Christmas Blues, Boogie Woogie Santa Claus, and more!

The Mas season is getting bluesy here at MYPWHAE. As in jump-bluesy, in the case of R&B vocalist Larry Darnell's 1950 hit for the Regal label, Christmas Blues:

Christmas Blues, Larry Darnell, 1950.

And we have--believe it or not--Patti Page rocking in twelve-bar boogie fashion with her quite good cover of Mabel Scott's Boogie Woogie Santa Claus:

Boogie Woogie Santa Claus (Leon Rene), Patti Page with Jack Rael and His Orch., 1950. From Mercury 45 (flip side of Tennessee Waltz).

And we have Kitty Wells, not rocking or singing a 12-bar blues, but nonetheless sounding end-of-the-world blue in this perfect rendition of Blue Mas--I mean, Blue Christmas.

Blue Christmas (Bill Hayes--Jay Johnson), Kitty Wells and The Jordanaires, 1962. From the LP Christmas Day with Kitty Wells.

Kitty's big, big hit, of course, was It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, which I'm listening to now and recognizing, tune-wise, as The Great Speckle Bird. Hm. If you want to hear it, go to www.kittywells.com. Tell them Dasher sent you (the reindeer with the light upon his tail, remember?).

We close with Swingin' Them Jingle Bells, by Fats Waller and His Rhythm, 1936. I like swing music, so it's a mystery why this recording does so little for me. Maybe you'll like it more than I:

Swingin' Them Jingle Bells, Fats Waller and His Rhythm, 1936.

More Mas music to come at this very weblog.


















Larry Darnell, one of the zillions of R&B guys who rocked before Elvis, almost as if... as if Elvis didn't invent rock, or something equally shocking and unthinkable like that.


Lee

MYPWHAE's Kiddie Christmas, Part 5

Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else wishes you a Merry Mas!

We have more kiddie klassics, beginning with Ray Stevens' 1962 cautionary Big-Brother Yuletide tale, Santa Claus Is Watching You. Even the record label has its eyes on you (below). Click on it to go to the file. You cannot resist....



















If you're like me, you've always wondered how Santa has light to see when the moon is in the shadows or hidden behind the trees. From a lamp hanging over the head of the sleigh? Nope. It seems that Santa gets his light from Dasher's tail. So claim the lyrics to Dasher with the Light Upon His Tail, which I can barely make heads or, uh, tails out of. For example, is the light source a natural one, like Rudolph's nose, or we talking about something that hangs from Dasher's behind, or...? Do we even want to know?

Anyway, a 1962 Mas classic sure to light up your day/afternoon/evening/early AM, as performed by Kitty Wells and the Jordanaires:

Dasher with the Light Upon His Tail (Warner McPherson), Kitty Wells and The Jordanaires, 1962. From the Decca LP Christmas Day with Kitty Wells.

And here's Walter Brennan, who believes that this is A Good Year for Christmas. Speaking of which, I have no idea what year this was recorded, or for what label, originally. But I do know for sure it's Walter Brennan:

It's a Good Year for Christmas, Walter Brennan (the actual, and one and only).

Henry Hall returns, the BBC Dance Orchestra under his baton, with Santa Claus Express:

Santa Claus Express (Silver, Sherman, Lewis), Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra w. vocal group.

Meanwhile, Cyril Grantham is sending a letter to Santa Claus. Cyril sure had a manly voice for a young boy--maybe the microphone deepened it, or something. Those old-style mikes were pretty big, after all:

I'm Sending a Letter to Santa Claus (Connor, Williams), Cyril Grantham with Geraldo and His Orchestra.

Kitty Wells and the Jordanaires return with Ole Saint Nick, whose tune and lyrics have already escaped my head. I might be suffering from XMas music overload (a condition which typically takes place in, or near, shopping malls during Mas):

Ole Kris Kringle (Ray Botkin), Kitty Wells and the Jordanaires, 1962. From the Decca LP, Christmas Day with Kitty Wells.

