I was out at Myakka River State Park last night, and I just couldn't believe how many vultures there were in the air out there. I knew they had lots of vultures, and I've seen lots of them before, but not like this. There were a thousand or more of them in the air at any given time. Keep in mind I shot these with a telephoto lens, not a wide angle. A wide angle lens would have shown birds from one corner of the sky to the other.
These are a couple of shots I got of a small bird last weekend at Robinson Preserve in Bradenton. I think it's some species of warbler, but I couldn't tell you which one. According to my book, there are a couple of different ones with the yellow underbelly you see here. (I think it was also a warbler I spotted here, judging by the thin beak, but that one isn't the same as this one.) It's hard for me to ID some of these little birds since I don't see them all that frequently. They're hard to spot in the wild, and I can only get their pictures when I happen to have a long lens on the camera and I happen across them. I usually get a shot or two and they're gone. This guy was different, though. He was out in the open and hopping along the ground for almost 10 minutes, looking for seeds or insects or whatever he eats. For a little guy not much more that four inches beak to tail, I thought I got some pretty decent shots.
Those power lines at Robinson Preserve are just a magnet for wildlife. Not only did I spot woodpeckers and a kestrel up there on Saturday, I also saw this kingfisher. As usual, he was skittish to the point of not being there. Soon as I took two steps towards him to get a better picture, he was up and gone. So apologies for the graininess of this one, but it's all I got. Maybe next time...
He may be a little hard to see, but this is only the second wild kestrel I've ever spotted. There is one (or maybe a pair) that are in the field behind my parent's house, but this guy is much closer to my house. I spotted him on a powerline running across the middle of Robinson Preserve in Bradenton. I never got too close to him, and when I first saw him I thought it was a dove, but as he moved, I realized it was no dove. Those bands of color on the wings along with the marking on the face make these predators really stand out. Now I need to go back and see if I can get some better shots of him with a longer lens.
I waited and waited and waited for this little woodpecker to give me a better view yesterday, but he never showed my anymore than what you see here. And this was about the only time he stuck his head out of the shadow behind the palm tree.
I thought it a little odd that I would see similar woodpeckers two days in a row, and so many miles apart. The one up top was near the St. Petersburg Yacht Basin, and these two were ganging up on a telephone pole in Robinson Preserve near Bradenton. One of these two seems to be exhibiting male pattern baldness, although I'm not certain he was the male.
At least the one with the nice read head was closer, so I got a slightly closer picture of him.
Yes, Elvis is apparently still alive, and he's towing cars that are parked illegally at the museum in St. Pete. Who'd a thunk it?
I've always said you can never have too much zoom lens on your camera. Problem is, the more zoom you have, the harder it is to get a quality picture. Here's a little example I shot this evening with an old lens I had and a couple of new fancy Canon Extenders I found at the pawn shop for a good price. Unlike the cheap 400mm lens, these extenders are top of the line. They'll find a place in my camera bag while I wait to be able to afford a nice long prime lens. Anyhow, the shot above is from one end of my living room to the other with just the big 400mm zoom telephoto lens. With the 1.6x crop factor of my 7D, that makes this shot about 640mm. At that kind of zoom, I can't come close to hand-holding it, so I've got it on a tripod and I'm triggering the shot with a remote. I guess I should learn how to lock the mirror up and take the shot, but I'm not quite there yet. Take a close look at the Justin Wilson LP just right of center.
Here's the next shot with a 1.4x extender thrown into the mix. Notice that in addition to giving more zoom, it's also darker. The 35mm equivalent zoom here is 896mm. That's pretty big. This is also the last exposure that the camera would autofocus on and really didn't think it would, but it did. All the remaining shots are manual focus. See that Justin Wilson LP? Not the one left of center in this shot but the other one, still to the right of center. Look close and you're beginning to see a lot of Chromatic Aberration. That means the different colors of light are traveling differently through the lens, and they aren't coming together quite right on the image sensor.
And here's a shot with the 2x Extender in place, making a 1280mm shot. Way, way, way long, and way too dark. I think I shot this one at a full stop more than the camera wanted, and I still had to brighten it up a little. Look close at our Justin Wilson title and you can see it's getting a lot worse. This is in pretty poor lighting, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad in daylight, but it still wouldn't get you into National Geographic.
