Some repeats, some non-repeats. Fun stuff, mediocre stuff, terrible stuff--we have the bases covered. Two of these are ex-records, finished off by the back wheels of my office chair. See, a small pile of singles had fallen off my Casio WK-3800 when the lamp tipped over (for the umpteenth Made-in-China time), and CD-Rs went flying, and the lamp got lodged between the player and my desk, and I backed up slightly and... crack!
At least I only sent three discs to the Great Record Bin in the Sky. I was lucky. They weren't so lucky. I ripped them prior to obliterating them, so all is well, post-wise.
Danny Small, a name new to me, is fabulous on his very own On Christmas Day, a classic from 1962. It appears to have been covered by a number of folks. My copy was one of the victims of my chair wheels. And the Extended Play Records EP (also crunched) is about what we'd expect from a zero-budget company, and oddly enough, this is the second time in two years that I've wrecked a holiday side on this label. At least I get points for consistency. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus is as excruciatingly awful as ever, and it always makes me wonder why people pick on Little Drummer Boy. And... was there actually a child singer named Patsy Ello? I see on line that she also did All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth for this very junk label. Lucky for us, I don't have that one.
The Ben Hinds country numbers (say that ten times in a row) are pretty dumb, but they move along. If you're going to be dumb, then don't take you time--just get a move on. Also dumb and dull is Allen and the Lads' Angel on the Tree. It's the flip side that's far, far better and totally bizarre, to boot--I refer to the weird and wonderful Ghost on Christmas Eve. One of my best finds ever, but, in the time since I first offered it, it became part of a 2014 movie soundtrack, and so I can't feature it. Too risky. I wonder if my posting it had anything to do with it ending up in a soundtrack. Which would mean I ruined my own chance to post it. Cyber-irony, there.
Toy Symphony is a superb 1947 recording of an 18th-century novelty which uses toy instruments in addition to real ones. Typically, it's credited to Joseph Haydn, but Mozart has also received credit, so something's up. I'm right now reading a piece which describes its authorship as unknown. Like "Anon." and "P.D.," "Unknown" was one prolific composer.
Gilbert Mack does such a good job on the Educational Reading Service, Inc.'s long-playing single of The Night Before Christmas, the absence of sound effects are no problem. And I love how he makes Santa sound like a gangster boss. Terrific job, and this disc is part of a series--which series, I don't know. I got this in a pile from eBay, with no box or literature. No biggie.
Margie Meinert's The Real Christmas is given a year of 1956 at Discogs, but it's mentioned in a 1955 Billboard piece, so I'm giving it 2069. I mean, 1955. By now, someone really should have done a record called The Phony Christmas, or The False Story of... I mean, there's only one holiday sporting that title, so even if your version of Christmas involves tossing donut holes at cars from a rooftop while wearing a suit of armor, then that's your way of observing the holiday, so it's real. And Christmas, celebrated by billions of humans each year, naturally has its many cultural variations. There's the Christkind in Germany and elsewhere, which we're often told is the same as the Christkindl (the gift-bearing Christ Child, corrupted into "Kris Kringle"), except that the former is typically a fairy-princess-looking lady with blonde or gold hair, all done up like the Good Witch of the South, only in white or gold.
That's not quite what the baby Christ looks like, but mythology is a bunch of themes mixed together, with no logic in sight. Santa, of course, is a composite--part St. Nicholas, part Father Christmas, part Christkindl, part Thor (who came down chimneys and rode a chariot in the sky), and part Merv Griffin. No, just kidding about Thor.
And once again, I offer you a single which makes possibly the least sense of any single ever produced. "SPA, Hot Springs, Arkansas" appears to be the label name, except that can't possibly be a label name. For our purposes, this demented four-track EP includes "Biddle (Bo) Peep" singing Dear Lord and Santa Claus. I've owned this thing for at least two years, and I'm still not sure it really exists. Hear it, if you dare. Meanwhile, on Wyndblough Productions (the what?), Frank Trainor performs two very well-produced tracks called Hurry Up and The House Is Dark. I would have featured the flip, Rhonda the Reindeer's Magical Tail, except the King of Jingaling beat me to it. So, you get to hear the flip side of Rhonda.
For all that, the least justifiable single of the bunch is Bobby Colt's The Crooked Little Christmas Tree. In a barely audible voice, Bobby sings about a child (his son? I forgot) who has a crooked leg and who buys a crooked little Christmas tree. On Christmas morn, the tree is straight, and so is Bobby's leg. I'm not making this up. The label says, "Arr. and Cond. by Phil Medley." The co-author of Twist and Shout??
To the sounds....
DOWNLOAD: Christmas singles 2019, Pt. 1
The Xmas Tree (B.G. Hinds)--Ben Hinds (Tracy 333)
A Singing Xmas Card (B.G. Hinds)--Same
On Christmas Day (D. Small)--Danny Small (United Artists 542; 1962)
Winter Wonderland--Jeff Clark-Arlene James (Christmas Songs--Extended Play Records BG-1053)
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus--Patsy Ello (Same)
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town--Johnny Curtis (Same)
One Little Candle--Herb George (Same, except BG-1054)
Silent Night--Douglas Cross (Same)
Adeste Fidelis (sic)--Douglas Cross (Same)
Toy Symphony (Haydn?) (Orch. and toy instruments)--RCA Victor O., c. Ardon Cornwell (RCA Victor 41-6120; re. 1947)
The Crooked Little Christmas Tree--Bobby Colt (Arr. and Cond. by Bill Medley) Murbo 1051 (1971)
Scattered Toys--Same
The Real Christmas (Margie Meinert)--Margie Meinert at the Wurlitzer Organ w. Dick Noel (Fraternity 727; 1955)
Hurry Up--Frank Trainor (1986)
The House Is Dark--Same
Dear Lord and Snta Claus--Biddle (Bo) Beep (Spa-Hot Springs, Arkansas 25 1015)
Angel on the Tree (Yates)--Allen and the Lads (Beaver Records 7695)
Lee
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