Line Material Christmas--an M(Y)PWHAE holiday tradition. This blog is your source for Line Material Christmas recordings. Accept no imitations. Get your LM groove on here.
We'll start with an explanation of Line Material. Here are two great links for that purpose: Cooper Power Systems and The Line Material Co.
Seems that Line Material annually produced cool Christmas give-away records from (at least as early as) 1949 to (at least as late as) 1964. If you find yourself wondering why the 1957-1962 sides sound so spectacular, consider the talent involved during that particular period: choral arranging by John McCarthy (of Ambrosia/John McCarthy Singers fame) and instrumental arranging by David Carroll (of Mercury). I know for sure they were behind Santa's Factoree, and I'm guessing they're the architects of/on the others from 1957-1962. Line Material was apparently able to hire the best, though I'm guessing that John McCarthy's services were cheaper prior to his 1961-66 stint as choral director for the London Symphony Orchestra.
The LM (and CLM of Canada) sides which date from before and after the 1957-62 period have proven--so far, at least--to be considerably less spectacular, especially 1964's The Story of Santa Claus and Turkey, the Bible Land, which pulled double duty as a Turkish Information Office issue! All the sides are entertaining, but the McCarthy/Carroll efforts raised the company-holiday-record bar to the stratosphere. To the thermosphere, even. Well, maybe not the thermosphere--too hot.
The Magic of Christmas is courtesy of Ernie (who snail-mailed me the small, vinyl 78-rpm disc year before last), and the 1964 files were kindly provided by Stubbysfears. For this post, I've replaced the latter with cleaner copies and rips. (I recently chanced on a mint edition.)
You'll love these, even if you've heard them before. If you haven't, prepare to be spending the next several weeks singing "Merry Christmas, from Line Material. (Repeat X3, fade)." We start with the 1957-1962 McCarthy/Carroll classics, including two Canadian (CLM) editions featuring different closing ditties. Both of which are courtesy of Captain OT of A Christmas Yuleblog:
To the zip: To the zip: Merry Christmas from Line Material, 1949-1964 Merry Christmas from Line Material, 1949-1964
SLEIGHLIST--LINE MATERIAL CHRISTMAS RECORDS
SANTA'S NORTH POLE BAND--1957
THE KINDS OF CHRISTMAS--1958
THE SOUNDS OF CHRISTMAS--1959
SANTA'S FACTOREE--1960
THE DAY THAT SANTA WAS SICK--1961
LET'S TRIM THE CHRISTMAS TREE--1962
THE SOUNDS OF CHRISTMAS (CLM edition)--1959
SANTA'S FACTOREE (CLM edition)--1960
THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS--Created and Rel. By Line Material--Year Unknown
KEEPING CHRISTMAS, PTS. 1 and 2--Jim Ameche, Narr., 1949.
TURKEY, THE BIBLE LAND--CLM Industries, 1964.
THE STORY OF SANTA CLAUS--CLM Industries, 1964.
Here are some more label shots: More LM labels
Lee
13 comments:
Curse you, Lee! I'm still singing "Merry Christmas From Line Material" (xInfinity) from last year...
Buwa-ha-haaaaaa!!
Let's Trim the Christmas Tree - one of the very best Christmas songs of all of time!
Thanx Lee
Line Material has become an Xmas tradition for us ever since you first posted them a few years ago. Thanks again Lee.
Zepp,
Agreed. I also have a special fondness for the "Factoree" melody.
Paul,
My pleasure! Putting these things up is an honor. Long ago, when I heard my first LM disc (found at Goodwill), I decided it was too contrived. Then it occurred to me that these things are SUPPOSED to be contrived! That's the whole point. And art.
You have "Santa's Factoree" listed as 1960, but the Capt's picture on his blog shows the label with "Santa's Factoree, Christmas 1961."
I probably missed something, but if not, could you clarify?
Otherwise, thanks SO MUCH for the great shares!
Now that you mention it....
My copy, which is Line Material, is from 1960. The Capt.'s copy is Canadian Line Material (CLM), and my best guess is that they released theirs a year later. Either that, or they used it two years in a row.
At any rate, my copy says "Christmas 1960." Thanks for bringing that to my attention--very interesting!
Great fun. I love these Line Material posts. Thanks!
I thought "from Line Material" was simply part of the Christmas wish. Thanks for bringing it back to me!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I was just now transferring to MP3 a cassette recording I made a while back of our old (broken, scratched) 45 of "Let's Trim the Christmas Tree" for my siblings, went online to find out whether Line Material even still exists, and found a link to your blog. Downloading now and looking forward to being able to give my sibs a much much better copy and a link to your blog. I'm also curious about the other songs; the Christmas tree one was the only one we had.
My late father got the single as promo material at a packaging show, I'm pretty sure. He worked for the federal government as a packaging specialist, and he brought home swag like that from trips once or twice a year. I was 10 years old in 1962, and we played that record while we trimmed the tree every year after that until we kids moved away from home and the record got lost. I found it when we were cleaning out closets after Dad died. It was broken from edge to middle, but I managed to make a cassette recording with a few skips (and lots of pops from scratches).
Every year now, at my mother's house, we mention the Christmas tree song and sing the chorus. I'm looking forward to playing the whole thing next year.
I had no idea anyone else remembered the song at all. But how can you forget that chorus, once you've heard it?
Lee, thanks again!
Barbara W.,
My pleasure! Let me know what you think of the other LM sides, if you get a chance.
I'm glad I kept this post active--I figured I'd be hearing from people just like yourself (you're part of a fairly large group!). I wish I'd heard these as a kid--my childhood, unfortunately, was Line-Material-less.
But only too happy to keep the LM memories alive. Thanks for stopping!
oh my! I'm so excited to hear this again - I'm in tears! Thank you for posting this - it was my favorite and I didn't think I'd ever hear it again!
My brother sent me the link to this blog and I'm so happy! He has our original CLM records I think, so this gave me a chance to share our childhood with my little 6 yr. old granddaughter. What Fun!
Thanks for this. You have no idea how many great memories came rushing back and how many new memories we'll be creating with our little one.
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