Last but not least, this is the 400mm lens plus the 2x extender plus the 1.4x extender plus the 1.6x crop factor, making for a total 35mm equivalent of 1344mm! That's a lot of zoom! However, this is clearly the worst picture of the lot. It's almost to the point where you can't read the lettering on the Justin Wilson LP. If you were a double naught spy, though, this would certainly get you some incriminating photographs. Now, if I only had a nice 400mm L series f/2.8 prime lens to try this little test on...
So what happens when I put all these together? The collage above shows all the pictures crammed into one, with the lens alone at the bottom, followed by 1.4x, then 2x, then 1.4x and 2x on the top. I blew up each picture by the same factor as the missing extenders to get the scale the same in each shot. I also tried to fudge the levels a bit to get the brightness levels the same, but I didn't go crazy with it. (You can see where the camera shifted slightly between shots, I must need a heavier tripod.) Anyhow, you can see that I'm probably just as well off zooming the photo digitally as I am by having all that extra glass. I think if I had started with better glass, there would be fewer flaws to amplify, but it would still be a trade-off. I have a lot to learn when it comes to such things. Maybe I should just go back to a point-and-shoot with a 10x zoom and quit worrying about such things. Sure would be cheaper.
That's right, it's the third day of the month, and that means it's time for another installment of my ever-growing collection of covers of that classic track, Theme From The Third Man. Only one more track this time than last, which means six different takes this time instead of five. I'd hoped to have more, but these things take time. Artists and instruments this month include Ruth Welcome on the, umm, zither, Mark Monte on the cocktail orchestra, Josef Sepp Diepolder on the, err, zither, Henry Jerome on his Brazen Brass (best version here in my humble opinion), another version by Don Costa, this time with only an orchestra (no voices) and a great version by Big Tiny Little on the barroom piano. Sound interesting? Here's a download link for you. Thanks for all those comments last month. I didn't get as many downloads as I see on my Christmas stuff, but the great comments more than make up for that. See you all next month.
I'm thinking I need to start a Yard of the Week Award, and this place would win every time. Some place I drove by down in Venice today had an Easter Island head in his yard. A really big Easter Island head. Probably eight feet tall. Gonna take something more than a few pink flamingos to top this yard.
I recently got hold of this picture taken when I went to see the shuttle launch last year. You know how you go some place and they make you pose for a picture, then sell you that picture later on in the day? Well, this is one of those, taken at 6:30 in the morning as we arrived at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex. They herded us all in a row and blinded us with a bright flash that did nothing to illuminate the giant blue NASA logo in the background. I blame the photographer for that. That's my mom on the left, then Dad, me, and Charlene, a friend of the family. There's another shot here from later in the day, but it's not very good so I'll keep it for another day. A day far, far in the future most likely.
Here's doodle #165, filling in a hole in the collection from way back in December of '05. I haven't posted anything in a while 'cause I've been busy trying to put up some shelves for my records. It's gotten a little out of hand, but I'm hoping to have it under control soon. Plus, the battery in my car died today and it took a few hours to get that fixed. Funny how they often die all at once with no signs of impending doom. Anyhow, this nautical scene is from the back of Sea Shanties by The Men Of The Robert Shaw Chorale (RCA Victor Red Seal LM-2551, 1961).
The high temperature in my neck of the Florida woods today was in the forties. That's a regular heat wave over yesterday when it didn't get out of the thirties. But I couldn't live with the cabin fever, so I went outside in search of something to do. I decided to head up to Apollo Beach to see the manatees that seek shelter from the cold by congregating in the warm water discharged from the local power plant. Sure enough, there were hundreds of manatees being gawked at by hundreds of tourists. But that's not the interesting part. What was interesting to me were the other creatures looking for warmth in the water. And what was eating them. I kept seeing splashes in the canal that didn't look like manatees. Finally I realized it was fish jumping. And it was big fish. Two to three foot tarpon and snook were jumping out of the water, presumably in pursuit of a meal. And every once in a while, a spotted eagle ray would leap out as well, a completely unexpected sight. So I decided to try and photograph one of these fish up in the air. It took half an hour of pointing and waiting, but I finally got a ray up in the air. This is a detail of a much bigger picture, and it only lasted a second, but I got it. You can add this to the list of rare shots I've taken of things in the air that should be in the water. After I got these shots, I went back to the car and waited until I could feel my fingers again before leaving. We don't know how to dress for the cold here in Florida.
Looking closer at these shots, I'm pretty sure there's some sort of sucker-fish stuck on the rays head. You can see it on the right side of his head above.
