The Holiday Choraliers and the Longines Symphonette featuring the world famed Thomas Organ! (1969)

                      "These are great toys, Dad, but that world famed Thomas Organ--that really makes everything special!"


Just jesting--these tracks are all superbly performed by the Holiday Choralilers, the Thomas Organ, and an orchestra.  What orchestra, I don't know.  As far as I know, The Longines Symphonette was not the name of an orchestra--it was actually the name of a radio program that started in 1943--a show featuring Classical music.  Like many mail-order boxed sets, this effort shares features in common with junk labels--a culled-from-many-sources feel to the playlist, fuzzy performer credits, no composer info, and a strange phrase stamped into the cover: "Limited Preview Edition."  Better buy it now!  A quick Google check confirms my suspicions that Longines used that phrase on most or all of its sets.  Maybe there were such things as "limited preview editions," but I sort of doubt it.

So, what separates this set from, say, a junk-label Christmas collection?  Lots of things--the quality cover art, the non-junky vinyl, the decent pressings, the plastic-lined sleeves (one per disc), and the splendid musicianship.  This is a very high-quality collection, without a clunker in the bunch.  A model of its type.  And you get about two hours of music.

Oh, but I do have to mention the two non-Christmas selections that show up here: Heigh-Ho/Whistle While You Work and Someday My Prince Will Come.  Well, three, actually--but the first is a medley.  I find it hard to imagine Longines pulling a Synthetic Plastics Co. bit, with the producer saying, "Just grab two tracks.  Any two--doesn't matter.  Whatever's lying around."  So I don't know what's up with those.

In an Audio magazine interview which I wish I'd kept, Mitch Miller talked about that segment of the record-buying public that never goes to record stores, preferring instead to buy by mail.  They were (are?) an important part of the market--hence, all the boxed sets that show up in flea markets, thrifts, and at eBay.  And all those record club offerings, many of which bordered on junk-label quality, with two or three discs sometimes jammed into a single jacket, with cardboard separators. I'm talking to you, Columbia.

Some unusual numbers tossed into the mix--such as, Mister Santa (to the tune of Mister Sandman, recorded by the Lollipops in 1959, and by others), the absolutely gorgeous Oh Bambino, Hawaiian Christmas Song, and Prayer (Hansel and Gretel--which I assume to be from the Humperdinck opera).  I already mentioned the two numbers from Snow White, and I'd love to know what happened there.

And that Thomas Organ--I love that sound!  We have a more humble one at church--one of the earliest solid-state home organs.

Rather than type out all the tracks (all 48!), many of which are quite short, I'm letting the fold-over flap (above) do the work.  Let me know if it suffices. And let me know if you recognize any of these tracks from other LS Christmas sets.  I did a quick Discogs check, but I'm sure I'd need at least an hour to do a meaningful check.




DOWNLOAD: 

The Family Christmas Treasury, Pt. 1  
The Family Christmas Treasury, Pt. 2


The Holiday Choraliers and the Longines Symphonette featuring the world famed Thomas Organ (1969).

And Buster just shared this with me, from Conductors and Composers of Popular Orchestral Music, by Reuben Musiker and Naomi Musiker:

Lee