Merry Shellac-mas!!--Yuletide 78s from my dusty piles of pre-pre-pre-CD media

These are all repeats from last year, but I've re-ripped them with my new set-up--my new set-up meaning my new LP/78 preamplifier, which features two EQ curves and which uses the AUX input of my Sony amp. Not surprisingly, my Sony resents having to host the very pre-amp that replaced it, and I think we can understand why. But how many amplifiers its age are still running? Not a huge number, and this is something that, as I keep trying to remind it, my Sony should be proud of.

I think the selections speak for themselves. Well, sing for themselves. Special mention must be made of the Brunswick Concert Band's phenomenal musicianship on the 1920 Kiddies' Patrol/Kiddies' Dance selection, on which they almost make the precision musicianship of Spike Jones' orchestra sound second-rate. The sound effects are right out of a Jones record, to boot. Or vice versa. Fun selections, but the astounding playing is the highlight.

Put Christ Back in Christmas makes its third annual appearance here. This lament was written by one Eddie Unger, and it's on the Unger Music label, so I guess it's a... demo? Songwriter's vanity disc? A song-poem 78? I don't know how to categorize this one. (I almost typed, "I don't know where to stick this," but I'm not that dumb!) Oops.

I'm guessing this to be from the early Fifties, and it only goes to show that the put-Christ-back-in-Christmas sentiment isn't very new. In fact, it's really just a variation on the general we've-lost-the-real-meaning-of-Christmas motif, which probably came in five minutes after Christmas first became established as an acceptable holiday in America, whenever that was. The Puritans weren't too fond of it, so it had to be after them.

The origin of the real-meaning-of theme in Europe probably dates back 900 years or so ago when the people of 1107 A.D. noticed that the "old" songs weren't being sung anymore. This led to the observation that the "old" values were being lost, too. So, they got all nostalgic, thus starting a tradition of keeping the tradition in the holiday. Later, we went through our own mini version of this in the New World.

Yes, you have my permission to quote me. Oh, and there's one of my favorite holiday 78s ever--Louise Wilcher and Harry Campbell's organ-and-Novachord rendition of The Skaters, from 1941.

To the Yuletide 78s: Merry Shellac-mas!

SLEIGHLIST

JINGLE BELLS FANTASY--RCA Victor Salon Orch., 1948?
JINGLE BELLS--Shannon Quartet, 1925.
PUT CHRIST BACK INTO CHRISTMAS--Organta Trio, featuring Jack Allyn.
KIDDIES' PATROL; KIDDIES' DANCE--Brunswick Concert Orch., 1920.
SLEIGH RIDE (Anderson)--Ethel Smith, Organ with Orch., 1950.
THE SKATERS--WALTZ--Louise Wilcher, Hammond organ; Harry Campbell, Novachord; 1941.
A CHRISTMAS MEDLEY--David Rose and His Orch., 1947.
SNOWY WHITE SNOW AND JINGLE BELLS--Mervin Shiner, 1952.
CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE CO. PRESIDENT HALEY FISKE--1923.
MERRY CHRISTMAS--SLEIGHING SONG--Olive Kline, 1914.
AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE--LITTLE CHRISTMAS SHOES--Elsie Baker, 1913.


Lee

Line Material Christmas book scans at Senses Working Overtime

For the second year in a row, some extremely cool artwork from Line Material Christmas books of the '30s and '40s, courtesy of Senses Working Overtime.

People took their Christmases seriously in those days. Just like we holiday bloggers do today (though we've added a rather obsessive component)....


Lee

The Lost Line Material Sides--Or, Where Did That Cute Closing Jingle Go?

Here's the breakdown: First up, The Magic of Christmas, which predates every Line Material side we're heard so far. Ernie sent me this paper-thin seven-inch vinyl 78 by post (physical mail), and now it's ready for the world to hear. (A collective sigh of relief is heard around the globe. A light tremor is felt. Tables and glassware gently shake.) Yes, it's THAT much of an event.

After all, it's the earliest Line Material record yet found (by us). Mostly in the same vein as the classic sides we know and love, but not as elaborate. It almost sounds like a rehearsal for bigger and better things. After several listens, it's growing on me, though the LMs yet to come had a strong, instant, and almost hypnotic appeal, by comparison.

Not a bad record, but no lives are likely to be altered upon audio contact. Still, it's here for us to hear. Here; hear!

