Bison (Not Buffalo)

Sometimes I record an album for no good reason. I say that because I'm not sure why I recorded this one. The cover's pretty nice, and I got a doodle from the back that I posted in July. The music is OK, but I'm not real big on the choral stuff. It's the first thing this year from the religious Word label, but not the last. I really can't think of much else to say about it. Maybe you'll like it. Have a go at The Bison Glee Club, Warren Angell, Director-The Joy Of Christmas (Word W 3092-LP) featuring The Bison Glee Club of Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, Oklahoma. Perhaps it'll be right up your alley. Listening to this as I post it, some of the audio sounds terrible, like the LP was worn out. Sorry about that. The shares will get better, I promise.

Gather 'Round The Organ

I think I shared out way more organ music last Christmas than anyone could ever want, but here I go again. I think this is the first organ rerun from then, and it won't be the last. If you want to read about this, go to my post from last year, but if you just want to download it and be done, go get Leo Addeo With Milton Kaye & Harry Breuer-Organ And Chimes Play Christmas Carols (RCA Camden CAS-726, 1962). On to the next record...

Baby Blues

Another rerun from last year, this is a great little LP that was a giveaway back in 1972. You can go to my post last year to read more about it if you'd like. But first, go download Gary Mann-Blues For Baby Jesus (The Educator & Executive Insurance Companies EE-101, 1972). I've also got a second cover for this one, in case you want to see what Gary Mann actually looked like. And be sure to read the back cover once you get it downloaded. Lots of history there about Mr. Mann.

Christmas Roundup-Week One

Well, there you have it. Sunday night after the first week of Christmas shares. I like to go through after each week and make a list of all the things I've shared so you can go through and make sure you didn't miss anything. It's been a great week so far, and it's only going to get better. I hope you're all finding stuff you enjoy! Here're the shares so far:

Christmas Party
Christmas Classics 1963 (rerun)
The Pete King Chorale-Christmas Time
The Jimmy Joyce Singers With Billy May-A Christmas To Remember (rerun)
Frank Chacksfield-Music For A Merry Christmas (rerun, but now in Stereo!)
Arthur Godfrey-All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth
Christmas With Arthur Godfrey And All The Little Godfreys
Christmas Greetings From The Town Pipers (rerun)
Christmas Favorites Sung By The Magnificent Magnavox Chorus
Swing Along With Santa's Snowmen
The Ray Charles Singers-Christmas At Home (rerun)
The Ray Charles Singers-Here We Come A-Caroling (rerun)
The Ray Charles Singers-Winter Wonderland (rerun)
The Mundell Lowe Ensemble-The Sounds Of Christmas
Greetings From The McGuire Sisters (rerun)
Christmas 1968 With The Going Thing
Gisele MacKenzie-Christmas With Gisele (rerun)
The Joy Strings-Well Seasoned

Whew! That's a lot of shares for only four days. How can I hope to keep this up?

New Oldies

Here's another one I was surprised to find not out on CD. This is the soundtrack record to a TV special from the 80's, Scrooge's Rock 'N Roll Christmas. Typical schmaltzy TV from the period, but at least you got Jack Elam as Scrooge. Now that's casting! Rounding out the cast were a bunch of individuals and groups from the oldies circuit, like The Association, Three Dog Night, Bobby Goldsboro, Paul Revere And The Raiders, Dean Torrance (you know, from Jan & Dean) and everybody's favorite Beach Boy, Mike Love. With a cast like that, how can you go wrong? Well, for one thing, too many synths and not enough instruments. But I suppose it's not that bad. I've enjoyed some of the tracks when they've popped up at random, but I can say that about just about every record I've ever recorded. So judge for yourself by downloading Christmas Party (Hitbound Records for Radio Shack, 51-3010, 1983). Oh, for the search engines, the other artists on this record are Mary MacGregor, Merilee Rush and someone named Ensemble.

Free With Christmas

Some things never change I suppose. Salesmen have always given stuff away to their customers, trying to get them to buy more or invest more or do something that makes them part with more of their money. Everybody complains about commercialized Christmas, too, but it's that way all year round. I'm sure that there were people hawking t-shirts in Bethlehem one night long ago with something along the lines of "I Saw The Star" printed on them. Well, maybe not, but you get the idea. This record was a giveaway for E. F. MacDonald back in 1963, and I'm giving it away to you again this year. Go download The E.F. MacDonald Company Presents Christmas Classics 1963 (E.F. MacDonald EFMX-63, 1963). And if you want to read more about this release (like the fact that Burgess Meredith reads some Christmas stories on it) go see my post from last year.

