Celebrity Mas at MYPWHAE, Part 2

More 1959 Warner Brothers TV stars, and more Merv. Plus Roy Rogers and Maurice Chevalier. Is that a line-up, or what?

We begin with Adeste Fideles, as sung by the son of violinist Efrem Zimbalist and soprano Alma Gluck. I refer, of course, to 77 Sunset Strip star Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.:

Adeste Fideles, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., 1959. From the W.B. LP, We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
Efrem has quite a voice, no? Wow. Written in 1743 by John F. Wade, Adeste Fideles' melody, I'm almost sure, was originally a fuging tune--it's from the right period, anyway. A good write-up on fuging tunes can be be found at the Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Such tunes show often up at shape-note sings (and William Billings concerts).

Yulesville is a song that might show up at hip-note sings. Eddie "Kookie" Byrnes of 77 Sunset Strip narrates this amusing track from W.B.'s We Wish You a Merry Christmas:

Yulesville, Eddie "Kookie" Byrnes, 1959.

Of course, at this point you're asking, "Where's future James Bond Roger Moore, who, in 1959, was starring in The Alaskans?" Glad you asked, because here he is, reading Cecil Frances Alexander's 1848 hymn, Once in Royal David's City.

Once in Royal David's City, Roger Moore (of The Alaskans), 1959.

















"Merrrrrrry... er... Holiday!"--W.B. TV stars

Back to Merv Griffin & TV Family, as they are billed on the MGM LP in question. Not "the TV family;" just "TV family." It seems kind of odd for the label to drop a measly the from a 24-word album title, but ink saved is ink saved, I reckon. Let's see--why don't we start with Frankie Michaels, who in 1966 was starring with Angela Lansbury in Mame as "the nephew," the liner notes tell us. And I believe them. This song is probably in the "Christmas Tunes We Never Want to Hear Again" Top 10:

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (Conner), Frankie Michaels with Mort Lindsay's Orch., 1966, from ...and a Big Christmas Album for Merv Griffin & TV Family.

More Merv? You bet. Here's two MMs (more Mervs), including a recitation of Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales:

Sleep My Child (Mary's Vision of Love), Merv Griffin with Mort Lindsay's Orchestra, 1966, from ...and a Big Christmas Album, etc.

A Child's Christmas in Wales (Dylan Thomas), Merv Griffin with Mort Lindsay's Orchestra, 1966, from ... and a Big Christmas Album, etc.

The music for the Thomas recitation was composed by none other than Merv. In case you were wondering.

And Arthur Treacher is about to make a second appearance at MYPWHAE via his rockin' rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer:

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Arthur Treacher with Mort Lindsay's Orchestra, 1966. From ...and a Big Christmas Album for Merv Griffin & TV Family.

Like many people, I'm pretty burned out on White Christmas, and yet I really like Pat Marand and Merv Griffin's duet of it. (Duet of it?) It's refreshingly refreshing:

White Christmas (Stephen Foster), Pat Marand and Merv Griffin, 1966, from that album, again.














Smooth, professional, not too heavy, not too light.... My kind of White Christmas. I guess it is a fine song, after all. Overplayed, but fine.

Next up: I'll Be Home for Christmas, which was cowritten by Buck Ram, the man who gave us The Great Pretender, Only You, Twilight Time, and the hugely popular vocal group known as The Platters. Roy Rogers sings it for us.

I'll Be Home for Christmas (Kim Gannon, Walter Kent, Buck Ram, 1943), Roy Rogers.

Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.; Eddie Byrnes; Roger Moore; The Merv Griffin TV Family; and Roy Rogers--who could possibly be left? Well, probably most of them; Hollywood folks tend to be liberals, after all. (Maybe not Roy.) Anyway, we do have one more holiday celeb for today's Sunday-before-Mas concert, and here he is. The first selection gets on my nerves, but the second superbly sets the holiday mood:

Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Maurice Chevalier. Recorded sometime.

Silent Night (Mohr, Gruber), Maurice Chevalier.


"Seven days until Holiday."--From last night's SNL.


Lee

Celebrity Mas at MYPWHAE, Part 1

The great thing about posting a Part 1 of something is knowing for sure that you haven't skipped any installments. Unless you happened to post a part 0, but I didn't. I don't think I did, anyway.

I just checked, and, no, I didn't.

