot, but I won't bore you with the details, those will come later as I begin to post some of the 4000+ pictures I took. Stay tuned!
They don't let you take pictures inside the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, so the only picture from that tour I have is this pile of $10 bills in the lobby. It's a pretty big pile, though, one million dollars worth, to be exact. So by my math, that means there are one hundred thousand bills in that box.
I was out taking pictures yesterday for 17 hours in DC. I don't think that's quite a record, but it's close. (I spent some really late nights in NYC last year.) Anyhow, I saw a lot on the anniversary of 9/11, which would explain why the flag is at half-mast on the White House. Stay tuned for more whenever I finally get home.
As I sat in front of the Museum Of The American Indian today eating my lunch, something about this truck struck me as odd. Look there on the front fender. Since 1689? Well, I'm in the Nation's capitol, and it does have quite a history, but that's a bit excessive.
It's good to know that even on Capitol Hill here in DC, there are a few Gators. It's not all diplomats and Congressmen. But the diplomats do drive nicer cars...
I thought you might enjoy these family photos of a trio of raccoons I spotted this evening on South Lido Key. They were alongside a nature trail I was walking down, and even though they ran off as I approached, I coaxed them back out by tossing little sticks towards them as if they were food. I know, I know, it was mean, but I wanted to get the shot. Something you can't tell from these pictures is that the mommy, or at least the big one in the front, had an injured foot. Her right rear paw must have hurt, because she didn't walk on it the whole time I watched her. These are much better pictures than the last raccoon family I saw in Ohio.
Well, as luck would have it, I spotted a bald eagle today. He was circling overhead as I roamed around the ground of The Ringling Museum. Unfortunately, all I had on the camera was a 17-55mm lens, which meant I couldn't get any shots that showed very much. These are both minuscule crops of much larger pictures. But there is no mistaking that white head and the white tail. By the time I got back to the car and grabbed a longer lens, he was half a mile down the waterfront.
I walked around the grounds of the Ringling Museum today for a few minutes (until it got too hot to physically bear), and I came across a familiar frangipani tree (or, if you prefer, plumeria). I shot the picture above just a few hours ago. The picture below, was the very first month on the very first yearly calendar I ever put together. That was for 2004, and that means I took this picture in 2003. That's a long time ago! I think I took a better picture back then, oddly enough.
Some years ago, I brought you a picture of this statue at the Ringling Museum, and commented on how he was rapidly being enveloped by the adjoining banyan tree. Well, fast forward to today, and here's what he look like now. You almost have to know he's there to find him. Another four years and he'll be gone.
Not much of a sunset tonight, I'm afraid. Too many clouds at the horizon. Shame, too, because I happened to be passing near a cool spot with some nice vistas you don't get every day. Looking west into where the sun should have set, above, you can see the distant skyline of St. Petersburg. Looking north, below, you can see the skyline of Tampa.
And looking back east, you can see the Big Bend Power Plant. So that must mean I was in Apollo Beach.
I spotted this poor limpkin on Lake Hollingsworth in Lakeland today. If you look close, you'll see he's got one of those plastic rings from a milk jug wrapped around his neck, and it's holding his beak open. When I saw this, I trekked off to see if I could find the number of some animal rescue place to come out and help him. I finally found a security guard at Florida Southern College across the road, but he said they'd tried to get wildlife rescue out for similar situations before and it's next to impossible to find somebody on a weekend, much less a holiday weekend. So I'm hoping someone else helps this guy get unstuck when the workweek rolls around on Tuesday. I tried to get closer to him to see if maybe I could help, but he's still quite mobile, and either walked or flew away every time I tried.
Spotted this sculpture in Lakeland, Florida, today, in front of the Polk Museum of Art. Yep, it's another John Henry, as if you couldn't tell. This one is much smaller than the others I've seen, and is titled Hudson. What's the other one I've shared? Star Pointer, I think. And there's Alachua at the University of Florida that they installed back when I was in school. To my eye, they all pretty much look the same.
As the sun was going down tonight, there were some thick storm clouds back over the mainland. But I was out on Anna Maria Island, where it was somewhat sunnier. Maybe ten minutes before the sun hit the water, it found a hole in the clouds and nicely illuminated the Anna Maria City Pier. I thought it made a great shot against the dark stormy background. This one is worth your clicking on it to see the larger image. It's pretty cool.