See? I even typed the wrong title--it's Ole Kris Kringle. That's how thoroughly all memories of this selection left my brain. I'm surprised I even remembered ripping it. My apologies to Kitty Wells and Ray (Botkin, the songwriter).

Our sixth selection is by Harry Simeone, who, contrary to rumor, did not write The Little Drummer Boy. As we learned several posts ago, that song originally appeared as Carol of the Drum. How Harry got part of the rights to the thing, I don't know. It would be an interesting story to track down, but we're here on this cold and snowy day before Mas to hear Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer as sung by Harry's Chorale from around 1967. I love this arrangement! Do you think the engineer used enough echo?

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Harry Simeone Chorale.

I guess the label didn't put a comma after "Rudolph," since I didn't put one on the CD-R label. I'm sure everyone is really worried about the accuracy of the punctuation, here. There should be a comma after "Rudolph," anyway.

Song-title-wise, when in doubt, leave the comma out. That seems to be the rule.

Last, and hardly leastly, here are The Lancers with 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, as sung to the tune of Chopsticks. According to the label, that tune was written by Paul Campbell. I could have sworn it was written in 1887 by Euphonia Allen under the pseudonym "Arthur De Lulli," but I guess it was written much later by Paul Campbell. I don't want to call the Coral label a liar....

'Twas the Night Before Christmas (Paul Campbell), The Lancers, 1954. From Coral 45.

Hope you enjoyed these eight childish--I mean, kiddie--selections for Mas. Gosh, Mas is so close. I can't believe it. I hope everyone has gotten his/her Mas shopping done. I know I haven't....



Lee

MYPWHAE's Unhip Christmas, Part 9

We begin with Bill Buchanan and Dickie Goodman's 1957 holiday (gulp, Christmas!) "break-in," Santa and The Satellite. I'd love to say that this is the silliest record ever made, but it's not even close--even by Buchanan and/or Goodman standards. Dickie Goodman's Batman and His Grandmother, for instance, is infinitely more inane. But it's a weird audio experience, all the same. Click on the label image to go directly to the file:


















Wasn't it nice of me to combine both sides on a single file? Hey, I'm that kind of guy. This was reissued on the LP Mr. Jaws, and Other Fables By Dickie Goodman, only in faux stereo and with several of the musical snippets replaced by later, inferior clips. Don't know why.

And what's Christmas without Stan Kenton? Besides quieter? (Just kidding, just kidding.) Here's a 1963 Kenton classic that some Kenton fans might want to forget: What Is a Santa Claus? Somehow, that wording seems off--don't most kids simply ask, "Who is Santa Claus?" After all, kids are more likely to pick up on Saint Nick visually--an image on TV, a picture in a book or in a newspaper--than to hear the phrase and wonder what it is. I mean, is it too much to expect logic from a song called What Is a Santa Claus? Yes. Anyway, grab a box of Kleenex and follow the link:

What Is a Santa Claus? (Win Goulden--Jim Thurman), Stan Kenton with The Ralph Carmichael Choir, 1963. From Capitol 45.

You can't take any more of this? But we're only on the third track! Don't be folding up that easily. Come, enjoy the sounds of the seaso.... I mean, the sounds of Christmas. (That was close. Again.)

The artist is Bill Monroe and... someone else. (Dunno who.) The song is Christmas Time's A-Coming, from 1951. Clicking on the label image will take you to the file:


















I'd mention the "high lonesome sound" on that record, but I hate that phrase. Don't know why. It's too hokey, I guess.

Be that as it may, it's time (at last) for the flip side of Gene Autry's Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. It's called...

If It Doesn't Snow on Christmas (Pascal--Marks), Gene Autry and The Pinafores with Orchestra, 1949. From Columbia 90049.

And, on the Promo label (1960), Jimmy (A Million to One) Charles assures us that Santa Won't Be Blue This Christmas. I've already forgotten the words, so I can't remember why Santa won't be blue. Or why he ever was. Then again, it's pretty danged cold at the North Pole.