Used Music-Track Four

Today's contribution to the Thrift Store Christmas Compilation Compilation is a bit of a ringer, but it's still a cracker of a track. It's Miss Peggy Lee performing Santa Claus Is Coming To Town from the collection Christmas Stocking (Capitol Record Club SNP 90494, 1965). This record was only available to members of the Capitol Record Club, so it's a little bit outside of our usual gas station/supermarket collections, but I think it still counts. I think this track originally led off side two on Peggy's great Christmas LP, Christmas Carousel. Most of that album is now available on CD, so go get it!

Previous Tracks:
The Sanborn Singers-Jingle Bells
Les Baxter Orchestra And Chorus-Hang Your Wishes On The Tree
Sandler & Young-Mister Santa

This, The Last Week Of November

I hope everyone is enjoying all the Christmas music around here. It's certainly picked up since the shares started going each day. The rest of the year, all there is to see around here are the pictures I take, which I don't think is a bad thing. One of the weekly treats is a calendar page from the calendar I make for my grandmother each year. I take all the best photos from the previous year and format them into a big book, each page covers a week out of the year. The picture this week is an aerial photo of Manhattan Beach near Los Angeles, California. I flew in one day last year, then flew out the next morning. I shot this from the plane on the way out. Oddly enough, the only place I got to visit on my entire trip was the little pier you see in this photo, sticking out into the great Pacific Ocean. Anyhow, thanks to everybody for visiting Ernie (Not Bert), and I hope you find something you like around here.

Oodles Of Doodles CCCXI-Christmas 2007

Another day, another great Christmas doodle! This tree comes from the backside of Floyd Cramer-We Wish You A Merry Christmas (RCA Victor LPM-3828, 1967). Those ornaments originally listed the album tracks, and the dual stars denoted the two sides. I took out all the distracting text so you so could appreciate the artistry in this great doodle.

Shootout At The Christmas Chorale

OK, I admit I have no idea what that post title is supposed to mean. I thought it was a cute play on words, but it really doesn't mean anything. Maybe if this record had cowboy Christmas tunes... Anyhow, back to the the point, this is a great Christmas album from a great chorus, errr, I mean chorale. (Somebody want to clue me in on the difference?). Searching the internets, it seems that a track from this LP is featured in the famous Yule Log (not to be confused with The Yule Blog)TV broadcast, so it's a favorite of many folks out there. No clue as to why it's not on CD yet, but perhaps by making more people aware of it, we can get the ball rolling towards that direction. I've seen several things that I shared out last year show up on CD for this season, so maybe the record labels are starting to get the idea. Please help yourself to The Pete King Chorale-Christmas Time (Kapp KL-1214, 1960). There was a track shared out during Christmas In July by these guys, but I believe the same track shows up here.

Jimmy & Billy

Here's another record for which I would love to find a stereo copy. I've trolled the bins for three years, and only come up with two mono versions. Why would I want a stereo version so bad? Download this mono copy of The Jimmy Joyce Singers With Orchestra Conducted By Billy May-A Christmas To Remember (Warner Bros W 1237, 1958) and I think you'll understand. I shared this one out both last year and the year before, but I did not share out this other Jimmy Joyce album because it's on CD. And I think there are some more Billy May tracks here and here.

Missing Music

Hold your horses, don't get all excited. There is no download here. I don't even own this record, all I own is the sleeve. Sometimes I come across empty sleeves and I have to buy them just for the great pictures. This is not one of those cases. This picture of somebodies house decorated for the season is not very impressive. What is impressive, and what makes me post this here is the little note at lower left. "Chimes By Chimeatron". That's something I want to hear. What is a Chime-A-Tron and where can I get one of my own? Anybody out there got a copy of this that the want to share? Please? Judging from the back cover, there was even a stereo version of this released, but I've never seen anything other than this empty sleeve. Just for the record, this is George Chiainia At The Organ And Chimes-Music Of The Holiday Season (Colonial LP-272). C'mon, somebody out there must have this record...

Used Music-Track Three

Here's the third installment in my thrift store Christmas compilation compilation. This time I dug up something that was mentioned on the blog last year. Again, it was something I already had but didn't know about. This is Tony Sandler and Ralph Young performing Mister Santa from Happy Holidays-Album Seven (Creative Products (Capitol) For True Value Hardware, SL-6730, 1971). Yep, that's right, this is the next LP in the set from the one I shared last night. What can I tell you, I don't hunt far for my music sometimes...

Previous Tracks:
The Sanborn Singers-Jingle Bells
Les Baxter Orchestra And Chorus-Hang Your Wishes On The Tree

Merry Music

Here's an updated version of a post from last year. I love when I get the chance to revisit something I've shared out earlier, either with a cleaner copy, or bonus tracks, or, as in this case, a stereo version. Good stereo always opens things up, allowing the music to fill the room and pull you into the middle of the sound. Anyhow, please download and give a listen to the stereo version of Frank Chacksfield And His Orchestra-Music For A Merry Christmas (Richmond S 30056, 1959).