I can't even remember the last time I brought you a picture of a manatee. That's probably because I don't see them too often, especially in the summer months. I usually find them in the winter when they gather together in the warm springs or power plant discharge canals. But this one swam under the Anna Maria Island City Pier this evening while I was there, so I got a fairly decent picture of him. This is as he emerged on the other side of the pier from where everyone first spotted him. Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get a picture of the bubbles when he farted. I kid you not. This guy was probably 7 to 8 feet long, and surprisingly enough, he doesn't appear to have any propeller scars on his back.
There must have been ten dolphins in the water today, each one tempting me by coming up for air for a second or two, then diving back down to pop up a minute later at a random spot. Some of them were pairs, and one of the fins in the pair was smaller than the other, so I have to assume they were mother and baby. But the only shot I got with a recognizable fin out of the water was this one. That's the Rod 'N Reel Pier on Anna Maria Island in the background, and as you can tell, it was pretty close to sunset tonight. Actually, I added some of that color in ther after the fact, but not all of it. It was a pretty grey sunset, unfortunately.
Sometimes, a shot just comes out right, even when you've taken the same picture a thousand times before. I've shot these little lizards plenty of times before, but I've never gotten a shot I could crop this tight and still have it look sharp. This little guy is probably less than an inch high, but I was able to zoom in far enough that you can count the scales on his neck. His snout is a little out of focus, but the eye is sharp, and that's the important part. I'm pretty proud of this shot.
Thought you guys might want to see the sunset from Anna Maria Island this evening. This is about 20-30 minutes after the sun had actually set, but you get the idea.
Way, way, way back in the day, a little over 20 years now, I worked at Walt Disney World. Specifically, I worked at Tomorrowland Terrace in Magic Kingdom. That restaurant isn't there anymore, or at least the restaurant by that name isn't there. In it's place is something called Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. Everything is in the same place as it used to be, but they've spiffed it up quite a bit. And the folks who work there no longer wear orange polyester pants. Come to think of it, I was working there when they switched to red pants, but I think they were still polyester. The counter in this picture used to be soups and salads, and it was rarely open when I worked there. The front side, just to the left of this picture was the side always open, and that was where I worked. Ahhh, memories. I don't have any pictures from those days, I'm afraid. I took this a couple of weeks ago when I visited Disney.
Well, the first of my local bald eagle pair is back. Don't know how long he's actually been around, but today was the first time I've seen him. I came around the corner, and there he was, just sitting up on his favorite tree limb. I don't think he's been back for long, since the local birds haven't learned to avoid the area yet. I think that's a mocking bird beating a hasty retreat in the photo below after he got a little too close. The eagle just gave him a dirty look and off the little bird went. I'll keep my eye out for the other one and let you know when they become a matched pair again.
This is the roof of a building near the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World. I shot through the window of a moving monorail hoping that I would be able to capture an image of what I saw. This odd Mickey Mouse cutout was perched on the side of the building facing a parking lot. That alone was cool enough, but I happened to pass overhead at the exact correct time to catch the shadow on the opposite wall of the building, making two Mickey's for the price of one.
Look over the shoulder of Unconditional Surrender and you'll spot an odd little piece of a rainbow I saw yesterday. Clear blue sky, lots of little fluffy clouds, no rain in sight, but there was a rainbow in the sky. I guess it was somehow raining in just the right spot to produce some diffraction. I thought it was pretty cool.
I thought you might enjoy these photos of a hippopotamus at Disney's Animal Kingdom Saturday. Pretty cool how they have it set up like an aquarium, allowing you to see how graceful these guys are under the water, instead of how cumbersome they are on land. In the few minutes we stood there watching, he made four laps, so he must be pretty happy in there. Or maybe he was looking for a way out. Anyhow, these are much better than the previous pictures of a hippo I shared with you.
Hey Gang! Sorry I haven't been around much lately, but I really needed a break after the long Christmas In July holiday. There's a reason Christmas only lasts one day, a whole month of Christmas is enough to kill even the hardiest blogger, and I'm far from hardy. So today I got the chance to shoot the first recreational pictures I've taken in a month or more, and I got real lucky. At my parent's house, I saw a big hawk in the old dead tree, and it turned out to be a red tail! I don't think I've ever seen one of these guys in the wild, although I see them at sanctuaries and shows fairly often. This guy took off before I got too close, but I got some shots as he circled around above me. Pretty impressive, I think.
