From the RCA Victor Record Library for Elementary Schools series, a 45 rpm, four-EP set from around 1950. (I'm guesstimating from the label color.) Superb concert-style, vocal-and-orchestra Christmas renditions of the type that almost make up for the piped-in stuff Bev and I were subjected to at Meijer today. Don't get me wrong--Meijer's a great store. But that contemporary pop holiday stuff... aieeeeee!!!!
It doesn't help that I can't stand 99+ percent of modern pop music of any type. It's not as if Meijer can help that. Anyway, to the vastly superior holiday readings of decades past:
Music at Christmas Time
Tracks:
1) UNDER THE STARS--I SAW THREE SHIPS--ONCE IN ROYAL DAVID'S CITY
2) JINGLE BELLS--AWAY IN A MANGER--I HEARD THE BELLS ON CHRISTMAS DAY
3) WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCHED THEIR FLOCKS BY NIGHT--JOY TO THE WORLD
4) IT CAME UPON THE MIDNIGHT CLEAR--THE FIRST NOEL--DECK THE HALLS
5) O COME, ALL YE FAITHFUL--O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM
6) SILENT NIGHT--HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING
7) WE THREE KINGS OF ORIENT ARE--BIRTHDAY OF THE KING
8) O HOLY NIGHT--NAZARETH (Gounod)
Performers:
1) Jeanne Privette, Soprano, w. RCA Victor Orch., cond. by Ardon Cornwell
2) Same.
3) Joseph Laderoute, Tenor; Leo Bernache, Tenor; RCA Victor Orch.
4) Joseph Laderoute, Tenor; RCA Victor Orch.
5) Same.
6) Jeanne Privette, Soprano; Leo Bernache, Tenor; RCA Victor Orch.
7) Joseph Laderoute, Tenor; Jeanne Privette, Soprano; RCA Victor Orch.
8) Jeanne Privette, Soprano; Leo Bernache, Tenor; Elsie MacFarlane, Contralto; RCA Victor O.
Lee
4 comments:
The performers' names suggest an origin up North, eh?
No "Christmas with Justin Bieber" CD for Lee this year!
Cool, another thing I've never seen!
This makes me get misty-eyed for the days when records such as these were a common fixture in public school libraries and music rooms. Nowadays you can't even say the word "Christmas" in a public school, let alone play religious carols like these for school kids. I love turning up the occasional shard of that vanished world that those of us over 50 actually remember. Thank you for posting this.
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