One Pair, Future Full House

As I mentioned earlier this week, I went to see if I could spot the eagles today. I drove by twice, but couldn't see anything. I parked the car anyway, taking a chance that I might be able to see something as I got closer. Sure enough, as I crossed the street, I could see something white near the nest. As I got closer, I could tell there were two birds up there. They've planted some thick shrubbery atop a small hill between the road and this nest, I guess to give the birds some semblance of normalcy. I crawled through the bushes and came out behind another thicket so I couldn't see the nest. I knew I was close, though, because I could see several piles of feathers that looked like the eagles had enjoyed a meal there. I walked around the corner of the thicket, and got the picture above. I got a little closer, and one of the birds flushed, so I decided that I was close enough. But I got a great shot, and now I know that both of the birds have returned for the nesting season. Maybe in the spring I'll try to get out there and shoot the babies.

Dick Leibert Day-Part Four

Have you got all the other Dick Leibert records downloaded and listened to? If so, then you're ready for this LP, which is new to the blog, but not new in real life. I have no idea of the date for it, but I'm going to say late fifties. This is one of the records from which they lifted a track for the Westminster Sampler I shared with you earlier this morning. There is still another Leibert Christmas LP out there called Christmas At Radio City, but on Westminster (WP 6035), that I don't have, but I'm hunting. I like how this one highlights the Wurlitzer Organ Company connection, even using their logo on the front. On the backside, they almost always spell it WurliTzer, just to go along with the logo, I suppose. This album isn't as exciting as the later two on RCA, but it's still quite listenable. And I know how you folks love your organ music. So go get Dick Leibert-A Merry WurliTzer Christmas (Westminster WP 6060).

Dick Leibert Day-Part Three Point Nine

Before I get to the only actual new share I have for Mr. Leibert, I just wanted to point you towards a couple of bonus tracks for him that I shared out during Christmas In July. You can get Dick's rather funereal version of Greensleeves here, and his take on the maybe-Christmas song My Favorite Things here. If nothing else, they'll help you fill up those CDs.

Dick Leibert Day-Part Three Point Six

Though not really a Dick Leibert album, he does show up on a few tracks playing the organ alongside an orchestra and chorus. But how can you miss with a cover shot like that! This one is on CD, so I highly recommend you go buy it! Let's just take a minute to sit and look at those Rockettes.




There. That should be plenty. This record is officially Christmas Holidays At Radio City Music Hall by The Radio City Music Hall Symphony Orchestra under the Direction of Raymond Paige, Richard Leibert at the Grand Organ & The Radio City Music Hall Choral Ensemble (RCA Victor LOP-1010, 1958). Whew! What a mouthfull. Go read about it in last year's post.

Dick Leibert Day-Part Three Point Three

I mentioned this in passing a second ago, but the two previous Dick Leibert LPs I mentioned were stuck together into one gatefold sleeve and reissued in the Seventies. I don't know how popular this collection was, but it did include two great LPs, The Happy Hits Of Christmas (Christmas Evergreens Played On The Radio City Music Hall Organ) and The Sound Of Christmas On The Radio City Music Hall Organ. I just wanted to share this cover with you, you'll have to download the music below. If you want this cover, grab it here, I didn't stick it in either of the downloads. Just for the sake of those poor stupid search engines, this is Christmas At Radio City Music Hall With Dick Leibert At The Organ (RCA Camden 2x12" ADL2-0243, 1973).

Dick Leibert Day-Part Three

Now we get to the top of the hill. As I explained last year, this is the album that really showcases the style of Dick Liebert. Or at least the aspects of his style that I enjoy. As the title implies, these songs are fun! Trust me, you need to go right this second and download Dick Leibert At The Console-The Happy Hits Of Christmas (Christmas Evergreens Played On The Radio City Music Hall Organ) (RCA Victor LSP-2771, 1963). You're not going to regret it!

Dick Leibert Day-Part Two

Now we're really getting to the good stuff! Dick is really starting to loosen up, and gives you some really great noise on this one. You can't beat the fun arrangements and virtuoso performing on this one, except maybe on the next one. But they're both great! (In fact, they were later released in a set, but more on that later.) Don't waste any more time reading this, go download Dick Leibert-The Sound Of Christmas On The Radio City Music Hall Organ (RCA Victor LSP-2558, 1962). (Oh, this one came out last year, too.)

Dick Leibert Day-Part One

This is one of the earliest releases I have from Dick Leibert, but it was the last thing of his I posted last year. This is a pair of 7" 45 RPM records from all the way back in 1951. Good stuff, but still not the music we love Dick for. But for a complete collection, you need to download Sing And Rejoice! Christmas Carols Played by Dick Leibert At the Organ of the Radio City Music Hall New York City (RCA Victor 2x7" 45 rpm EPB 3056, 1951).