Well, here it is, the 31st. I thought we'd never get here. Since it's the last day of the month, you get some Happy New Year songs, and a few versions of Auld Lang Syne. Yeah, so I'm predictable.
Let's start with the first version of Auld Lang Syne. This time it's part of a medley by The Ames Brothers from the various artists LP Let's Have A Party (MCA Special Markets/Decca DL 734615). The full name of the song is Good Fellow Medley: Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here-For He's A Jolly Good Fellow-Auld Lang Syne. Gotta love the Ames Brothers.
Version two is by The Men Of The Robert Shaw Chorale, Robert Shaw, Conductor, from the record A Chorus Of Love (RCA Victor Red Seal LSC-2502, 1960). This is a pretty straight-forward version.
Version three is the first curve ball I have for you. This one is entitled Auld Lang Syne (Wenn Wir Heut' Auseinandergeh'n), and as you might be able to tell, it's in German. The artist is the Gunter Kallmann Chorus With Orchestra And Bells and the LP is Songs For My Love (4 Corners Of The World FCS-4226). If you enjoy foreign-language versions of familiar songs as much as I do, you're going to love this one.
What next? Oh, another track from the Kathy Lecinsky album I gave you some Christmas tracks from the other day, Look At The Holidays (A Good Apple Record PB 1586, 1982). This song is called The New Year Is Coming.
And, to wrap things up, I have three different songs called Happy New Year. The first version is from one of those albums I can't tell you about, and I can't tell you the artist. You'll understand. The second version is by The McGuire Sisters from the LP Children's Holiday (Vocalion VL 3685). I brought you a couple of Christmas tracks from this one the other day, also. This is the same music as from their Christmas LP, but they add a little bit of narration to it, so it's worth sharing again.
Last but not least, I've got this third version of a song called Happy New Year by Gordon Jenkins, His Orchestra And Chorus. There are a couple of things about this one that make it special. First, it's the second version of this song I've brought to you by Jenkins, who also wrote it. Oddly enough, this one has a female vocal and the other one has a male vocal, so it's sung from a slightly different perspective. The second thing is that I pulled this one from a reel-to-reel tape, a first for the blog. It's recorded from I Live Alone (Kapp Stereo Tape KTL 41074) and I've never seen the vinyl. I found the tape almost a year ago, and just last night I dug a reel-to-reel player out of storage, hooked it up and recorded it. I think the sound is really good, with only the slightest hint of tape hiss. And there is no surface noise or clicks or other vinyl noise to be heard here. So enjoy this special song. Also, listen to the lyrics and tell me if some of it doesn't sound a little bit, well, suggestive, especially in this female-vocal version.
And there you go, seven tracks for the last day of the month here. Thanks a lot for playing. Here's the download link. Enjoy!
Hello! And welcome to day thirty! Hope you're in the mood for some Christmas music.
Where to begin? How about five songs from The Nutcracker as performed by Ernest Ansermet With The Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden from the LP Ballet Favorites-Highlights From The Nutcracker, Carnaval, Coppelia, Giselle (RCA Victrola VICS-1066, 1964). I know I've given you plenty of Nutcracker songs this month, but I couldn't resist this one more half an album. Hope you enjoy it.
Next up are six songs from a demo LP put out by a carillon manufacturer. The LP is The Beautiful Sound Of Bells (Universal Audio Corp For The I.T. Verdin Company UAS-865-62883, 1973) and the songs are Bells On Parade, Ding-Dong Merrily On High, O Holy Night (Cantique De Noel), O Sanctissima, Silent Night Holy Night & White Christmas. You either like carillon music or you don't, so here you go.
Track 12 is a song called Mary Had A Baby as performed by The New Paltz Choir, a small church group out of New Paltz, New York. The LP is titled Sing Joyfully (Silver Crest Custom NP-62880). I think you'll like this one.
Last, and certainly not least, we come to my favorite track of the night, and one I almost missed. Someone left a comment on the blog and we spoke back and forth about some Chritmas music. He tipped me off to a track I missed from the LP Meredith Wilson's Here's Love (Columbia Special Products-Special Archive Series CSRP 8899, 1963) as performed by The Merrill Staton Voices. It's called That Man Over There, which doesn't appear to be a Christmas song at first glance, but as soon as you listen to it, you'll realize it is. I shared another track from this LP way back near the beginning of the month.
There you have it, 13 tracks on the next to the last day of the month. Here's the download link, and I'd better see you back here tomorrow.