Please click label image for the file. As you can see, I got this record for 50 cents. (At least the grease pencil matches the letter designs....):



















I'll have to listen to that again, if only to find out what it's about. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoyed it.

We close with Tony Bennett going to town with Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. According to the liner notes for The Great Songs of Christmas, Album 7: "This is Mr. Bennett's first recording of Christmas music, and this song has been recorded especially for this 1967 Goodyear album." Wow. Double historical significance, there:

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (Gillespie--Coots), Tony Bennett, from The Great Songs of Christmas, Album Seven, 1967. (Goodyear)

More to come, of course!


Lee

"Voices of Christmas Past," "Crescent City Blues"

Just wanted to recommend an outstanding CD of holiday--er, Christmas--recordings from the acoustical era. Dawn of Sound's Voices of Christmas Past features a host of popular artists from 1898 to 1922 in superb digital restorations, and the selections (all 23 of them) are as good or better than the pre-electric XMas sides I've been posting from my own collection. I won't go so far as to call Dawn of Sound's audio-cleaning efforts better than mine (they are), but I will go so far as to suggest that you get this now. $15.00 includes shipping and handling in the U.S. and Canada when you order from their site. What a deal!

I'm getting nothing for plugging this CD, except the pleasure of helping out its sales and alerting my readers to a fantastic collection. That's the kind of guy I am.

One of the tracks--On a Christmas Morning--has appeared here, albeit dubbed from my copy of the 78. If you liked Christmas Morning, you'll love Voices of Christmas Past. Tell them Lee sent you. Or that Santa sent you. Whatever. Just get it!

Meanwhile, I can't find my acoustical 78 of The Hallelujah Chorus. Maybe I don't have a copy, after all. I might have mistaken something else for it. That's probably it. I looked at a 12" Victor 78, misread the label, and concluded that I have a copy of The Hallelujah Chorus. Either that, or I did have the record, but it slipped into a wormhole and is now floating around on the other side of the universe.

Yeah, that seems way more probable than me misreading a label. Moral: always go with the most prosaic explanation.

Last, and hardly least, here's a re-posting of Crescent City Blues from Gordon Jenkin's 1953 "popular cantata" Seven Dreams. You may have heard this song before, only by a different artist and under a different title. In a later recording. That artist forgot to ask Mr. Jenkins for permission, and, sometime later, a lawsuit came about. Which the original publishers won.

Crescent City Blues (Gordon Jenkins), Beverly Mahr, 1953. From Seven Dreams LP on the Decca label.


Lee

MYPWHAE's unhip Christmas: Part 8

A bit of "everything" in today's post--kiddie stuff, cowboy Santa stuff, and stuff.

These are files that have been waiting to be heard, just sitting around while other files have gotten their day in the blog. They're understandably resentful (I tell them that they're special, but they don't buy it) but excited, all the same, to finally be heard. I'm sure that, like me, you're happy for them.

We start with CHRISTMAS, a folksy reminder of What Christmas Is All About. And a reminder of why subversive fare like Irving Berlin's Happy Holiday must be banned from every pagan playlist in the land:

CHRISTMAS (Jenny Lou Carson--Eddy Arnold, 1949), The Lewis Family, 1981.

This next one is downright spooky. It's supposed to be sentimental, but it comes off like a segment of Night Gallery. Bob wants to see his late mother for Christmas. No offense, Bob, but I think I'll skip your house for holiday dinner. You and Mom will have much to talk about, and I'd hate to interfere.

Dig the style--cowboy music with tenor sax. There may be another sax in there, but I can't tell for sure, the mix being as muddy as it is.

I'd Like to See My Mom for Christmas (Eddie Unger), Bob Jones with The Williams Sextette. From 78 on the Unger Music label. (The flip of Let's Put Christ Back Into Christmas.)