If memory serves, I skipped doodles 164-168. So here's the first one of the fill-in doodles. I think it was November 0f '08 when I last brought you a doodle, but I think I need to throw a few up just for old times sake. This is from the back-side of Mood Italiano by Tommy Gumina (Decca DL 8630), an LP I picked up this weekend. Hope you like it.
Here's a little something I've been meaning to do for ages now. I know you're all used to getting Christmas music from around here, but trust me when I tell you that the Christmas records in this condo are far outnumbered by plain ordinary non-seasonal music. But I'm too lazy to record and share most of that music with you. But for a while now, I've been wanting to share out some different versions of that Anton Karras zither classic, The 3rd Man Theme. Or, The Third Man Theme. Or sometimes, The Harry Lime Theme. You know the one I mean, it's the main theme from The Third Man and it was crazy popular for a few years after that movie came out. I've got dozens of records featuring that track, and I was busy trying to avoid doing anything else tonight, so I ripped five of them to share. With a little luck, and perhaps a little encouragement, I can get around to putting up a few of these each month. Hopefully more than the five I have for you now, but hey, I only started ripping these a couple of hours ago. And I can never bring myself to only rip one song from an LP... So here are five versions of one song as performed by Eddie Peabody, Don Costa, Ethel Smith, Johnny Ukulele and Robert Maxwell as performed on the banjo, the orchestra with voices, the organ, the ukulele and the harp. Interested?
I shot this pelican this evening out at the Anna Maria City Pier. The sun was going down behind me, and I noticed that birds were flying though the light occasionally. I waited until I caught one in the right place at the right time, then laid on the shutter release. Pretty cool the way he's highlighted as he moves through the air.
Well, here we are on the first day of 2010. I haven't posted anything since Christmas Eve because I've been pretty busy. Perhaps I should have known better than to schedule a server upgrade over the holidays. We switched from a really old NT4 network to a shiny new Server 2008 domain. So we basically started over from scratch, because I never let the new domain see the old domain. So I've been at work every single day since then, and here it is New Year's Day, and I'm still here. Actually, I'm spending today trying to remove a virus from the bosses computer. What fun! But that seems to be going well, so maybe I can get out of here in a few hours and go find something interesting to do. I wanted to do a year-end wrap up post yesterday, but once I finally got home, I didn't want to even be near a computer. So maybe I'll do that now. 2009 was a good year. I didn't travel as much as 2008, but I still got to go to Atlanta once, Ohio once and DC twice. I saw a shuttle launch from six miles away, which is pretty close, even though it may not sound close. I ignored the blog a bit at the beginning of the year, but I made up for it later with 119 posts in a single week! Christmas was almost a bust, what with losing my hard drive less than a month before the season started, but I think I pulled it out OK with hundreds of repeats and a handful of new or remastered shares. My traffic during the month was a lot less than last year, but I suppose it was as much as could be expected. And any year in which I got a new camera can't be all bad! I even got a new L-series lens to go with the fancy camera, and I've started renting lenses for those extra special occasions. that's led to some great pictures that I've only dreamed of in the past. But all that camera bloat has led to some unexpected drawbacks. I went to a wedding earlier in the year and didn't take a single picture. In fact I didn't even carry my camera. It's just become too heavy, too awkward. You can't eat at a buffet with a millstone around your neck. So I'm thinking of maybe investing in another little pocket-size camera for those occasion where I"m just shooting for fun. We'll see how that goes, though. A couple hundred dollars for a play camera would make for a nice accessory to go on the big camera...
What does 2010 hold? Well, I'd love to go back and visit some of my recent haunts. San Francisco, New York City, Washington, DC and maybe even Vegas would be great to hit this year. And for some reason I've had a hankering to spend some time down in the American Southwest, maybe see the Grand Canyon (from closer than 30,000 feet) or Monument Valley. But we'll see. No one knows what the future holds. Here's to a great 2010! Oh, and don't forget to back up your hard drive!
I almost forgot that I'm supposed to share this out on Christmas Eve. This one is for all the little ones out there who might be having trouble getting to sleep on this special night. If that description fits your house, please download and enjoy 'Twas The Night Before Christmas (RCA Camden CAS-1101, Stereo, 1968). I've been sharing this one on Christmas Eve since 2006.
Merry Christmas Everybody!
