Evelyn's YouTube video, "Love Came Down at Christmas"

See it--you'll be glad you did. "Love Came Down at Christmas," 2007

I'll never let on in a million years that it got me royally choked up. Me being the macho sort I am and al....

(Coming, Rosie!)

Just a second. My cat needs something.

Watch the video--that's an order.




Lee

'Twas the Weekend Before Christmas....

Above, we have one of the coolest of the Christmas postcards I just bought--made in Germany and given to Deborah in 1911. "A Merry Christmas to you," it says on back in light pencil.

And, once again, I'm using my weblog to write an essay. For shame. I ought to simply post music and shut up like a good little blogger. However, I get these urges. Toward self-expression, I mean. After all, there's a keyboard in front of me, and fingers to press the keys, and ideas in my mind to express, and I just lost control of this sentence.

That could have been a memorable sentence, but 'twas not to be.

Anyway, mosey on over to MY(P)WHAE Text for 'Twas the Weekend Before Christmas, in which, for example, we'll hear from the president of the local Americans Riled by Sacred Expressions (ARSE) chapter.

Sample lines: "In the Hall of Heroes, a special wing has been dedicated to the take-down-the-creche cause." And "Posted by Lee Hartsfeld."

If those teasers don't have you tearing on over to my companion blog, then nothing will.


Lee

Christmas Music 2007, Part 5--"Night Before Christmas"-athon; more!

One of a number of cool antique Christmas cards I found this week at a local antique mall. No date (looks like it was never mailed), but the others are circa 1909-1910. This is probably from the same period. "To Dorothy, from Edith" it says on the back.

I have a number of hardcore, Santa-riding-through-the-sky postcards from the Edwardian Period, but the non-Santa themes are often more interesting, if less sexy.

I will savor that last sentence forever. No doubt, "hardcore" suggests different kinds of Christmas images. But I mean it in the sense of all-out. (Maybe I'd better quit while there's still a chance.)

Where else are you going to read intros like this?

And where else are you going to get eight versions in a row of The Night Before Christmas in one zip file? Well, two--I split it in half, since things are moving kind of slowly in these days just before Christmas. Keep in mind that Christmas Chopsticks uses the NBC text--and there's something about Bobby Vinton's version that makes Guy Lombardo's sound stodgy. (Imagine that--Lombardo sounding stodgy!) Even though Lombardo's more literal triple pulse is truer to the spirit of Chopsticks. When it comes to Christmas Chopsticks, I prefer a Post-Lombardo reading.

And we have two classics by John McCormack, including his 1914 recording of the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria. The Schubert Ave Maria is also included on the RCA Camden LP in question, but I never cared for that nearly as much.

And we have the wonderful Captain Santa Claus, the original flip side of the original Jingle Bell Rock. You'll be glad you unzipped these files.

Link to Christmas Music 2007, Part 5. There are two zip files at this link.

SLEIGHLIST

Sleigh Ride--Leroy Anderson and His Pops Concert Orchestra, 1950.
Dearest Santa--Bobby Vinton, 1964.
Christmas Time Is Here Again--Marty Robbins, 1967.
Ave Maria (Bach-Gounod)--John McCormack, Fritz Kreisler, 1914.
The Holy Child (Easthope Martin)--John McCormack, 1925.
Christmas Chopsticks--Bobby Vinton, 1964.
'Twas the Night Before Christmas--The Caroleers.
'Twas the Night Before Christmas--Steve Lawrence
Christmas Chopsticks--Guy Lombardo and His RC, 1951.
'Twas the Night Before Christmas--Perry Como w. Mitch Ayres.
'Twas the Night Before Christmas--Miss Frances of Ding Dong School.
'Twas the Night Before Christmas--The Lancers, 1954.
'Twas the Night Before Christmas--from Treasure LP, Merry Christmas!
Captain Santa Claus (And His Reindeer Space Patrol)--Bobby Helms, 1957.


Lee

Wassail with the MadBlonde on The Wave Project

And I've always wanted to type "Wassail with the MadBlonde on the Wave Project." Or maybe I should say, at the Wave Project. Not sure.

To find out what I'm talking about, hurry on over to radio station WFAI's archives. Tomorrow is the last day you'll be able to get the show in archived form.

To save the program to your computer, right-click on the "Stream" icon and choose "Save Target As..."

As I type this, the second Wassail selection is wassailing down. Spell Check isn't going to put up with "wassailing," I'm betting.

"Wassail" originally meant "be well." I can't help noticing how close it is to "whassup?" Coincidence?