And here's a Glenn Miller radio performance of Jingle Bells, the studio version of which we heard earlier. I like that recording better, but this has a looser feeling and some nice extra touches, including a two-man rap section to start things out (courtesy of Glenn Miller and Paul Douglas). Broadcast on Christmas Eve, 1941:

Jingle Bells, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, with Glenn Miller, Paul Douglas, Tex Beneke, Ernie Caceres, and The Modernaires, 1941.

Wow--we're up to nine Jingle Bells, so far.

And what Christmas is complete without Merv Griffin's 1949 rendition of Merry Christmas Polka? Not yours, not mine. And the good news is, Merv's in the house! So, everybody, polka! (We'll be taking down the names of all who refuse to.)

Merry Christmas Polka, (Walta Dana--Ken Hecht), Merv Griffin with Freddy Martin and His Orch., 1949. From RCA Victor 78.

That was ripped from a copy pressed on green vinyl. Believe it or not....


















Now do you believe me? (I'm not sure I do, and I own the thing!) Green vinyl. What will RCA think of next?

And... Santa's Laughing Song has been featured on this blog, but not its flip, Santa, the Happy Wanderer. Well, that's about to no longer be the case. Hard to tell from the title, but this one uses the tune of The Happy Wanderer. Bet you hadn't guessed that!

Santa, the Happy Wanderer (Al Stillman--F. Moller), Santa Claus and His Helpers, 1955. From Columbia 45.

We used to sing The Happy Wanderer in my high school German classes. Every other class. For two years. It was fun at first. But "valderi"-ing and "valdera"-ing gets ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-hard to take after a while.

In Texas, Santa rides a strawberry roan. Such is the claim of Jim (Green Door) Lowe and the Dream Dusters on this 1956 Mercury 45. This may be true, it may not be. MYPWHAE doesn't want to get involved in this debate.

Santa Claus Rides a Strawberry Roan (Lowe--Arbogast), Jim Lowe and the Dream Dusters, 1956. From Mercury 45.

More Christmasy Christmas music heading our way. (Btw, as of this post, entry times will appear in EST, i.e. the correct time for my area!)


Lee

Out of jury duty; 13 degrees; ice

Well, they're all out of jury duty, so I get to stay home. They run out from time to time, you know.

Actually, my car ran out of power. The battery decided to die. I can't think of a single reason this would happen, except maybe because we haven't been driving it enough (the van gets most of the use) and because it's, well, 13 degrees out. (12, when I got up.)

So, I called the judge's office and left the message that my car won't start, fully expecting an annoyed reaction ("car won't start" must be Made-up Excuse No. 1). Instead, the secretary called back and was as nice as could be. And I'm out of jury duty. Unless I'm called back at some point.

Hm. I used "called back" twice in that paragraph. And in two different contexts. Far out.

Duty was supposed to commence yesterday (Monday), but it was cancelled. So, today would have been my first day. Anyway, now to find the battery recharger. It's either in the shed or the studio. Luckily, it plugs in, so there's no battery to worry about. A battery-powered battery charger would be kind of ironic, wouldn't it?

Oh, yes--ice. Well, there's ice everywhere. But it's not that slippery. I don't know why some ice is slippery and other ice isn't. Temperament, maybe.

In other news, I woke up to 16 pieces of mail in my inbox. Using my keen psychic powers, I predicted that most of these 16 pieces would be jumbled-subject-line Spams. And I was correct.

My favorite: "And close at working vertebrate." Another good one (11/26): "I've stammer or clank mendacity." I have these in a folder, in case you're wondering. Unopened, of course.

Wow! "You people may colonist weedy." 11/29. Or we may not. Tough call.

A music post coming up, quick. I'll have to thaw out the files, first....














Winter (Fall, technically) as manifested in our back yard.


Lee

"Happy Holiday!" to Bill O'Reilly...

...and Jerry Falwell, the Catholic Rights League, and The American Family Association. Whom I assume are campaigning hard to ban the 1942 Bing Crosby classic Holiday Inn from the airwaves. The movie was, after all, contains the following tune (here performed by Jo Stafford):

Happy Holiday (Irving Berlin, 1942), Jo Stafford with Paul Weston and His Orchestra, 1955.