Day twenty nine. Not far now...
The first two tracks for tonight are from a record designed for pre-school through grade four, so if you aren't in that age group, you might get bored with these. The two tracks are The Christmas Bell Story and I Love The Winter by Kathy Lecinski from her album Look At The Holidays (A Good Apple Record PB 1586, 1982). What can I say? It is what it is.
From kiddie records we go to a little Urban Contemporary, or at least contemporary to the Eighties. How about a little Ray Parker Jr with Christmas Time Is Here from the album Chartbusters (Arista AL8-8266, 1984). Yes, this is the LP that features Ray in the big Ghostbusters symbol and of course features that song. (I for one don't think it sounds anything like a Huey Lewis song...)
Track four is a nice piano version of Greensleeves by John Curtis and the LP Moonlight (Whitehall WHS 40019). I think this is my last version of this song for the year. Aren't you happy?
Track five, The Skaters' Waltz by The Strings Of The Symphonia Royale. I think the longer the name of the orchestra, the more likely it is to not be a real group. Hmmmm. Anyhow, this is from the album The World's Most Beautiful Waltzes (Grand Award GA 33-376). Got a little Enoch Light connection in that one, I think.
The last two tracks are going to be a mystery. The titles are Kris Kringle and Stille Nacht (Silent Night), but that's all I can tell you about them. Same deal as back in December when I couldn't tell you about a track I was sharing. I don't want to bring the weight of the World down on my humble little blog. They're worth your time, trust me.
That's it. Seven more tracks. Here's the download link, see you tomorrow.
Are you ready for the twenty-eighth day of Christmas in July? Well, I know I am. I'm ready for this thing to be over with so I can go back to watching TV in the evenings. Here we go...
The first three songs are jazzy adaptations of the winter part of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. I was hoping for more, but this is what I got. The artist is The Günter Noris Trio, and the LP is Four Swinging Seasons-The Günter Noris Trio Plays Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" (Capitol International SP-10547). The three movements are entitled Winter-Allegro Non Molto: Colder Than, Winter-Allegro: Slippin' In The Snow and Winter-Largo: Fireside Fun. With titles like that, I was hoping for so much more...
Anyhow, the next three tracks are by one of those great girl groups, The McGuire Sisters. The first two tracks are from the LP Children's Holiday (Vocalion VL 3685). I almost didn't even listen to this one because I assumed the holiday songs would be the same as the Christmas songs on their Christmas LP that I used to share with you, but have since discovered is on CD. But I was only half right. The songs are the same, but there's added story and narration that I think adds a lot to the recordings. So here are the songs Children's Holiday and The Cactus Christmas Tree. You'll dig these.
The third McGuire Sisters track is their version of Ave Maria from the LP In Harmony With Him (Coral CRL 757303). I shared this with you some time ago, but it was from a later collection of tracks, so I wanted to give you a version that was straight from the source, so to speak. I think you'll enjoy this one.
The seventh track tonight is a bonus version of Ave Maria as performed on the trumpet, and it lasts an extra long seven and a half minutes! This is by Rafael Mendez, Symphony Orchestra Conducted By N. Tejada, from his LP Trumpet Showcase (Decca DL 74636). Gotta love it.
That's all for tonight. Here's the download link. See you right back here tomorrow night!
We're in the home stretch now! Day 27 and counting.
Let's start out with the last Burl Ives track I have for you this month. I think this makes three of his I've shared with you for the month. This time it's The Deepening Snow from True Love (Decca DL 4533). The chorus and orchestra on this one is handled by Owen Bradley, Nashville big-wig.
Track two is Song Of The Bells from Leroy Anderson. I grabbed this one from Leroy Anderson Conducts His Music (Decca DL 8954). I don't know that it's got anything to do with Christmas, but I like it.
Track three is White Christmas by Dennis Day. This is not the same version as the one I shared out with you from Christmas Is For The Family. This one is from the various artists LP 21 Of The Greatest Popular Songs Of All Time As Selected By Billboard Music Week (Pickwick BL-21). I think they released this album to capitalize on some greatest hits list put out by Billboard. It features cheap label knock-offs of the big hits from that list.
Track four is The Bells Of St. Mary's as performed by the Brass Of The Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, Conducted By Alfred Newman, from the LP I shared a bit with you last year, Hallelujah! (Capitol SP8529). This time, it's in stereo, so you can listen with both ears.