The popular meaning of zero, by the way, is "nothing." Yet, that definition is the seventh (and last) to appear in my dictionary. The seventh! Obviously, what we need is a Wikitionary (i.e., an open-content collaborative dictionary) in which popular meanings could assume top-definition status.

Nope, never mind. Under "zero," we read in Wikipedia: "Zero is a number which means nothing, null, void or an absence of value." (Not to mention proper punctuation.) Hey, cool!

I guess we don't need a Wikitionary, after all. However, I'm a little confused by W.'s entry for "nothing," which points out that zero and nothing are not identical concepts, mathematically. How can they not be identical and yet be identical? I'll be someone's been messing with the W. entries again. No wonder the site states, in its General Disclaimer, that "Wikipedia cannot guarantee the validity of the information found here." That's because "nothing found (in Wikipedia) has necessarily been reviewed by professionals with the expertise required to provide you with complete, accurate or reliable information." No wonder so many people rely on Wikipedia. Who needs complete, accurate, or reliable information, anyway? To say nothing of the Oxford comma?

But we're hear to hear--I mean, here to hear--Bob (James West) Conrad's rendition of White Christmas. This track comes from 1959's We Wish You a Merry Christmas: 15 Great Christmas Favorites Sung by Warner Bros. Stars. Conrad, who started out as a nightclub singer, was in the cast of W.B.'s Hawaiian Eye at the time:

White Christmas (Irving Berlin), Bob Conrad, from 1959 W.B. LP.













From the same album, we have Eddie Cole, brother of Nat "King," with light and jazzy version of "You'd better not pout, you'd better not, etc." Cole was starring in Bourbon Street Beat. This track proves that talent sometimes runs in the family:

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (Gillespie, Coots), Eddie Cole, from 1959 W.B. LP.

Small world--Arthur Treacher recorded this very same song for the 1966 LP favorite And a Sled...and a Catcher's Mitt...and a Puppy...and a Popgun...and a Big Christmas Album for Merv Griffin & TV Family. And here it is:

Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, Arthur Treacher with Mort Lindsay's Orchestra, 1966. From the MGM LP, And a Sled, Etc.















From that same LP, we have David Soul singing Children Go Where I Send Thee. (What LP, you ask? Why, And a Sled...and a Catcher's Mitt...and a Puppy...and a Popgun...and a Big Christmas Album for Merv Griffin & TV Family. That one.)

Children Go Where I Send Thee, David Soul with Mort Lindsay's Orchestra, 1966. From the MGM LP ...And a Catcher's Mitt, Etc.















Also from And a Sled...and a Catcher's Mitt...and a Puppy...and a Popgun...and a Big Christmas Album for Merv Griffin & TV Family, we have Pat Marand singing the complete version of Silver Bells, a 1950 song that's interesting to hear with its verse left in for a change. And Pat has a lovely voice:

Silver Bells (Livingston, Evans), Pat Marand with Mort Lindsay's Orchestra, 1966. From the MGM LP ...And a Puppy, Etc.












Does Merv sing anything on this album, you ask? Why, of course.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Martin, Blane), Merv Griffin with Mort Lindsay's Orchestra. From the MGM LP ...And a Popgun, Etc.

More celebrity Mas sounds to come from your Mas music headquarters, MYPWHAE.


Lee

MYPWHAE's Kiddie Christmas, Part 4

It occurred to me that I forgot to post a Part 4 for this series. It looks like I unintentionally skipped from Part 3 to Part 5. This occurred to me after two people noticed, and noted, it. "Oops," I said to myself.

So, welcome to Part 4. Said Lee.

You may wonder why I typed "said Lee," said Lee. Well, you're about to find out. Said Lee. You are about to experience ten-plus minutes of a customer-giveaway Christmas record that, in terms of budget and cast, is to the Line Material series what the earliest live television production was to a wide-screen Hollywood spectacle. We're talking zero-budget. Most of the music is provided by what sounds like a celesta being played with one finger, suggested Lee. And the sound effects, while kind of cool, sound canned. And the slight story (ultimately, a shameless plug for the record makers) is dragged out hilariously, said Lee. Which is why it's so fun....