Irving is sorry if anyone took offense.



Lee

"Put Christ Back Into Christmas" (A)

"But Christ was never in Christmas to begin with!" (B) is the standard response to this standard sentiment. Let's try to figure out what this interesting claim actually means, prior to dealing with the "Put Christ back in(to) Christmas" plea (A).

When people say (B), they mean that Christmas is not mentioned in the Bible, nor is Christ's Birthday given a date (you'd think the Bible-writers would have had the courtesy to give the hour, minute, and second, too). Nor was Christ's Birthday important to Christians at first. Plus, the whole December 25th bit has more to do with the Winter Solstice and Saturnalia and Mithra than the Baby Jesus. And the Puritans didn't care for Christmas. Etc. All true.

However, suggestion (B) is so badly worded, it's almost nonsensical. Obviously, Christmas (Christes Masse, or Christ's Mass) had something to do with Christ. DUH. Otherwise, it wouldn't be called "Christ's Mass," would it? It would be Mithra's Mass, or MM. Or WinterSolsticemas. Or Day to Give Presents and Be Merry (DGPBM). What's next? A claim that Lincoln's Birthday has nothing to do with Lincoln?

(B) makes for a snappy, clever-sounding retort, but what the (B)-sayers actually mean is, "Christmas is really an ancient observance that has existed forever under different names, so if you're going to 'put Christ back into Christmas,' you may as well put the other reborn-sun gods in there with him, in which case you'd have a pretty crowded roster." Of course, that doesn't sound half as snappy, but the truth can be awkward, sometimes.

Christ was never in Christmas to begin with--brilliant. One might point to the fact that the star (no pun intended) of Christ's Mass is one Santa Claus, a.k.a. Kris Kringle. A purely secular character, that Santa. Oh, yeah. Who could be more secular than a saint? Not to mention a saint based both on the Germanic god Thor and Christ Kindel (the Christ Child). We're talking Secular City, U.S.A..

Now that we've established that Christ's Mass has nothing to do with Christ, let's deal with (A). I just found a site that refers to (A) as "an interesting new twist in the age-old 'We poor Christians are being attacked!' movement this year." This was written in 2004, at which time Red Foley's Decca recording of Put Christ Back in Christmas was 51 years old. And I'm guessing that "Put Christ back in..." ideas are as old as Fundamentalism, a movement that predates Foley, I'm sure.

So, uh... no. Not a new idea.

What is new is the up-frontness of conservative Christianity. It's dangerously mainstream today, and this situation is undoubtedly aided by the fact that religion and sexuality are public matters anymore. As such, they make for handy and convenient weapons in the war against moderate Christianity and bipartisan politics. In the past, "Put Jesus back in the schools" was a fringe sentiment, not something being pushed for by, say, the President of the United States. Garrison Keillor wrote that Eisenhower would have shown neo-cons the door (he might even have given them a boost), and I believe Garrison. Pat Robertson would have enjoyed a similar reception from Ike, but this isn't our Parent's World anymore. This is the Boomer Era, in which televangelists and abortion foes and anti-Feminists rave their ravings to big ratings, in which public television plays host to the conservative loudmouth John McLaughlin, in which anti-science sentiment is so strong that the majority of citizens favor the "teaching" of Intelligent Design in public schools. Take me back to Ike's time, please.

With Boomers pushing 60, we can no longer blame our parents for everything, as site after Internet site is wont to do. This mess is our mess ("This mess is your mess; From the Iraq war to the booming deficit."--Woody Guthrie, slightly revised).

And, to get back to the subject, "Put Christ Back Into Christmas" is not a slogan born recently, as proven by (you guessed it) Put Christ Back Into Christmas, a record I'm estimating to be from the mid-1950s. The Unger Music label was not a major player, needless to say. Neither was conservative Christianity; the shameless right-catering of modern politics was decades in coming. Let's take this occasion to toast those good old days:

Put Christ Back Into Christmas (Eddie Unger), Jack Allyn with The Organta Trio. From 78 on Unger Music label.