Stubbysfears provided the next title, The Story of Santa Claus, made in 1964 by CLM (Line Material of Canada). Now we have proof that the LM's Yuletide records continued past 1962--and that they weren't on the same level. Not that Story doesn't have a kind of (weird) charm, but, compared to the titles of 1957-1962, it sounds like a slide show background recorded in a hurry at someone's home. We almost expect to hear the sound of a recorder being turned on and/or a quick pickup in speed whenever the canned music is restarted. But, to the credit of the music dubber, this never happens.

Which elevates Story from two-dollar to five-dollar-production status. So, leave it to me to sort of like the thing.

The CLM editions of 1959's The Sounds of Christmas and Santa's Factoree (both featuring an unmemorable closing ditty) are courtesy of Captain OT of the great A Christmas Yuleblog. With his kind permission, here they are, just as he ripped them (save for a switch to mono on my MAGIX). They're virtually the same sides, but musts for the Line Material completist. And who among us is NOT a Line Material completist?

So, four lost LM sides, all new to the blog. Or, more accurately...

Four (not literally) lost LM sides, all new to this blog (but, save for one, not to the Christmas blogosphere).

How many other blogs can (sort of) claim that? Link: The Lost LM Sides.

TODAY'S LINE MATERIAL MATERIAL

The Magic of Christmas--Line Material (Year unknown--maybe 1956).

The Story of Santa Claus--Line Material (CLM), 1964.

The Sounds of Christmas--CLM, 1959.

Santa's Factoree--CLM, 1961.



Lee

Hear Diane Werts talk Christmas television on "Talking Television with Dave White"

I was late for a visit to the TV Zone blog,
So to that site did I jog;

And the news I beheld set my heart beating fast--
Diane Werts on a cyber-broadcast.

I could scarcely contain my joy at the news;
To the Dave White archives did I hike;

I was eager to hear what the files contained,
And what Diane's voice sounded like.

I was glad that I went, for the show was much fun;
The host and his guests were a dream.

They were better by far than this stupid poem--
What the heck happened to the rhyme scheme?

--Somebody (er, not me), 2007

And to this link you should dash like a flash (but first check any local laws pertaining to flash-dashing): Talking Television with Dave White, where you'll find the 60-minute segment of Diane talking Christmas televsion. (Link is on the right.) Do what I did and right-click, "Save Target As," wait for the download, and you'll be talking Christmas television in no time.

Or you'll have a talking television in no time. Then you'll know it's time to call the shrink.



Lee

Christmas Music 2007, Part 4--Bobby Helms from 1965, Bing Crosby and sons, Pete Rugolo

We start with 1965 Bobby Helms--the song is The Bell that Couldn't Jingle, a Burt Bacharach and Larry (A Time for Us) Kusik ditty that exists in five different versions in my collection. Or is it four? Anyway....

Gosh, I should have stuff like that memorized--what's wrong with me? The flip is Helms' 1965 redo of Jingle Bell Rock. Not to be confused with the fake version I featured from that Power Pak LP.

A Family Christmas features Gary, Lindsay, and Bing Crosby. Lindsay had a very nice, musical voice, ilo (in Lee's opinion). The whole thing sounds so unscripted, doesn't it? And there's the second (maybe third) appearance of Pete Rugolo's Jingle Bells Mambo at this here blog, and the premiere of the Willis Sisters' Blue Christmas, which is the flip side of my copy of Happy Birthday Jesus by Little Cindy. Which I've never featured, seeing as how it shows up everywhere else on the 'Net.

Those, and many more. You'll sigh in contentment. Click on this link to get to the audio ahhh-dities: Christmas Music 2007, Part 4.

SLEIGHLIST

THE BELL THAT COULDN'T JINGLE (Bacharach-Kusik)--Bobby Helms, 1965.
JINGLE BELL ROCK--Bobby Helms, 1965.
JINGLE BELLS MAMAO (Rugolo)--Pete Rugolo Orch., 1954.
A FAMILY CHRISTMAS--Gary, Lindsay, and Bing Crosby.
BLUE CHRISTMAS--Willis Sisters, 1958.
JINGLE BELLS--Johnny Cole.
SNOW FLAKES--Fontanna, His Orch. and His Chorus.
JINGLE BELLS (Christmas Eve Broadcast)--Glenn Miller Orch., 1941.
SANTA RIDES A STRAWBERRY ROAN--Jim Lowe and the Dream Dusters, 1956.
SANTA WON'T BE BLUE THIS CHRISTMAS--Jimmy Charles, 1960.
SING A KRIS KRINGLE JINGLE (J. Fred Coots)--Bobby Stewart
PARADE OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS--Fred Waring and His Penn., 1950.
SANTA'S COMING--MacMillan Sing and Learn Program, 1987.


