Dick Leibert Day-Part Zero

Good morning to everyone out there in Web land! Last Sunday was Sammy Kaye Day, yesterday was Three Suns Day, so that makes today Dick Leibert Day! (My calendar is a little weird...) So that means you're going to get a whole heap of downloads featuring organist extraordinaire, Dick Leibert. The fun starts off a little slow with this compilation from Westminster, featuring a couple of tracks from Mr. Leibert. If this was all you knew of his work, you probably wouldn't go much further into his canon, actually. but trust me, it gets better. There are also tracks on here from Ferrante & Teicher and Basil Rathbone! So start with this: A Christmas Sampler (Westminster WP S-2). This is a rerun from last year, if you want to check out what I said then, or you can check what the Captain had to say about it over at his Yuleblog.

25 Days Of Christmas-Day 2

Here's the second track for my 25 Days Of Christmas collection. I grabbed this track (and one other) for someone over at FaLaLaLaLa who pointed out that it had been left off of the CD reissue of Johnny Mathis' 1963 Christmas album, Sounds Of Christmas. Well, it's too good of a track not to have it out there and listened to, so I've decided to add it to my little Christmas CD project here. He calls out John Glenn in here by name, so be sure to listen for it! Here is Johnny Mathis-Have Reindeer, Will Travel from Sounds Of Christmas (Mercury SR 60837, 1963). I believe this was also released as a single, the flip side of The Little Drummer Boy.

Previous Tracks: The Crew-Cuts-Twinkle Toes

Volume 9

Everybody loves these big band Christmas albums, so here's another great one I dug out. Lester Lanin may not have had a great catch phrase like Swing And Sway With Sammy Kaye, but he still put out some great music. For some odd reason, the cover to this record identifies this as Volume 9. I'm going to assume this was part of some series of 'Dance Party' records put out by Mr. Lanin and the boys, and not actually his 9th Christmas record. I imagine I would have seen one or two of the others by now. But maybe not. Every year I see and hear more stuff that is completely new to me, so I know there is stuff out there. Hopefully, this is new and exciting for you. Please download and give a listen to Lester Lanin And His Orchestra-Christmas Dance Party, Volume 9 (Epic LN 3617, 1959).

Three Suns Day, Part None

Well, I'm afraid I don't have any more Three Suns music to share with you today. The 45 shown above is just something I picked up because I thought it was neat. There's no unique music on it. Look closely, and you'll see that it's a release on RCA Victor of Brazil, in the original sleeve. This side is Noite Silenciosa (Silent Night) and the flip side is Jingle Bells (RCA Victor Brazil 84-0002).

That brings me to the point of this post, the Christmas music by The Three Suns that I still need. There's A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas, of course. Everyone needs that. What I also need is a single from way, way back in the day, Sleigh Ride b/w Uncle Mistletoe. That's got to be a great song, don't you think? Uncle Mistletoe, it just sounds like a lot of fun. So if you have it, I'd love a copy. Someday I'll find the original 45, but a nice MP3 will hold me for a long time. Your help in this matter is greatly appreciated.

Three Suns Day, Part Four

The only new thing I have to offer you in the way of Three Suns music is this EP featuring a version of Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers. It's not much, but as they say at Virgin, it's one step closer to the complete collection. I threw the entire EP into the ZIP file, in case anybody wanted it. I'm sure there are some Three Suns collectors out there who would like to have it. If you don't want the other tracks, just delete them. Or, better yet, give them to someone who needs them, like your nosy neighbor... This particular EP isn't listed in my book, but two single with the same tracks are, so this is probably a later repackaging of those two singles from 1949. Go get Raggin' The Scales With The Three Suns (RCA Victor 7" 45 rpm EPA 278).

Three Suns Day, Part Three And A Half

While I'm yakking about The Three Suns, I want to mention that there was a single track of theirs called Busy Holiday shared out back during Christmas In July. You might want to go grab that to help you complete your collection.

Three Suns Day, Part Three

Can you take any more? How about this, the third full-length record released by The Three Suns in celebration of Christmas. This one is curious, in that it seems to exist in many, many different covers, but the music is always the same. Speaking of the music, they're starting to get a lot more ambitious here, and closer to the madness they perfected on A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas. Go download The Three Suns-The Sounds Of Christmas (RCA Victor LPM-1132, 1955).

In addition to the cover above, which I believe is the original, there are the following two, and at least one other on a Pickwick label re-release.


Note that with this last cover, they changed the name of the album slightly. Now it's The Sound Of Christmas, instead of Sounds. I guess this came after A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas, and they realized how few sounds were actually on this record. But you'll still enjoy it, trust me.