A Delightful Story of a Boy and Girl on Christmas Eve (Randy and Ellen Go to Town and Ask Santa a Very Important Question; Santa's Reindeer Surprise Randy and Ellen) Storyteller: Jack Underwood; Written and Produced by Cranfill, 1966. (REMC 1966 Gift Record, 45 RPM)

REMC, you might already know, stands for Rural Electric Membership Company. We belong to one, ourselves. It's a generic term, of course, for electric cooperatives. The record gives no clue as to the location of the REMC in question (unless "written and produced by Cranfill" provides one), so maybe it was meant to be ecumenical in that regard. If anyone knows anything about this record, or any others by the same folks, please leave a comment.

Christmas Comes But Once a Year, our next-ah selection, uses the melody of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Larry Hopper, Dean (somebody), and the Sparklers provide the vocal portion, while Lawrence Welk's orchestra provides the champagne music. And... what's this "Christmas" thing referred to in the title? Is it a holiday? Must be, if it comes but once a year.

Christmas Comes But Once a Year, (Charles, Roberts, Clayton), Lawrence Welk and His Champagne Music, featuring Larry Hooper, Dean, and The Sparklers, 1956. From Coral LP.

And, at last, after zero requests for same, here's the flip side of Buzzy, the Christmas Bee (the track that I thought would create the most buzz). It's called Fountain of the Bells, and it's sung by Duke and (son) Jeff Mitchell, and you're just going to love it. You'll recall that Duke Mitchell was one half of the imitation Martin-and-Lewis comedy team that starred in Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. Such facts cry out to be remembered.

Fountain of the Bells (M. Curtic--D. Saxon), Jeff Mitchell and His Dad Duke. Orch. conducted by Duke Mitchell. (It's a Click 728)

Now, a catchy track from the Halo LP called... um....

I can't find the thing. Where the heck did I put it? I'll have to look in my My Pictures folder. This is embarrassing.

O.K., I found the image: The Family Christmas Album (Something for Everybody), it's called. And the track we're going to hear, by J.T. Adams and the Jordanaires, was apparently dubbed from a copy someone found in the street. With the help of my MAGIX software, I have improved the sound quality from awful to fairly bad.

It's Christmas Time, J.T. Adams and The Jordanaires, from the Halo label LP The Family Christmas Album.

And what's a kiddie Christmas without 1964's Peppermint Stick Parade by Bobby Vinton? Besides less campy (I mean, charming)?

Peppermint Stick Parade, Bobby Vinton, 1964, from A Very Merry Christmas (there's that word again).

From the same album, Burt Bacharach and Larry Kusik's classic holiday bellodrama:

The Bell That Couldn't Jingle (Bacharach-Kusik), Bobby Vinton, 1964.

Larry Kusik, of course, wrote the English lyrics for Speak Softly, Love (the love theme from The Godfather).


















Santa, wishing us a jolly something-or-another.


Lee

Santa Got Stuck in the Elevator, Part 3

I decided not to skip an installment of this series (as I did with my kiddie thread--oops), so we are following part 2 with part 3. We begin with The Melachrino Strings on the Vocalion lablel, year unknown. These three excellent selections come from the LP The Sound of Christmas, which I wish I had in mono instead of faux stereo. So far, I've found no evidence that George Melachrino recorded for Decca during the 1950s, but he must have, because otherwise this stuff wouldn't exist....

The First Noel, The Melachrino Strings, from the Vocalion LP, The Sound of Christmas.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Melachrino Strings, from Vocalion LP, The Sound of Christmas.

Jingle Bells, The Melachrino Strings, from Vocalion LP, The Sound of Christmas.

And, from Herman Clebanoff's excellent 1962 LP Strings Afire, we have a holiday-season (Christmas? Never heard of it) instrumental cowritten by Clebanoff called Bobsled. Who needs Esquivel when there's stuff like this to be found and heard?

Bobsled (Clebanoff, Robinson, Giovannini), Clebanoff and His Orchestra, 1962. From "Strings Afire" LP on Mercury.

And, courtesy of the Cleveland Orchestra (conducted by George Szell), we have the classiest kind of Classical caroling, complete with a fugue or two. Or three. I envy the arranger....

Deck the Halls, The Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Szell.

As we pass the floors ah-von, ah-two, and ah-three, we are soothed by the sounds of Lawrence Welk and His Champagne Music:

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, (Gillespie--Coots) Lawrence Welk and His Champagne Music, 1956.














Birds gobbling birdseed in the west feeder, photographed from our kitchen window. They kept thinning their ranks each time I got ready to shoot--just to be annoying, I'm sure.

More C-word sounds to come!