Arthur, Arthur

Here's a much less complicated Arthur Godfrey share. This LP came out some 14 years after the last record(s) I shared, and on a different label. It's much more kiddie oriented, which is a good thing in this case. I've only ever seen this one copy, so I think this might be a little rare. My copy used to belong to a library, so it isn't in the best of shape, and it was in mono to begin with. But I think you'll enjoy it. This is Arthur Godfrey With The Richard Wolfe Children's Chorus-All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth (RCA Camden CAL-1092, 1967). I think I may have labelled some of the files with the LP name Christmas Is For Children, but I don't think that's actually the title. I'm not getting enough sleep at night trying to keep up with this blog...

Christmas With And Without

Bear with me a little bit, I'm going to try to keep all this straight. My share tonight is Christmas With Arthur Godfrey And All The Little Godfreys. Problem is, that's not just a single album. First I had the one shown above. I've had it for years but it was all scratched up and wouldn't play. Then I found another one that I could play and I recorded it. Then while searching for The McGuire Sisters Christmas LP, a search came back with this LP. Well, not exactly this LP. Look close at the LP cover shown below, and you'll seed that there is an extra Christmas ornament on the wreath, and sure enough, who's in that ornament but the McGuire Sisters! So I tracked down another copy of the LP, and there are the McGuire girls performing Frosty The Snowman. Reading up a little on Mr. Godfrey, I see that he wasn't the easiest guy in the world to get along with, so maybe he got in a tif with the McGuires, and removed their song from his album. So, what you're going to download is my original rip of the McGuire-less LP, with an added track in there of just the McGuire Sisters song. So you'll see that there are two track 7's. Now, did you follow all that? But what about the green cover down at the bottom of this post? Well, that's a 3x7" EP version of the album that I was recording just for kicks to see if I could get cleaner copies. (I didn't get cleaner copies. In fact, some of the songs from the EP have skips in them. I throw them in there just so you can see they are actually shorter, I don't expect you to actually listen to them.) It turns out that the EP version has edited versions of several songs. And you though collecting Beatle records was complicated! Just for the search engines, the other artists on these albums include Julius La Rosa, Janette Davis, Frank Parker, Marion Marlowe, The Mariners, Lu Ann Simms and Haleloke Kajauolopua.

So here are your download links: Christmas With Arthur Godfrey And All The Little Godfreys (Columbia 12" LP, CL 540, 1953) or Christmas With Arthur Godfrey And All The Little Godfreys (Columbia 3x 7" 45 RPM EP, B-348, 1953). And just to confuse matters more, I spotted the EP set in a little box today (mine is a multi-sleeve envelope type format), as well as three different single 45s. Did I mention that after all that, the music on here is surprisingly good. No wonder this guy was on TV for so long.

Stand by for more, much less complicated, Arthur Godfrey!

Update: This one is out on CD now, although it's a little hard to tell. There's a collection on the Jasmine label that includes all the songs from this LP, plus all the songs from the McGuire Sisters Christmas LP. Not sure how they got stuck on there, but who am I to question how such things work. You can order this from Amazon via this link.

Oodles Of Doodles CCCX-Christmas 2007

This great image comes from the back side of Peggy Lee With Orchestra Conducted By Billy May-Christmas Carousel (Capitol ST 1423, 1960). It's a classic Christmas album and this is a classic Christmas doodle!

Music From Town

Here's a rerun from two years ago that I still think is just great. This is Christmas Greetings From The Town Pipers (HiFi R418, 1959). It's really good stuff that you never hear anymore. And for the record, I still don't have the stereo version. Maybe someday...

Update (13 Oct 08): This one is now available for legal download. And that's a good thing, becuase it means that more of this old Christmas music that we all love is available to a wider audience. Here's the link to Amazon, and it's also available at other legal download sites. Now if I could just get them to look at the Three Suns catalog...

Thanksgiving Moon

Not long after Thanksgiving dinner was over last night, the nearly-full moon rose. As usual, I snapped a few pictures of it. Someday I'm going to get an even longer lens with even more glass out at the end of it so I can take some really impressive picture of the moon. Wait and see!

Used Music-Track Two

Here's another cool track from a thrift store Christmas compilation, this time a record originally produced by Capitol for True Value Hardware stores. It's hard to believe that really great music like this was available at you local hardware store. Of course I'm picking and choosing pretty hard here, but hopefully you'll see what sort of gold is available on these albums that no one pays any attention to anymore. I want to give props to Brainwerk at Check The Cool Wax who first made me aware that these tracks were out there on this comp. As is too often the case, I already had the record in the collection, but hadn't paid enough attention to what was on it. Here's the great Les Baxter Orchestra And Chorus performing Hang Your Wishes On The Tree from Happy Holidays-Album 6 (Creative Products (Capitol) for True Value Hardware, SL-6669, 1970).

Previous Tracks:
The Sanborn Singers-Jingle Bells