Lee

Jury duty; Vintage Lounge; Art Carney

Starting tomorrow (Monday), I will be serving one week of/on jury duty. Unless I'm not picked, or something. There are all sorts of possibilities. I may end up doing a lot of sitting around. Which I've gotten pretty good at, what with all of my blogging. Ha-yuk, yuk.

So, I don't know how much (if any) time I'll have for my we(b log)s. If I vanish for five working days, do not be concerned, for you'll know that I am doing my civic duty.

Don't miss "Exoti-Boogie" at Vintage Lounge, a four-selection post featuring the amazing digits of Ben Light, Rosa Linda, Louise Wilcher, Harry Campbell, Herb Kern, and Lloyd Sloop on the piano, organ, and/or Novachord. What a line-up, no? I just put this up. I was going to include Ted Steele and His Novatones from 1940, but I think I'll save Ted's sides for later--they're a bit too mellow for a post titled "Exoti-Boogie."

In other news, it turns out that Art Carney's Santa and the Doodle-Li-Boop is from the same year as Sam Ulano's much better (in my opinion) rendition--1954. I like Art Carney, but his attempts at bebop fell flat with a splat, cat. The song was written by "jazz drummer turned master spoofer" Alan Abel, so I suspect Sam Ulano's version is the more authentic one, whatever "authentic" means in this instance.

I had something else I wanted to type about, and it has completely escaped my mind. Must not have been important(?)....


















No, it wasn't Santa Claus Tells About His Toy Shop....

Lee

A Christmas Message from Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. President Haley Fisk, 1923

The perfect thing to brighten your Christmas season--Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. President Haley Fisk's 1923 Christmas Message to his employees ("To my dear children in the field"). Travel back to a time when doing good deeds and succeeding in business weren't regarded as opposite ends. Travel back to a time when humility rated as a corporate virtue ("While Christmas is a time for rejoicing, it is not for boasting"). When company presidents had a fine command of English and employees were deemed smart enough to digest complete thoughts (in a row, even!). In today's business environment, such quaint middle-class-Christian sentiment has been replaced by a "culture" of self-congratulation. Behold with your own ears a company message devoid of sports metaphors--a company holiday greeting that focuses on (of all things) the holiday.

Christmas Message from Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., President Haley Fisk, 1923. Columbia Phonograph Company 3 P.

And here's the flip--the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. Glee Club singing Silent Night, Holy Night with words that seem a little "off" from more modern versions. Not sure. Where else are you going to hear the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. Glee Club, from 1923 or otherwise? Dig the cool "answer" phrases sung by the basses.

Silent Night, Holy Night, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. Glee Club (1923). Flip side of above selection.

And, from 1921, The Trinity Choir is back with two 12" 78 RPM sides of Christmas Carols and Hymns. The first medley contains very familiar songs, save for Christians, Awake! which may not be familiar to all. Not sure how I know that one--from church, maybe.

Christmas Hymns and Carols, No. 1, Trinity Choir, 1921. From 12" Victor 78.

The second medley contains some titles that don't seem to have made the Robert-Shaw-Chorale cut. A Joyful Christmas Song has a dated "modern" sound that's very interesting. Please don't ask me to explain that.

Christmas Hymns and Carols, No. 2, Trinity Choir, 1921. From 12" Victor 78.

We close with the Temple Quartet of England. The text and tune to Good Christian Men Rejoice are quite old, though the arrangement is relatively recent (late 19th century). These singers really drag it out, for an interesting effect. Different is Good®. And I'm assuming that "quartet," in this case, refers to Soprano-Alto-Tenor-Bass, vice four singers. Because there are definitely more than four singers at work, here:

Good Christian Men Rejoice, Temple Quartet (1927), from Columbia 78.

More to come.

Lee