Lee

A Christmas Card from Bunny and Buddy Burden

When I first looked at the record label, I thought it said "Bunny and Buddy Bolden." I've been reading too many jazz histories.

Buddy Bolden, of course, was a very important jazz pioneer. But these folks are named Burden. Bunny and Buddy Burden. That would be a problem if someone yelled "Hey, B.B.!" and both of them turned around and answered.

Christmas Card, the wonderful(ly campy) track we're about to hear, showed up for me at Goodwill on a strange album called A Family Christmas Album--Something for Everybody. It came out, sometime or another, on the Halo Records label of Nashville, Tennessee--no relation, I'm guessing, to the even cheaper Halo label of the 1950s. I suspect the track originated as a single, as it doesn't appear on Buddy and Bunny's Christmas Favorites, an album which was recently shared at Ernie (Not Burt) and on which it logically would have shown up. Unless... unless there's another Bunny and Buddy XMas LP out there someplace! (Cue the dissonant, shrieking violins.)

And because, for some reason, it just sounds like a single. Specifically, like a gift record you might buy for a close friend, family member, or lover. "Gum, ballpoint pens, erasers, fingernail clippers... hey, a Christmas greeting record. I need one of those!"

Bunny starts things off with a :55-or-so narration--this is Ernie's chance to hear what she sounded like.

Christmas Card, Bunny and Buddy Burden. From the LP A Family Christmas Album--Something for Everybody (Halo 1007).

We'll be hearing more from this strange album....



















Lee

The Kinds of Christmas: Downtown, uptown, no-town

The Kinds of Christmas was my first Line Material experience. I found it at a thrift store. I don't remember which one, or when, but I do remember looking at the label and wondering, "What the heck is this??" I had no idea what was in store for my ears.

Hard to decide what I love best about this thing: the narrator's lecherous tone (think Jack Parr or Shelley Berman), the cliches piled upon cliches, the musically perfect Stepford Chorus, or just the hilarious disconnect between the Broadway-level presentation and the utterly pointless narrative. We've discovered that John McCarthy, of all people, handled the choral work, so it's not surprising that the vocal portions of the LM records are so superbly done. And we now know that David Carroll did the instrumental arranging. If only the writing were on a comparable level--but the results wouldn't have been nearly as fun!

Anyway, time to learn about The Kinds of Christmas, all three of them. Clicking on the image will take you to the file. Any further clicks are your responsibility, and not this blog's.


















"Created and released." Nooooo comment.

And here's the saga of Santa's North Pole Band. Created and released in 1957, this one apparently found its way back, as it appeared at least three more times in LM's catalog (reprinted by popular request, no less). Click on the label image to get to the file. As before, what you do at that point is your decision:


















I've got one more of these things--hopefully, I'll have to time to rip and tear, er, share it. I'm not sure I've even listened to it yet. But we can be sure it's a good one....


Lee

More Line Material Mas fun

Actually, Line Material called it "Christmas." I don't recognize that word. Our culture must have taken the "Christ" out of it at some point, leaving only the "Mas."

Anyway, it is Mas season at MYPWHAE, and we--me, myself, and I--have at last figured out why these Line Material (a McGraw-Edison Company) holiday discs were so amazingly well-done, at least in terms of music and performance. (The less said about the texts, the better!) I have in my possession Line Material's 1960 Christmas Book, wherein John McCarthy and David Carroll are named as composer and arranger, respectively, for Santa's Factoree! I'm assuming it's the John McCarthy of Ambrosia/John McCarthy Singers fame, and I'm equally assuming that it's David Carroll of Mercury label fame. Read about David at spageagepop.com (where he is described as "no Esquivel." Very true--if he were, I wouldn't collect him!).

McCarthy was the choral director for the London Symphony Orchestra (1961-1966), I just now found out. Wow! And it's probably the same guy, years earlier (when his services would have been more affordable).

As are the LM Christmas records themselves--awful, cliche-ridden texts united with first-rate songwriting, arranging, and performing. I don't know how the musicians kept a straight face. Click on artwork to get to the file--if you dare....



















And what is the significance of "Factoree"? Is that supposed to be a cute misspelling? But my real problem is with the Grandpa character who, not content with making up an idiotic story about Santa's Northpole "factoree," actually promises to take the kids to see the place. Great guy, that Gramps.

And I have two more of these to post when I'm not falling asleep over the keyboard....


Lee