I know it's late, but I wanted to get one more little thing up for you guys this year. See that little stereo at the top of this record jacket? That's the magic word. I've been in love with this record ever since I first heard a couple of tracks from it shared out over at Lee's Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else many years ago. I eventually found and shared a mono copy, but this year I finally stumbled across a nice stereo copy. I've been meaning to share this with you all season, but I just today got the chance to put the package together and share it. The scanning was a pain since pretty much every pass I made had blue and yellow streaks in it. The flip side is all shades of gray, yet it scanned blue. I guess this thing is on the fritz, and it's not gonna get fixed until after the holiday. Oh, and one of the tracks skipped very quietly, so I had to go back and re-record that just now. But without further ado, here it is, my last share of the season, We Wish You A Merry Christmas-15 Great Christmas Favorites Sung By Warner Bros. Stars (Warner Bros WS1337, Stereo, 1959). Have a Merry Christmas, y'all!
1. Efrem Zimbalist Jr.-Adeste Fideles
2. Warner Bros. Stars-Deck The Halls
3. Connie Stevens-Away In A Manger
4. Edward Byrnes-Yulesville
5. Peter Brown-Winter Wonderland
6. Ray Danton-God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
7. Poncie Ponce-Mele Kalikimaka
8. Eddie Cole-Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town
9. Bob Conrad-White Christmas
10. Dorothy Provine-Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
11. Clint Walker-Silver Bells
12. Roger Moore-Once In Royal David's City
13. Warner Bros. Male Chorus-Star Carol
14. Ty Hardin-It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
15. Warner Bros. Stars-We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Anybody out there still looking for something to get me for Christmas? How about a hardcover copy of my blog? Looks like it would run two volumes at about $144 ea. Makes a great stocking stuffer. I may have to buy myself the $8 digital version if no one comes through for Christmas.
This is one of the things that I lost when my hard drive crashed earlier this year. I had a stereo copy of this ripped and ready to share when I found a stereo tape of it! I had recorded that, but hadn't cut it into sections when the hard drive decided to take an early retirement. So you're going to have to make due with my same old mono share dating all the way back to 2005. But it's still a great record. You get songs from Dennis Day, and the occasional bit featuring the famous Jack Benny. That alone is worth more than the price of admission. I know the scan above shows the stereo logo across the top, but I just put it up there for no good reason back in the day. In fact, stereo copies omit the banner across the bottom highlighting the presence of Jack Benny. But enough talk, please download Dennis Day Sings "Christmas Is For The Family" Featuring Lou Hollingsworth At The Wurlitzer Electronic Organ & The Vail Boys Choir With Full Orchestra (Design Records DLP-X-1, Mono). Just a little over 24 hours to Christmas. Are you ready yet?
1. Dennis Day & Jack Benny-I'm Ready Dennis
2. Jingle Bells
3. White Christmas
4. May Santa Fill Our Hearts
5. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
6. I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day
7. Christmas Is For The Family
8. Dennis Day & Jack Benny-Dennis
9. Silent Night
10. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
11. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
12. Oh Holy Night
13. Away In A Manger
14. Oh, Come All Ye Faithful/The First Noel/God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
15. Dennis Day & Jack Benny-Oh Mr. Benny
Here's the lost soundtrack to a lost television special from 1968. The Night Before Christmas isn't one of those specials they repeat every year, or at least they don't include it in their 25 Nights Of Christmas programming (which seems to include every special Christmas presentation known to man, plus a few unknowns...). I shared this out in 2007, and you can read more about it there. I'd write more here, but I'm still a little under the weather and bed is calling my name. Please download and enjoy The Norman Luboff Choir-The Night Before Christmas (Elba Productions, Stereo, 1968).
1. Savory Serenade
2. Wintertime
3. Lullaby Time
4. The Night Before Christmas
5. The Morning Of Christmas
You may have noticed that I sharply curtailed my sharity today. It's a combination of a couple of things. I started feeling under the weather yesterday (and today hasn't been one iota better) and it's getting pretty close to Christmas. I don't think the folks on my nice list are going to be too impressed when I give them a CD of some Christmas music I ripped. So I need to find some time to do a little Christmas shopping. But I really can't do that until I feel better. So curling up on the couch under a blanket is going to take precedence over sitting in front of the glowing monitor for a bit. Besides, I think you have more than enough music already. But here's one more, from 2006. Please download Emilien Allard-Noels au Carillon de l'Oratoire Saint-Joseph (Carols At The Carillon Of Saint Joseph's Oratory) (RCA Victor of Canada LCP-1024, Mono).
