Today, we have half an LP. I didn't rip the A side, because it's the same ol' Johnny Kay/Kaye tracks that appeared on SPC, Pickwick (International Award), Crown, and who knows where else. The "Jeri Mann Singers" credit is obviously nonsense, especially given that the B side is totally instrumental--no voices to be heard there. And it's the B side I'm providing, if only in the hopes that someone can identify on what other LP (or LPs) these tracks showed up. I'm certain I've put them up already, and under some other name on a different label. Someone with a more precise audio memory than me might be able to peg them--if so, please leave a comment. In time, I'll be sifting through my mp3s in search of the duplicate tracks.
One clue may reside in the misspelling of Wenceslas ("Wenceslauss")--a typo that appeared in an earlier post this year. That may turn out to be the vital clue.
And yes, the stereo on/in these tracks is the real thing. The pressing isn't so good, but that's par for the cheap-label course...
I'll bet you're just dying to listen to these by now, the way I've hyped the selections to the stars. And--good grief--Holy Night. No O. Just Holy Night. Maybe Sutton ran out of upper-case O's.
UPDATE: My thanks to Phil for jogging my memory. These tracks are from the Lester label LP Singing Strings Herald Christmas, which I've just reposted here (in a new rip). Included in my essay are the extremely helpful comments left at my 2018 post by Ronald Sauer, who meticulously traced the history of these tracks and shared his findings with the blog.
No wonder these tracks sounded so familiar. Sutton used six of the twelve tracks featured on the Lester label LP. Ronald reports that these tracks really made the budget-label rounds.
DOWNLOAD: Jeri Mann Singers--Carols and Songs for Children (Sutton SSU 96X)
Deck the Halls
Joy to the World
First Noel
Good King Wenceslaus (sic)
Holy Night
We Three Kings
Lee
11 comments:
I previously nominated Wyncote as the cheapest of the cheap, but I forgot Sutton.
Buster,
It's easy to forget! And Wyncote is the first on my list of suspects, as far as where this instrumental material also appeared. I'm thinking it originated on Longines Symphonette, even. Problem is, I have a great audio memory, as far as recognizing when something's a repeat, but I'm terrible at identifying sources.
Lee - An avocational hazard for those who collect recordings with murky histories.
RobGems68 wrote:
Sutton records is indeed cheap! I have at least two albums on Sutton: one of the endless Glenn Miller tribute albums from so-called "various members of his orchestra", all of them seemingly issued 1957-59, some 15-16 years after his disappearance in a plane ride during World War 2 (it is now believed over 70 years later that an enemy pilot may have shot his plane down during a firefight or a sudden storm.)The other one is a calypso singer album based on the many calypso albums issued by Harry Belafonte. I'm guessing the album was issued 1957-58. Both sound enduringly cheap and charming at the same time, and of course, both LPs couldn't have been worth more than $1.99 in 1957-58. Are you planning to explore & discuss. low budget albums from major labels (like RCA's Camden or Columbia's Harmony, or Decca's Vocalion labels?) They all had some interesting stuff on their albums, as well as some incredibly cheap stuff (for example: the endless releases of RCA' "Living Whatever" series, all of them seemingly assembled by A&R Ethel Gabriel.)RCA Camden DID on the other hand issue some excellent R&B albums from Little Richard (pre-Specialty Records), Jimmy Breedlove, The Deep River Boys, The Delta Rhythm Boys, and The Isley Brothers (during their "Shout" period from 1959-60).
Ron - The Miller sound was enduringly popular postwar, with the bands of Tex Beneke, Ralph Flanagan, Ray Anthony and Jerry Gray being among the purveyors. The 1954 film "The Glenn Miller Story" added to the market interest. 20th Century Fox issued the soundtrack recordings from the two Miller films in 1958, and I myself received the double-album for Christmas. So long as my parents' generation (and me) were interested, the record companies kept issuing the tribute disks. The most pointless was the "Symphony for Glenn" on the Somerset label, which also came out with a "Symphony for Tommy" (Dorsey, that is) in 1958. You probably have run across these several hundred times in your local thrift store.
