(Repost from 2018--original Zippyfile zip kaput)
This was only a buck from the Discogs Marketplace. And I'm now seeing one possible reason I got it so cheap--it has the kind of jacket you can't get the record back into. I hate that. Anyway, I learned of this LP from Ronald Sauer when he left a note at my Jeri Mann Singers post (a post since axed after the Zippyfile link died). The "Jeri Mann Singers" were totally made up, as I had suspected. Here's Ron's wonderful comment:These songs were on albums issued by Parade, Spin-o-rama, Custom, Yuletide, and other budget labels. I first heard them in the late fifties or early sixties on "Al Goodman and his Orchestra play a Christmas Symphony" on Parade Records. In addition, those same songs were credited on other records to George Jenkins, the Sound of 1000 Strings, and others. I finally tracked them back to what I believe is the original source: The Stradivarius String Society and the Cologne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Munch "Singing Strings Herald Christmas" on Lester Records L1002. It was one of my favorites as a youth. It only took me about 50 years of searching for the source.
Ron
So, I rushed to Discogs, where this LP is listed, but with exactly no information on the Lester label. Could Lester have been a one-off sublabel? No year is kown, either. The categories picked by somebody for Singing Strings Herald Christmas are Classical, Folk, World, and... Country?? "World" is an inane category whenever and wherever it's used, and "Folk" is halfway justified, since there are carols in this set, though most of these are hymns with known authorship. But Country?? Fritz Much and the Cologne Symphony Orch. conducting country songs?
Anyway, a buck from the Discogs Marketplace (I mean, to them). Given that the six Sutton label "Jeri Mann" tracks from this LP are in true stereo, I wonder if the Lester label also issued a stereo version of Singing Strings Herald Christmas? Nice cover, though the shortened song titles on back leave no doubt this is a budget affair, despite the lovely music and nice sound. "We 3 Kings"? Please.
Great detective work by Ron. I greatly appreciate his sharing his findings, and for turning me on to this LP, which may be the all-time best budget Christmas effort. And here it is, back at the blog in a new rip and (of course) a higher bitrate.
TO THE SOUNDS: Singing Strings Herald Christmas (Lester L1002)
Silent Night
Come All Ye Faithful
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
White Christmas
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Little Town of Bethlehem
Deck the Halls
Joy to the World
First Noel
Good King Wenceslaus
O Holy Night
We 3 Kings
Singing Strings Herald Christmas, Feat. the Stradivarius String Society and the Cologne Symphony Orchestra c. by Fritz Munch (Lester L1002)
Lee
4 comments:
My new favorite word -- sublabel! I don't know whether to pronounce it SUBB-la-belle, or sub-LABB-elle. Yeah, they're both wrong, but they're sooo fun to say. An additional thrill in the endlessly fascinating world of the bargain bin.
Diane,
It is a cool word, and I really want to use a hyphen--but, in common usage, it's "sublabel." I don't know when that happened. The label/sublabel relationship is different when it's a major label plus its budget line (e.g., Columbia/Harmony) and when it's a host of junk labels, their only purpose being to give the illusion of diversity of selection. It's like, sure, our stuff is junk, but we have such a VARIETY of it!
Huh. Who knew?
as someone who is unsufferably anal about "year of release" info, I DEMAND that someone go pound on the doors of this record "company" and force them to give the "year of release/recording" info for this! ...yeah, right...
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