Track five is Hard Candy Christmas, not as performed by Dolly Parton, but the version from the original soundtrack to the musical The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas (MCA MCA-3049, 1978) by The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas Company With The Rio Grande Band. If that's not specific enough for you, the songs is credited to Pamela Blair, Donna King, Louise Quick-Bowen, Lisa Brown, Becky Gelke, Jan Merchant, Carol Chambers, Marta Sanders, Debra Zalkind & Joan Ellis on the back sleeve.
Track six is one I thought I'd shared out with you long ago, but I can't find where I did, so here it is now. This is Snowfall by Henry Mancini And His Orchestra from the album The Mancini Touch (RCA Victor LSP-2101, 1960). Good version, but what else would you expect from Mancini?
Is that it? I think so, six songs. Here's the download link, get 'em while you can, only a few days left.
Here it is, the collection you've been waiting for since August of last year. This is the compilation I put together of 32 of the best tracks I shared out during last year's Christmas In July. It's taken me months to select all the tracks, but I just threw some art together here in the last hour or so, I hope you don't mind too much. But it's not about the art, it's about the great music. Here's the tracklisting with links to the day when I first shared the track in question.
01. Sauter-Finegan & Their Orchestra-Sleighride
02. Homer & Jethro With June Carter-Baby, It’s Cold Outside
03. Ted Heath & His Music-Alpine Boogie
04. The Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra-Blue Christmas
05. The Real Thing Steel Band-Hallelujah Chorus
06. Brass Of The Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra-Deck The Hall
07. Ray Conniff & The Singers-I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing
08. The San Sebastian Strings With Rod McKuen & Anita Kerr-And Everyday Was Christmas
09. Erwin Halletz & His Orchestra-Hungarian Sleigh Ride
10. Greg & Steve-Jingle Bell Rock
11. Pearl Bailey-Jingle Bells Cha Cha Cha
12. Joe Cain & His Orchestra-I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm Cha Cha Cha
13. Ken Griffin-Kringle’s Jingle
14. David Whitehall & His Orchestra-Holiday Parade
15. The Sun Tones-The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot
16. The Four Rascals-I’ll Be Home For Christmas
17. The Pipes And Drums Of The Military Band Of The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards-The Little Drummer Boy
18. John Graas-Land Of Broken Toys
19. Jack Fina-Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers
20. Edmundo Ros & His Orchestra-The Skater’s Waltz
21. The Johnny Mann Singers-Snow
22. The Gene Lowell Chorus-Winter Song
23. Ahmad Jamal-Snow Fall
24. Georgia Gibbs-Looks Like A Cold Cold Winter
25. Joe “Fingers” Carr-Snow Deer Rag
26. Walter Carlos-Three Dances From Nutcracker Suite
27. Tomita-Snowflakes Are Dancing
28. The Modern Jazz Quartet-Variations On A Christmas Theme
29. The Chad Mitchell Trio-The Virgin Mary
30. Jack Conner-What Child Is This
31. Dennis Farnon & His Orchestra-Winter Wonderland
32. Bert Kaempfert & His Orchestra-Auld Lang Syne
And there you have it. Hope you enjoy it. These tracks are a real labor of love. Oh, wait, you're probably looking for the download link. Sorry about that, I got carried away for a second there. Did I miss any of your favorite tracks from last year? Let me know...
(This thing isn't even finished uploading yet, and I've already found a typo in my track listing. Well, it's pretty minor, so I'm leaving it. Sorry. Now I've found two. I need a proof reader. Three...)
Here's your installment of Christmas In July for day 26. Today's shares all celebrate the holiday by featuring the word Holiday in the title. None of them really have anything to do with the holiday in question, but at least one of them does actually mention Christmas. Let's begin...
Tracks one and two are both from the great maker of holiday-titled music David Rose, and neither of them are the track you're thinking about right now. Both tracks come from the greatest hits collection entitled The Very Best Of David Rose (MGM SE 4155). The two tracks I grabbed for you are titled Holiday For Flutes and Holiday For Trombones. The one you're thinking of is comin' up next.
Track three is the one you thought you were getting before, but didn't. This is Holiday For Strings as performed vocally by The Voices Of Walter Schumann from the LP Lyrical Music For Listening-The Voices Of Walter Schumann (Capitol T297). I found this a few years ago and thought it was a pretty impressive version, so I figured I'd share it with you today.