1. Minuit, Cretiens (O Holy Night)
2. Sainte Nuit (Silent Night)
3. Venez Pasteurs
4. Gesu Bambino
5. Dans Cette Etable
6. Les Agnes Dans Nos Campagnes
7. Ca, Bergers Assemblons-Nous
8. Adeste Fideles
9. Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant
10. D'ou Viens-Tu Bergere?
11. Silence Le Ciel
12. Noel (d'Aquin)
I know that some of you folks who come by the blog here are also fans of FaLaLaLaLa. Well, in case you haven't noticed, that site is down. Story I heard is that he's become too popular, and his ISP booted him. He's found a new host for the website and is in the process of moving things, but it might still be a little while before he gets things up and running. Unfortunately, you can't put Christmas on hold, so The King is up against a pretty solid deadline. I'll let you know more as soon as I hear something. Maintaining a site like that is a real labor of love, but sometimes love stinks.
From the 2008 Sharity Season, this is a curious record that appears to have come with a doll. Or maybe you ordered the record after you got the doll. Or maybe you get the record during the year and then hope the doll showed up for Christmas? I don't know, I never played with dolls. But here's you chance to listen to Christmas through a doll's ears. Or something like that. Please download Heidi-The Night Before Christmas (Majorette M-304, Mono, 1965).
1. Introduction
2. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
3. Silent Night
4. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
5. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
6. O Christmas Tree
7. Deck The Halls
8. Frosty The Snowman
9. Joy To The World
10. The First Noel
11. We Wish You A Merry Christmas
12. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
13. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
14. And The Night Before Christmas Story
It's taken me way too long to finish this, but here it is. This is a collection of the best tracks I shared out this year during Christmas In July. I think it will give you a good idea of what goes on around here during the month of July. Each of the tracks on here was pulled from a non-holiday LP, which means you're liable to miss it come the holiday season. But I don't want that to happen, so I compile and share these out during July. I think I shared well over 200 songs this year, and I think these are the 31 best. Each track below is linked to the day I originally shared it, in case you want to read more about it. Please download and enjoy Ernie (Not Bert)'s The Very Best From Christmas In July 2009-Life's A Beach (Ernie (Not Bert), 2009).
1. The Weavers-Santa Claus Is Coming (It's Almost Day)
2. John Klein, Orchestra And Chorus By Leo Addeo-Sweet Nutcracker!
3. Perry Como With The London Boy Singers-Christmas Dream
4. 101 Strings-Ski Run
5. Larry Chesky And His Orchestra-Sun Valley Polka
6. Johnny Dyno-Jingle Bells-Polka
7. Tom T. Hall-Christmas Is
8. Skitch Henderson, His Piano And Orchestra-I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
9. The McGuire Sisters With Orchestra Directed By Dick Jacobs-Children's Holiday
10. The Honolulu Symphony Orchestra Conducted By George Barati-Mele Kalikimaka
11. Roger Miller-Footprints In The Snow
12. The Duluth Accordionaires, Directed By John Copiskey-Brazilian Sleigh Bells
13. Lockhart Cougar Chorus-Will The Real Santa Please Stand Up
14. The Merrill Staton Voices-That Man Over There
15. David Rose And His Orchestra-The Sad, Sad Rocking Horse
16. Eddie Albert-Let There Be Peace On Earth
17. Fay McKay-Twelve Daze Of Christmas
18. Dick Shawn, Arranged And Conducted By Milton DeLugg-My Favorite Things
19. Jane Morgan-The Marvelous Toy
20. Anna Russell With Eugene Rankin And Arthur Hoberman-Let Us Hang The Holly
21. The Ray Charles Singers-A Toy For A Boy
22. Jack Shaindlin Conducting The Cinerama Symphony Orchestra-Hup-Sa-Sa
23. Leroy Anderson-Song Of The Bells
24. Merle Haggard-Blue Christmas
25. Kurt Wege & His Orchstra-Sleigh Ride
26. Ernie Maxwell-The Bells Of St. Mary
27. Esquivel, His Piano And His Orchestra-Snowfall
28. Ray Bohr-Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers
29. Polyphon Music Box-Silent Night
30. Jimmy Soul-Rockin' Santa
31. Eddie Lawrence, The Old Philosopher-What Do You Want For Christmas
This is a little bit more on the operatic side of things than what I usually like, but I don't think it's so far into that territory that you can't enjoy it. I posted this last year in response to a post by CaptOT at his blog of a later 12" LP from Ms. Anderson. I think his post is still good, and now mine is too. Please help yourself to Marion Anderson Sings Christmas Carols With Franz Rupp At The Piano (RCA Victor Red Seal 10" 33 RPM LM 7008, Mono).