RobGems68,
I've always had affection for the Sutton label, because of its bad-sounding but marvelous Leadbelly LP (Musicraft reissues), "Leadbelly Sings Songs of Beautiful Women and Bad Men." Maybe the most interesting version of "House of the Rising Sun" ever recorded. Everything else I've encountered on the label, of course, has been junk. The label seems to have been associated with the equally chintzy Tiara.
I've put up some RCA Camden LPs--gospel, mostly--but also the Living Guitars (Al Caiola) and a 1959 LP of fake hits (at least one of which is the same as an SPC release). I've been meaning to put up more Camden fake-hit LPs...
RobGems68 Wrote:
Re: Buster: My Great Grandfather had that "Symphony For Tommy" album on Somerset. I see it too all over the place in flea markets and antique stores. The album was issued not long after Tommy choked to death in his sleep during Thanksgiving weekend 1956, so it was not a surprise the budget labels soon flooded the market with album tributes to him, Glenn Miller, as well as Harry James, Woody Herman, etc. Harry James, Woody Herman, & Artie Shaw were all still alive & well at the time, but they all got tribute albums from the budget labels, anyway. Somerset was best known for their 101 Strings albums and run by D. L. Miller in Burbank, California. The label started in the 1940's as Essex Records, then later in the 60's added two more discount labels to their roster, Alshire & Oscar Records ( all of their releases were low budget, but charming; Alshire even tried to exploit the Psychedelic Rock movement of the late 60's with such mind-boggling made-up groups such as The Animated Egg & The California Poppy Pickers.) I have that 20th Century Fox Glenn Miller album, in phony stereo, despite the fact you wouldn't tell it's in fake stereo by the way the label mentions it on the cover. Supposedly they came from original movie soundtracks, but mixed into bad fake stereo as a result.
Re: Lee: Tiara Records (not to be confused with Florence Greenberg's label that had The Shirelles on it's roster, later to be re-named Scepter Records) was a subsidary of Sutton Records. I have a Spike Jones LP on Tiara that contains only two songs by Spike Jones (from 1956 shortly after he left RCA Victor), one of them being a parody of Perez Prado's "Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White". The rest of the LP is filled out by an anonymous band playing familiar early turn-of-the 20th century tunes, non of them sounding distinctly like Spike Jones, yet Spike Jones gets credit for the entire album, anyway. I don't know if Sutton re-packaged it on a later date. I have yet to find the Leadbelly album.
Just wanted to thank the commenters here -- I can't get enough of fake/recycled/tribute/whatthehellisit stuff like this! Keep the info comin' . . .
Hi Lee,
I was just listening to tracks from this album this morning, when I noticed you reposted this. I have this note in my mp3: "Ronald Sauer traced LP's instrumental tracks to their source: Lester Records L 1002, The Stradivarius String Society and Cologne Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Fritz Munch--Singing Strings Herald Christmas" Here is the Discogs entry: https://www.discogs.com/release/12999408
I didn't look back at your previous post of this, but I assume the comment I quoted was from a comment left on your blog.
Phil,
You're correct. And that solves the mystery of where these instrumental tracks come from! I had posted "Singing Strings Herald Christmas" in 2018, but the Zippyfile link expired, and I'm unable to find the original zip (or my CD-R rip). I'm re-ripping the LP as we speak, and I'll put it up today or tomorrow. But a million thanks--the Discogs entry is totally correct (I really should have checked here--dunno why I didn't), and the info is most probably from my blog. The full "Singing Strings" LP coming up soon!
Phil,
I just reposted "Singing Strings Herald Christmas." My 2018 Zippyfile link had expired long ago, and I was without a zip file or a CD-R (I searched in vain for one). So, a new rip and a higher bitrate--and Ronald's original comment, quoted in my essay.
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