You can go enjoy the original posts on commentary on these cover here, here and here.

But wait, there's more! The tracks from this LP were split into two different 7" EPs with some really great covers. I've posted those below. These may be my absolute favorite cover variations for this music.


These are The Three Suns-Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (RCA Victor EPA-654, 1955) and The Three Suns-White Christmas (RCA Victor EPA-655, 1955). Pretty snazzy, eh?

Three Suns Day, Part Two

For my second act, I'll throw up The Suns' first full-length Christmas effort. This set has been issued in a couple of different formats, but I managed to track down the original 3x7" set in a box for you from 1949. This is really early and has only the basic instrumentation in common with the later, peppier (to say the least) stuff. This is 18 minutes of Three Sun fun that you'll want to add to your holiday collection, though. Please download The Three Suns Present Your Christmas Favorites (RCA Victor WP 250, 1949). This is another rerun from last year, so if you want to read the fun stuff I wrote about this release then, click here.

Three Suns Day, Part One

Somebody finally posted The Three Suns-A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas for download. Go see Brainwerk's Check The Cool Wax and get it. That has to be the number-one requested Christmas download of all time. I get requests for it about once a month during the year, and once a week during the holiday season. Unfortunately, I don't own the record. However, I do have most of the rest of The Three Suns holiday catalog, and I'm going to share it with you today! So after you're done downloading A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas, come back here and get everything else.

So, what else is there to get? How about The Suns' second album-length Christmas release? (That's an odd place to start...) That's what you're looking at above and below. The 10" shown above is what I recorded a few years ago (and shared last year), and I recently stumbled across the 2x7" version shown below. It's not the same as what they did on A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas, but it's a start. So why not download The Three Suns-Christmas Party (RCA Victor LPM -3056, 1952). There's plenty more coming, so be sure to return once you're done downloading that one.

25 Days Of Christmas-Day 1

I wanted to do a little something special for everybody this year. Much like Big Rock Candy Mountain and The King over at FaLaLaLaLa, I want to make an online compilation for you of all the best Christmas music I can find. So between now and Christmas day, I'm going to try to post one track a day that I've earmarked for this special compilation. It may be something that I've already shared out, or it may be something special just for the collection. I'm trying to do it train-of-thought style, with very little planning. (Let's just hope that train doesn't get derailed!) If I get ambitous, I may even put together some artwork for you to download at the end. Or maybe I'll ask for submissions. Are there any artists out there who're interested in designing a CD cover? Drop me a line.
Anyhow, for my first track, I've got a great little song I found just last night. The Crew-Cuts With David Carroll And His Orchestra-Twinkle Toes (Mercury 70491-X45, 1954). It's the story of Santa's newest reindeer, Twinkle Toes. I guess there were many attempts to repeat the success of Rudolph, few if any of which caught on. This one should be on everybody's play list if you ask me. So download this and save it in a special place, with plenty of room for the rest of the tracks to come!


(For another holiday track from The Crew-Cuts, you can visit the remains of my Christmas In July celebration. Or for more David Carroll, go here.)

Frank (Not Sinatra)

What? You want more? How much more do you want? A lot?!?! That's pretty vague. Well, I'd better give you what you want. I don't want a bunch of angry villagers with torches knocking down my door in the middle of the night making odd demands for holiday tunage. Here's a great little album with an even better cover. Why don't you start this download, go make yourself a cup of hot chocolate, then when you get back it'll be all ready for you to listen to and enjoy? Those of you here in Florida can skip the hot chocolate bit, perhaps you'd like to substitute some iced tea, though. Here's Frank Chacksfield And His Orchestra-Music For A Merry Christmas (Richmond B 20056, 1959). Get it while it's hot!

Those of you who are sticklers about such things will notice that there is no back cover scan in this ZIP file. That's because the flip side of this LP is just ads for other records on Richmond (A Product Of London Records).

Christmas With The Penguin

What to share, what to share... How about an album featuring some stories narrated by Burgess Meredith? Yes, that will do quite nicely. This record was released as a promotional item for E. F. MacDonald back in 1963, part of a series of Christmas releases they did for a number of years. (You can get side one of an earlier edition featuring David Carradine over at FaLaLaLaLa.) This one features the music of Joe Reisman, which isn't too shabby. I suppose I should dedicate this record to Rocky Balboa, because I think the first place I knew about Burgess Meredith was from Rocky. No, maybe it was in Clash Of The Titans. Maybe it was Batman (Read the comments!). Nevermind, I give up. Just download this and enjoy it! The E.F. MacDonald Company Presents Christmas Classics 1963 (E.F. MacDonald EFMX-63, 1963). Pretty cool cover, too, eh?