1. Silent Night
2. Oh! Little Town Of Bethlehem
3. Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful)
4. The First Noel
5. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
6. Cantique De Noel
7. Angel's Song
8. Hallelujah
A nice LP here from a singing chorus. I guess all choruses sing, but you know what I mean. At least I hope you know what I mean. Warner Bros. put out some really good Christmas records in their first few years and this is no exception. I first shared this out just last year, but if you missed it, please download The Gene Lowell Chorus-Caroling, Caroling (Warner Bros. WS 1233, Stereo, 1958).
1. Joy To The World
2. The First Noel
3. I Saw Three Ships-O Little Town Of Bethlehem-Deck The Halls With Boughs Of Holly
4. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
5. Still, Still, Still
6. Adeste Fidelis (O Come All Ye Faithful)
7. Westminster Carol (Angels We Have Heard On High)
8. Silent Night
9. Merry Christmas One And All
10. The Wassail Song-O Christmas Tree-The Holly And The Ivy
11. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
12. Caroling, Caroling
I almost forgot that I didn't tell you when my second calendar came in. This one is for the shop we have in Cleveland, Ohio, so it's a montage of sights in downtown Cleveland. I only visited Cleveland once last year, so that didn't give me much time to get many really good pictures. We settled on these 5 and I collaged them together. Let me see, what's in the picture... Starting from the left, that's the lighthouse in Lake Erie that marks the opening to the Cuyahoga River. Next up is the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, designed by I.M. Pei. Then there's a long jetty sticking out into Lake Erie behind the Science Center. Then we have the Key Tower and some skyscraper that I don't know the name of in downtown near sunset. And last is one of the many historic railroad bridges in The Flats district. I could look up the name of it, but it would take forever. All of the shots below were pictures we considered but wound up not using.
This is the view of downtown Cleveland from Wendy Park. This is my new favorite place to go when I'm in Cleveland.
This is the view of downtown from a marina in Ohio City, just the other side of the Cuyahoga River.
This is the full shot of that lighthouse that made the calendar.
The Cleveland Browns stadium.
And, of course, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
Here is the second album of Christmas tunes I promised from Mike Douglas this morning. This one is later than the first, and to my ears it's the lesser of the two. You may enjoy it, though. I believe I first brought you this in 2007, and I'm bringing it back today. This is The Mike Douglas Christmas Album (Word WSB-8815, Stereo, 1979).
1. Oh Holy Night
2. One Small Child
3. Do You Hear What I Hear?
4. What Child Is This?
5. Christmas Song
6. It's O.K. To Be A Kid At Christmas
7. Christmas Is Love
8. Thanks To You At Christmas
9. Special Delivery
10. Happy Birthday, Christmas
From the celebrity vocal folder, here's the first of two Christmas records from Mike Douglas. I first shared this in August of 2006, not long after Mike Douglas has passed away. It's actually much better than most albums of it's ilk, since Mike could actually sing. He was also quite the talker, which is where I know him from. I'm sure you're going to enjoy Mike Douglas-My Kind Of Christmas (Epic BN 26322, Stereo, 1967).
1. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)
2. The First Noel
3. Do You Hear What I Hear?
4. O Holy Night
5. (The Story Of) The First Christmas Carol
6. White Christmas
7. Silent Night, Holy Night
8. Silver Bells
9. Ave Maria
10. Touch Hands On Christmas Morning
Here's a record you don't see every day, or at least I don't see it every day. Maybe it's a regional thing, but this is the only copy I've ever seen. It's part of Kapp's Medallion series, meant o show off all the great things about Stereo. They were well-recorded, well-engineered and unfortunately, higher-priced. Perhaps that explains the rarity part. As far as I know, this was the only Christmas entry in the series, but I could easily be proven wrong on that. I first shared this out back in 2007, and I'm bringing it back for you today. Please download The Medallion Orchestra And Chorus, Directed By John Paul Krance-The Sound Of Christmas-Deck The Halls (Medallion (Kapp) MS-7512, Stereo, 1960).
1. Joy To The World-Deck The Halls-The Wassial Song
2. Carol Of The Bells-The Little Drummer Boy
3. The Christmas Song
4. Hark The Herald Angels Sing-Away In A Manger-It Came Upon The Midnight Clear
5. White Christmas
6. Oh, Little Town Of Bethlehem-The First Noel
7. Oh, Tannenbaum-Angels We Have Heard On High
8. Silent Night
9. Jingle Bells-Winter Wonderland
10. We Three Kings Of Orient Are-God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
11. What Child Is This?-The Coventry Carol
12. Adeste Fideles