In some respects, these tunes are very arty and sophisticated precursors to Jimmy Liggins' Drunk (1953), unless there's actually a vintage wassail song featuring the chorus, "Wassail (riff); Wassial (riff); Wassial; etc."

In all soberness, at 18:25, this is a very interesting historical survey. (Cool live choral singing!)


Lee

Classic 1997 BP holiday ad: "They're Coming to Tow Me Away"

They're Coming to Tow Me Away (BP ad, 1997)



Lee

A "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle"-athon for your Friday!

And you can never have too many Bell That Couldn't Jingle-athons, in my estimation.

This isn't the biggest -athon in the history of -athoning, by any means, seeing as how I only have five versions. Then again, they're good versions. This is a quality-over-quantity-athon.

And I'd better hurry up with this--I'm so tired, I almost put a CD insert into my computer's CD drive. Instead of the disc itself, I mean. That's tired.

Music by Burt Bacharch, words by Larry (A Time for Us) Kusik. The Baby Dolls' 1964 version was donated to the blog last year by former Baby Doll Angie--read the full story here. Angie sent a super-nice email with some neat history. Be sure to check that out.

Link: Bell that Couldn't Jingle-athon.

SLEIGHLIST

Bobby Vinton, 1964.
Bobby Helms, 1965.
Burt Bacharach, 1968.
The Baby Dolls, w. Geoff Love and his orchestra (Backing vocals: The Ladybirds), 1964.
Herp Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, 1968.


Lee

Merry Shellac-mas, Part 2!--Prince's Orch., Trinity Choir, Shep Fields, Leo Watson; more!

In place of label shots, I thought I'd post these charming illustrations from my Ultraphonic/Rondolette/Royale/Golden Tone Christmas LP. They look like items from a Woolworth's box of Christmas cards, circa 1957. Or the like. Classic stuff.

Nowadays, we call such illustrations "kitschy." As in quaint, campy, old-fashioned. Which is not really what the word means--it refers to popular art that's pretentious, overly sentimental, over the top in its attempt to pass for something more serious. And these illustrations are not that.

The kind of issue I spend my time worrying about, because I'm, well, me.

And we have some more 78s from my re-ripping project--the one that began early this year when I bought an archival preamp. My 78s have never sounded better, at least to my ears. Some folks despise any amount of analog surface noise, and so there's the temptation on the part of the digital restorer (me, in this case) to muffle the audio. But that would be a crime against 78s and the performers on them. Properly tweaked, these things yield more detail than we'd think.

Lots of great choral and pop-orchestral stuff from the days before microphones, plus a 1946 scat version of Jingle Bells (bebop, really; they should have called it "Bebop Bells"), and a nice version of Silver Bells by Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra. And I've always wanted to type that.

Merry Shellacmas, Part 2!

SLEIGHLIST

CHILDREN'S SYMPHONY (Haydn)--Prince's Orch., 1913.
ON A CHRISTMAS MORNING (Currie)--Prince's Orch., 1911.
JOY TO THE WORLD--Trinity Choir, 1911.
OH, COME, ALL YE FAITHFUL--Trinity Choir, 1911.
SILENT NIGHT, HALLOWED NIGHT--Hayden Quartet, 1909.
CHRISTMAS HYMNS--SELECTION--Francis J. Lapitino, harp solo, 1925.
PARADE OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS (Arr: Grofe)--Paul Whiteman Orch., 1928.
YULE-TIDE--A CHRISTMAS FANTASIA--Arthur Pryor's Band, 1912.
SANTA CLAUS TELLS ABOUT HIS TOY SHOP--SANTA CLAUS GIVES AWAY HIS TOYS--Gilbert Girard, 1921.
CHRISTMAS HYMNS AND CAROLS--Trinity Choir, 1921.
JINGLE BELLS--Leo Watson, vocal, with Vic Dickenson Quintet, 1946.
SILVER BELLS--Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm O.; vocal by Thelma Gracen and Ensemble, 1950.
NAZARETH--CHRISTMAS SONG (Gounod)--Frank Croxton, Bass, 1912.



Lee

And a Sled...And a Catcher's Mitt...And a Puppy... And a Popgun... And a Big Christmas Album for Merv Griffin & TV Family (1966)

Or, Merry Mervmas! Part 2.

Here, in its complete entirety, is Merv Griffin's 1966 Christmas LP, featuring Merv, Frankie Michaels, Arthur Treacher, Gilbert Price, Pat Marand, David Soul, and St. Michael's Home Choir. Or, The Merv Griffin TV Family.

Beautifully performed, presented, and recorded, these are the usual suspects plus some titles you (possibly) won't find on too many other Xmas albums--Sleep My Child; Children Go Where I Send Thee (soulfully performed by David Soul!); and Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales, effectively read by the Mervster.

