Christmas Party with "Two Ton" Baker, the Merry Music Maker (1946 or 1947)

From the same thrift find that yielded the Rathbone 78 set, a two-record Dick "Two Ton" Baker 78 set, which is actual a franken-set--more on that in a bit.  Baker was a very large man, for sure, but his talent was considerably larger, to risk bringing the Understatement Police racing to my door.  Dick was a brilliant musician and a remarkably gifted comedian--sort of like Spike Jones, Doodles Weaver, Willard Scott, and the late Ron Sweed (The great, hilarious Cleveand horror host, The Ghoul) rolled into one, and then some.  Here, he demonstrates great ability as a children's entertainer.

I would have LOVED to have heard this set as a kid.  It's quite a shame that I never had the pleasure, because I was a piano student, and Dick--who, as Wikipedia tells us, enjoyed a career as a major Chicago radio and TV personality for 30 years--was one hell of a pianist.  I would have been inspired to study harder.  Wikipedia's entry on Dick contains a portion that's enough to bring a Duke Ellington fan to tears, and which confirms Baker's incredible gifts: "In 1972 Baker was selected by Duke Ellington to play piano at a symposium honoring Ellington and the history of jazz, as Ellington no longer felt he could play effectively."  This is the man we are listening to here.

Just describe me as totally and completely in awe.  I have passed up Dick's records for years, and I will never make that mistake again.  As for the frank-set aspect of this album that I mentioned earlier, it took me a while to figure out what the heck was going on, but what I got at the thrift is obviously a three-78 Uncle Don set, complete with three pockets (one empty).  On the front, someone has replaced the art with the front of the original two-78 Baker set--they literally pasted the Baker cover (which is square, not rectangular) onto this.  Make sense?  I didn't think so.  Anyway, here's what I got stuck with.  It's a modified Uncle Don front board, an Uncle Don interior write-up, and a three-pocket interior, with two of the pockets containing Baker 78s, leading me to think there was a third, missing Baker 78.  There is not.  That had me majorly confused for a while.  This is what I got:

This is what the orignal Baker set actually looks like.  Square cover, two-pocket interior:

I won't even try to guess what possessed someone to paste the original Baker cover onto a three-78 Uncle Don set on the Majestic label.  I could go crazy trying.

Discogs gives the year for this as 1947, while the online discographical project (for 78s) gives the year as 1946.  Either could be so, since the Mercury matrices (515-518) place this at 1946 or 1947.  If I had more precise matrix info, I could nail it, but we're close enough.





DOWNLOAD: Christmas Party with "Two Ton" Baker, 1948  1946 or 1947.



The Night Before Christmas/Santa's Toy Shop
Up on the House-Top and Deck the Halls
Jingle Bells

Christmas Party with Two Ton Baker (Mercury Miniature Playhouse MMP-5; 1948 1946 or 1947.


Lee