Lee

Choral Christmas, Part 1--Testor Chorus, Robert Shaw Chorale, Trapp Family Singers

I love the art on that cover. It's from the first of my two boxed EP sets of 1945-46 recordings by the Robert Shaw Chorale. These very same recordings came out in a variety of editions, until some of them finally showed up on a terrible-sounding budget CD reissue (which appears to be out of print, and probably for the better). They're thrift store staples. And, like most ubiquitous pop records, holiday or otherwise, they're very tough to find in anything like playable shape. So, naturally, I was happy to find these two hardly-listened-to sets at Colleen's Collectables not too long ago.

The first six files are from these sets, and they sound pretty good for Fifties reissues of 1945-46 material. There are five medleys plus a terrific Deck the Halls, for a total of eleven titles. If I had to pick the most magnificent performances, I'd go for Carol of the Bells, I Sing of a Maiden, and William Billings' Shepherd's Carol, which is something of a Christmas standard, albeit one people tend not to know. (One of those.) When I first heard this stuff, I couldn't believe popular choral recordings this astonishing had ever existed. I'm not sure I do even now.

Occasionally, something comes along that alters my take on music forever. Like these Shaw sides.

The magnificence continues with the Trapp Family Singers from (circa) 1952. If the only Trapp Family Singers you know are the fake ones from The Sound of Music, are you in for a treat. If not a shock. The word "arty" was invented to describe these folks, I think.

Katherine K. Davis, best known for Carol of the Drum, a.k.a. The Little Drummer Boy (which she almost lost to two clever copyright filers), is represented in this set by two remarkable Yuletide pieces, As It Fell Upon a Night and Swedish Dance Carol, both sung by The Testor Chorus--Testor being The Testor Corporation, "manufacturers of household adhesives, craft and model-hobby products, toys" (quoted from the LP jacket).

Also on hand: the Jack Halloran Singers from 1957, with Christmas Is a-Comin' (from the 1957 LP of the same title), a couple titles by the John McCarthy Singers (the "Merry Christmas... from Line Material" folks), and the Cathedral Choir with Benjamin Britten's 1934 masterpiece, A New Year Carol.

Click on this link to reach Choral Christmas, Part 1.

SLEIGHLIST

CAROL OF THE BELLS; LO, HOW A ROSE E'ER BLOOMING; GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN--Robert Shaw Chorale, 1945-46.
I SING OF A MAIDEN; ECHO HYMN: WASSAIL SONG--(Same)
DECK THE HALLS WITH BOUGHS OF HOLLY--(Same)
SHEPHERD'S CAROL (William Billings); PATAPAN--(Same)
CHRIST WAS BORN ON CHRISTMAS DAY; HOW FAR IS IT TO BETHLEHEM?--(Same)
A VIRGIN UNSPOTTED (Billings); MASTERS IN THE HALL--(Same)
O SANCTISSIMA--John McCarthy Singers
WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS--John McCarthy Singers
AS IT FELL UPON A NIGHT (Katherine K. Davis)--The Testor Chorus, 1957.
SWEDISH DANCE CAROL (Davis)--The Testor Chorus, 1957.
CHRISTMAS IS A-COMIN'--Jack Halloran Singers, 1957.
THE DARKNESS IS FALLING--Trapp Family Singers, 1952.
O COME, LITTLE CHILDREN--TFS, 1952.
SHEPHERDS COME A-RUNNING--TFS, 1952.
DECK THE HALLS--Trapp Family Singers, 1952.
A NEW YEAR CAROL (Britten)--Cathedral Singers, 1992.


Lee

Let's Talk the F-word (Faith): "YES, I am the brain surgeon!"

Let's face it--you just have to go to MY(P)WHAE Text to find out what that's all about. In fact, I may have to, and I wrote the durned essay.

This is one of the few times I've gotten to the end of a piece and had no idea how to properly end it. At first, I closed with a lame bit about the usefulness of Spell Check. Then I tried something else.

Finally, I wrote, "I can't think of any way to end this."

Then, fifteen or twenty minutes later, I came up with the perfect ending. Cyber-editing is God's most precious gift to humankind.

Anyway, this week's F-word essay is all about... um....

Something. Not sure what. Here's a teaser: "Then, suddenly, atheism becomes secularism. And secularism, by misdefinition, becomes the absence of a stance. Secularism therefore comes to be misdefined as neutral."

Don't get injured in the stampede to get over to the site. A stampede bound to be created by that teaser.

I'd quote some more from it, but I don't want to ruin the essence of my thoughtful thoughts. Whatever they were. A fascinating study in stances that disagree with themselves. I mean, which agree with themselves.


Lee