And I've always wanted to type "Effectively read by the Mervster." At last, my wish fulfilled.

With conductor/arranger Mort Lindsay in charge of the music, we expect a miracle of smooth, note-perfect sounds, and that's what we get. My favorite tracks? The fresh and warm Merv/Pat Marand duet of THE over-performed item in the pop Yule repertoire, White Christmas; Marand's beautiful vocalizing on/of Silver Bells; the fun full-cast version of Twelve Days of Christmas, complete with near-blooper moments; Arthur Treacher's Hermits-esque Rudolph; and David Soul's soulful (oops--already used that) Children Go Where I Send Thee, which is pretty darned good. Kind of surprised me.

And, yes, I knowingly typed "near-blooper moments" in the previous paragraph. That was me.

An LP filled with Christmas miracles, the most amazing being the way Merv and Pat make White Christmas sound like Berlin wrote it for them. And I wouldn't suggest something that hokey if it weren't true. What should have been a get-it-over-with finale has us wishing the LP weren't over. Wishing that a Volume 2 were on its way. Unfortunately, such a gift never arrived.

This one will do. R.I.P., Merv.

Click on this link for the terrific music: Christmas Album for Merv Griffin & TV Family.
























Lee

Merry Mervmas! Part One

Christmas classics by the late singer, talk show host, and all-around great entertainer and great guy. Twenty-five years or so ago, when I started collecting Merv records, I had no idea how terrific his stuff would turn out to be--or how very much of it there was. Two and half decades later, I'm still twenty or so titles away from a complete Merv discography.

I figured I'd find all of his stuff in a couple of months, tops. Didn't happen.

So, we have three from Merv's employment with bandleader Freddy Martin (before breaking out on his own), and two sides he cut for the Duluth, Minn. TV station WDSM around (I'm guessing) the mid-Sixties--both for Duluth's annual Christmas City of the North Parade. Christmas City is a familiar song to Duluth residents. Warning: It will get into your memory banks and stay there, possibly even crowding out Molasses.

You were warned. Oh, and a special thanks to the photo posted above, which has served me faithfully for the past three Christmases without fading, shrinking, or complaining. Gotta love the wood grain through the center hole. (I've always wanted to type "Gotta love the wood grain through the center hole.")

Click this link to reach the stuff: Merry Mervmas!

SLEIGHLIST

Sleigh Ride--Merv with Freddy Martin, 1950.
Christmas Time--Merv with Freddy, 1950.
Merry Christmas Polka--Merv with Freddy, 1949.
Christmas City (Don Peterson)--Merv.
The Song of the Christmas City (Peterson)--Merv with Maureen Reynolds.
Mery Christmas Polka--Merv with Freddy, 1949.


Lee

The Story of the First Christmas Tree--Jim Ameche

Years before A Charlie Brown Christmas used the plight of a scrawny, neglected tree as a lovely metaphor for Christ's humble birth, the same theme appeared in The Story of the First Christmas Tree, narrated by Jim Ameche (brother of Don). In other words, there's nothing new under the manger.

The Internet tells us that Jim (see his NYT obit) played radio's Jack Armstrong, All-American Boy and did a great deal of acting and announcing work on top of this. This may explain why his voice sounds so familiar, even if I can't quite place it. (He almost sounds like the Line Material Kinds of Christmas guy.) His narration is superb.

With all respect to Charles Schultz, the 1965 Peanuts cartoon was only reminding us what Christmas is all about--this wonderful record had already said it all.

Anyone with any idea when this came out, please sign on. It looks like Mr. Ameche did another version in 1964--unless that was a reissue of this.

To the file: The Story of the First Christmas Tree.


Lee

Talking the F-word (Faith): Great wisdom is needed these days. Until then, we have mine.

To read my latest, back-dated Sunday essay (written today, Monday), follow the following link:

Talking the F-word, "Sunday, Dec. 16, 2007."

Here's a sample sure to get you rushing over to my text blog:

The issue of religion in politics (as in, its proper role) is one of the most boring topics on Earth, but one kept alive by the inability of huge numbers of people to understand the issues involved. No one sums up the basic facts better than Charles Krauthammer in a column that just appeared in our paper. And I would gladly link to his column if 1) The Washington Post site had it, and 2) If using the site didn't require registering. To heck with that. I'm tired of creating new passwords. Aren't you? I think we all are.

--Me

Yes, a boring topic. (What do you mean, I'm helping to keep it that way?) But it's one we have to deal with, because it's there. It is the duty of humankind to deal with issues that are there. The other kind are a waste of energy to address....

Words of slight wisdom, from

Lee