Track four is by Glenn Miller with Vocals by Kathleen Lane, Every Day's A Holiday from the collection Collector's Choice-Vintage Glenn Miller (Columbia LE 10420). This is the one that mentions Christmas, alongside a number of other holidays.
Track five is the final track I have to share with you from the soundtrack Cinerama Holiday (Mercury MG 20059, 1955) as performed by Jack Shaindlin Conducting The Cinerama Symphony Orchestra. The title is Cinerama Holiday March. I like it and I think you will too.
Track six is the great Billy May performing Brassman's Holiday. This one comes from the sampler LP Stereo Showcase (Capitol SKAO 1268), a sort of answer to RCA Victor's famed stereo samplers of the same period. Well, I guess pretty much every label had samplers like this at the time.
Track seven, the final one, is Bugler's Holiday by Leroy Anderson, he of Sleigh Ride fame. I pulled this from the LP Leroy Anderson Conducts Leroy Anderson (Decca DL 78865). Oh, the label credits James Burke, John Ware & Raymond Crisara with cornet playing on this one. You'd think they'd credit a bugle player, but I guess not.
There you have it, seven more holiday tracks for you. Hope you enjoy them. Here's the download link, see you tomorrow!
I've been thinking about how crappy my shares were back on the sixth day of Christmas in July. In fact, I advised you not to download the shares that day, and many of you took my advice on that. It's got one of the lowest download totals of all the days. To make that up to you, I've decided to give you an extra large handful of shares, and label it Day 6-Redux. But before you get your hopes up too high, there's one catch. The redux is ten version of My Favorite Things. I know there's always an argument over whether or not this is a Christmas song, and with my lax standards for including things that really aren't Christmas at all, this falls firmly on the Christmas side of things. So for all of you that think My Favorite Things belongs in the Christmas canon, here you go. Ten versions from artists such as Dick Shawn, Mary Martin, The Norman Paris Quartet, The Fantabulous Brass, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Ray Conniff, The Trapp Family Singers (in a different version from before), Living Strings, The Richard Wolfe Children's Chorus and Andre Kostelanetz. Not a bad selection of artists if I do say so myself. Here's the download link, knock yourselves out.
Here we go...with this post, I'm finally caught back up. It's taken a couple of weeks, but it feels good to finally be back to where I should have already been. Now that I'm caught up, I can see the end of the month out there on the horizon. I'd better get busy, I've got a lot of good stuff I still need to record and share with you. So what's in the catch-up post? Two artists, six song, all good stuff. Well, mostly good stuff. You'll see.
The first four tracks are all by The Weavers, you know, the folk quartet featuring Pete Seeger. These songs all come from the LP The Weavers On Tour (Vanguard VRS-9013). I guess it was a little mini-section of the show that featured Christmas tunes. Actually, I'm not convinced this was from a live show. The audience noise seems a little canned to me. Anyhow, the four songs are Go Tell It On The Mountain, Poor Little Jesus, Santa Claus Is Coming (It's Almost Day) and We Wish You A Merry Christmas.
The final two tracks are from Anton Brees (I appear to have had his name mis-typed as Frees for the past year. Sorry about that...) and his carillon album A Spiritual Message From The Singing Tower (Morse's Music/Queen City Album MM 1000, Played on the Cast Bell Carillon at Carillon Mountain Lake Sanctuary, Lake Wales, Florida, USA). This was recorded at Bok Tower, which really isn't too far away from here, although I've never been. Gonna have to get up there someday. I remember seeing a full Christmas LP from this place somewhere last Christmas, shared out on another blog, but I can't find it just now. I'd never seen the LP before, so didn't even know it existed. If I ever find one, I'll be sure to share it with you. The two tracks from this one are O Sanctissima & Angels We Have Heard On High.
There you have it, six more goodies. It's turning into quite the pile of music, isn't it? Here's the download link, thanks for stopping by and listening to my lame commentary.
Here I am, back again for today's second installment of Christmas In July. You aren't really getting any extra music here, I'm just catching up after being ill for a while and missing I think five days a couple weeks ago. So with this post and the next one, I should finally be caught back up. So let's jump right into it with six songs that are loosely centered around Christmas toys. Very loosely...
Let's start off with Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers from everyone's favorite John Klein, ably assisted by Leo Addeo from that soon-to-be-classic LP Bells In Toyland (RCA Victor LSP-3832, 1967). I'm afraid this is the last cut I've got for you from this great album. Check back around Christmas, I may bring the rest of it to you. Maybe.
