Saturday, November 28, 2020

The Night Before Christmas; Jingle Bells Fantasy (1939; re. 1948)

 






This is RCA Victor's "Non-Breakable" (that must mean vinyl) 1948 reissue of the 1939 Milton Cross-narrated The Night Before Christmas.  The flip, also from 1939, is Rosario Bourdon's Jingle Bells Fantasy, as performed by the RCA Victor Salon Orch., Bourdon directing.  My copy's condition couldn't be better--that is, until the double forte closing bars on the second side, where the grooves appear to have been under major assault.  Tracking error is the likely culprit--picture a vintage three-speed portable with a sapphire needle bouncing around inside the louder, wider groove walls at the close, taking out tiny pieces here and there.  And all because there was nothing to counteract the tonearm's friction as it sped toward home (the label).  Luckily, I was able to filter out the worst of the audio damage, but you can still hear the audio loss.  

Well, actually, you can't literally hear missing audio so much as hear that it's missing.  (Can you tell I'm up too late?)  Anyway, what an awesome fold-out sleeve RCA came up with here--lovely period art.  In the zip, I include the back cover, which shows Nipper, and you also get two terrible "live" label shots.  My scans proved hopeless, so I resorted to my little digital camera.

Clement C. Moore's 1823 poem was originally called A Visit from St. Nicholas.  





DOWNLOAD: The Night Before Christmas; Jingle Bells Fantasy (1939)




Lee

5 comments:

Buster said...

Thanks - I've never seen this version with the period artwork. Very nostalgic for someone my age.

Ernie said...

That is a great looking sleeve!!! Thanks for digging this up! I don't think I've ever seen it before.

Lee Hartsfeld said...

My pleasure. I've had this for quite a while, but for some reason I thought it was a common item. I guess not! Glad to share it.

Sky Raven said...

Thanks for sharing this Lee... nice to hear it again. My step mom had this and played it every Christmas for years. Burt

Lee Hartsfeld said...

Burt,

That's cool! Glad to reunite you with this gem.