Track two is the great David Rose and a song called The Sad, Sad Rocking Horse. Nothing too Christmassy about it, but I liked it when I listened to it. I like some David Rose stuff a lot, some of it I think is a bit too syrupy. This is from the album David Rose Plays David Rose (MGM SE3748, 1959).
Track three is Jolly Coppersmith from our friend Bob Kames. I found this on the same LP I brought you the other day, Golden Years In Hi-Fi-20 Organ Solos By Bob Kames (King 598). I still don't know if this song has anything to do with Christmas, but it's a nice ditty.
Track four is Hup-Sa-Sa, which I really don't think has anything at all to do with Christmas, but I forgot to share it with you the other day when I gave you some of the skiing-related songs from this album, Cinerama Holiday (Mercury MG 20059). Oh, the artist is Jack Shaindlin Conducting The Cinerama Symphony Orchestra.
Track five is Time For Toys-March Of The Toys by Denise Foster, Arranged And Conducted By Ernie Johnson from the kiddie record The Ages Of Childhood-10 Songs For And About Children By Natalie Ornish (Natwin/Dallas DA 566). Turns out that this isn't the March Of The Toys you've heard before, but it's something along the same lines. I'm sure you'll like it.
Track six is a nice version of Sleigh Ride by Kurt Wege And His Orchestra. And there-in lies a small tale. I had recorded this five or six years ago, but hadn't labelled it. Some years later, I found the file on my PC, and had no idea where it was from. For several years now I've kept an eye out for who Kurt Wege is, and where I got the track from. I finally found it again on the LP 21 Channel Sound-A Leroy Anderson Concert (MGM SE 4075). Then, I found it a second time on an LP called Leroy Anderson Songbook (Metro MS-545), only this time it was credited to The Starlight String Orchestra Conducted By Kurt Wege. Well, at least that was the name on the sleeve. The record said Kurt Wege And His Orchestra. I checked, and they're both the same recording. Another small hint of the origin of this track come from the fine print on the back of that 21 Microphone version. "Recorded by Deutsche Grammophon Polydor Series In Europe." So whatever or whoever he was, MGM was just leasing the track from Europe. Oh, well.
There you have it, another six songs. Here's the download link, I'm off to get something to eat.
Well, let's see. Today is the 25th of July, so if it were really December, this would be Christmas, and since we're celebrating Christmas all month, today should be something special. So how about I use today to get all caught of for the month and get us back on track. That's special in my mind! This share is a little on the classical side, or at least the classic vocal side. I'm not sure exactly what I mean or how to describe it, so let me share it with you and then maybe you'll understand.
The first three tracks are by St. Olaf Lutheran Choir Conducted By Olaf C. Christiansen from the LP I first shared with you yesterday Fifty Golden Years (Mercury MG 20728, 1962). All good stuff, but a little to chorus-y for my preference. The tracks are Prelude To Christmas (Annunciation And Magnificat), Song Of Mary and Come And Adore. I think you'll like them, they make a nice change from the normal stuff I post.
Track four is Mildred Miller performing the folk ballad I Wonder As I Wander from the promotional LP 100th Anniversary Commerative Concert (RCA Victor Custom Records For John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company JH-100, 1961). Arthur Fiedler shares top billing on this record with Ms. Miller, but he's nowhere to be found on this solo vocal performance.
Track five is Arturo Toscanini And The NBC Symphony Orchestra performing Waldteufel-The Skaters Waltz, from the same LP I shared a side-long version of Nutcraker Suite a couple days ago, Tchaikovsky-Nutcracker Suite (RCA Victor Red Seal LM-1986, 1956). I think last year I had three or four days where all I shared were versions of Skaters Waltz and marvelled at the many variations in spelling and punctuation on such a simple title.
The sixth and final track is Pastores Dicite (Christmas Music) by New York Pro Musica-Four Voices from their LP Spanish Music Of The Renaissance (Decca's Gold Label DL 79409). Sometimes I don't know why I pick up records and flip them over, but sometimes I do, and sure enough, there's an unexpected Christmas song staring me in the face. That was the case with this motet. There it was.
And there it is, the end of the list, here's the download link. If all goes as planned, I'll see you twice more today for the Christmas Day in Christmas In July festivities here at Ernie (Not Bert). Thanks for stopping by. (I've made so many typos in this post I think I need a rest. I'm going to take a nap before I get back to posting...)
